Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech

Project Based on an Innovation Challenge (250MUM002) – Course 2025/26 PDF

Syllabus

Learning Objectives

The course teaches to apply the basic methodologies of systemic innovation, such as the Design Thinking methodology in a complex environment of multiple external agents. It discusses how to conduct structured troubleshooting analysis, critically evaluate third-party specifications, and conduct a market/industry analysis that includes modeling future scenarios and the sustainability perspective. The student learns to formulate a partnership strategy, perform stakeholder and risk analysis, and identify the short and long-term future consequences of plans and decisions from an integrated scientific, ethical and intergenerational perspective. A project management and planning methodology is presented, which allows you to lead a project team to meet the objectives, milestones and deliverables established, resolve team conflicts in a structured way, prioritize between alternative routes of project realization, and recognize, adjust and manage change management processes. Finally, students are taught to document, present and communicate the conclusions obtained. · Ability to promote urban mobility projects that contribute to the achievement of the sustainable development goals proposed by the United Nations. · Ability to design and implement entrepreneurship projects, economically viable, socially acceptable and friendly to the environment. · Ability to use systems thinking to understand the dynamics of urban mobility systems. · Ability to evaluate various sustainability approaches in planning and design practice. · Ability to use and formulate decision-making methods and support for decision-making in planning and policy activities. · Ability to carry out urban evaluation and transport methodologies. · Ability to implement strategic planning and forecasting methodologies. · Ability to evaluate emerging mobility technologies and develop government strategies. · Ability to analyze and develop potential niches for urban mobility systems, taking into account behavioral changes. · Understand the political / social / human implications of mobility services. · Understanding of resources / budget / environmental restrictions of mobility services. · Knowledge of the main key performance indicators of new mobility services and infrastructure. · Understand the keys to success to achieve successful implementations of new mobility services. · Knowledge of common "errors" at the political level and, especially, technical and social / user level in failures to implement new mobility systems and services. · Ability to prepare a case study and communicate ideas and conclusions efficiently. · Know how to develop and advance ideas in an uncertain environment by applying the Design Thinking methodology. · Ability to communicate clearly and argue the decisions made in an innovation project. · Direct their own work independently and proactively. · Direct the work in an exploratory project that requires constant reflection and adaptation to the new information acquired. · Ability to work and collaborate efficiently in a multidisciplinary team: understand the contribution of each team member as a professional experience. · Identify, develop and evaluate opportunities for new businesses. · Manage key relationships with the organization you work for. · Be able to analyze the external situation to determine innovative business ideas in the field of BI and BD. · Around an innovative BI or BD project, to be able to build a reasonable and ethically sound business plan. · Build a solid and compelling speech about a business idea and a business plan. · Train students to build a profit and loss forecast and a planned treasury plan for a starting company. · Understand and be able to apply the different instruments to finance the company, both debt instruments and private equity and venture capital resources. · Understand and appreciate the role of the entrepreneur.

Competencies

Especific

Identify the future consequences of short and long-term plans and decisions from an integrated scientific, ethical and intergenerational perspective and merge these elements into a solution-centered approach, moving towards a sustainable society. (Specific competence of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship specialty).

Translate innovations into viable business solutions. (Specific competence of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship specialty).

Strengthen the ability to think beyond the limits and systematically explore and generate new ideas. (Specific competence of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship specialty).

Apply knowledge, ideas and technology to create new, or significantly improve, products, services, processes, policies, business models or jobs. (Specific competence of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship specialty).

Use and apply cutting-edge research methods, processes and techniques for the creation and growth of new companies and also apply them in interdisciplinary teams and contexts. (Specific competence of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship specialty).

Transform practical experiences into research problems and challenges. (Specific competence of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship specialty).

Make decisions and strengthen leadership capacity, based on a holistic understanding of the contributions of higher education, research and business for value creation, in teams and contexts of limited size. (Specific competence of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship specialty).

Generic

Properly apply mathematical, analytical, scientific, instrumental, technological, information and management knowledge in the field of urban mobility.

Conduct research, development and innovation in the field of mobility, as well as direct the development of mobility solutions in new or little-known environments, relating creativity, innovation and technology transfer.

Reason and act based on the so-called culture of security and sustainability.

Promote entrepreneurship projects, seeking new business opportunities and adding value to solutions aimed at the long-term well-being of citizens in urban environments.

Total hours of student work

Hours Percentage
Supervised Learning Large group 90h 100.00 %
Self Study 160h

Teaching Methodology

The teaching and learning methodology is based on the challenge-based learning model. Usually an external company or institution provides an open challenge to the team. Using the Design Thinking methodology, student teams must perform an in-depth research task to discover the needs of the users associated with the challenge, choose the most relevant one using objective criteria based on user feedback, define several solutions and choose the most suitable one, again using quick representations and prototypes of the idea and obtaining feedback from users and other relevant stakeholders and finally ,designing and partially implementing a proof-of-concept prototype. Depending on the type of solution and the previous experience and knowledge of the members of each team, the degree of implementation of the prototype may be more or less functional. With a limited time (i.e. one semester), there is a tradeoff between the ability to create a truly innovative and validated idea and the ability to develop a complex and functional prototype. In this case, the capacity for innovation is prioritized. Part of the phase of needs identification and solution ideation is carried out in the subject of the previous semester Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Global Challenges. In this course, it is also developed the planning of the implementation of the solution, the evaluation of its cost and a business model for its potential development in the market.

Grading Rules

The evaluation calendar and grading rules will be approved before the start of the course.

An overall mark is assigned to the project developed by the team using a rubric that takes into account the different aspects of the process, the final result and the presentations and reports that have been made. 50% is allocated to the process and 50% to the final result. This mark is modulated for each component of the group by up to 30% taking into account the evidences collected by the teaching staff in the face-to-face sessions and the co-evaluation carried out by all the team members using a rubric. If all team members agree, the team may waive co-evaluation.

Bibliography

Basic