Conference Agenda

In the 2015 strategic plan, the mission of Tecnológico de Monterrey is to train people of integrity and ethics with a humanistic vision and to be internationally competitive in their professional field. Who, at the same time, are citizens committed to the economic, political, social, and cultural development of their community and the sustainable use of natural resources.

During the last 15 years, through the design of social development projects in marginalized areas of the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro, which undergraduate students carry out during their university studies, different projects have been implemented in which added value is given. To agricultural products to create small businesses, based on local supply chains for raw materials and with the help of the governments and states of Guanajuato and Querétaro to bring these products to the market.

The science behind these micro-enterprises is conscious agriculture based on sustainability, which is 100% organic, applying design techniques, project management, statistics, experiment design, and data science in recent years. Furthermore, through the studies carried out on different seeds and crops in the Experimental Agricultural Field of the Tecnologico de Monterrey, CAETEC has created a new methodology to increase the productivity of these production units and make them the economic engine to eliminate poverty in areas marginalized not only from the state of Queretaro but from the entire country.

The use of precision agriculture at CAETEC has generated valuable information on cultivation methods to improve productivity and information obtained from greenhouses built using the principle of agrotronics that are operated by renewable energy to harvest agricultural products in remote areas and are more marginalized from the country. Allows us to explore new crops and raw material supply chains and apply state-of-the-art technology to design sustainable social development projects presented in this paper.

Developing countries, such as Pakistan are at the forefront of working on UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The problems faced by resource-constrained people (RCP) living in these countries are multidimensional [1]. Design, with its central idea of changing an undesired situation into a desired one [2] can provide holistic approaches and solutions that satisfy needs of resource-constrained people in developing countries [3]. The creation of research led, impactful solutions requires an efficient and well-integrated research infrastructure and research/design capacity to design and execute research in challenging environments.

The British Council support the delivery of training courses to build national research capacity in Pakistan. Drawing on the authors’ experiences of delivering such a course, this paper considers problems related to impact and stakeholder engagement, especially the extent to which codesign features in project planning, and the difficulties of conducting fieldwork. Analysis of coursework and the ‘end-of-course’ world café reveals the researchers’ commitment to addressing UN SDGs, the levels of participatory engagement, challenges to working with stakeholders and tensions in research assessment methods. The paper closes with recommendations for Pakistan and ways in which this analysis and reflection can inform the design of future courses

This article proposes an educational module that promotes the study of ecofeminism within product design in high education for ethical design thinking. Design materializes concepts and leads therefore to realities. Accordingly, it is important to provide a design education that acknowledges the significant changes design could make when loaded with ethical values. Ecofeminism is a philosophical current that involves the intersectionality of feminism and ecology, concepts that encompass gender and sustainability. Ecofeminist politics work with a focus on women and non-human nature, with the aim of liberation from power interactions and marginalization inside society structures, gender equality and ecology. Consequently, an ecofeminist design perspective is committed to having a care-centric vision towards gender and environmental protection. This proposal will be carried out through a collaborative methodology using utopian theory as a creative strategy for learning. Utopia is the idealistic illusion of a perfect reality. Thus, utopia as a vision can be the trigger to reflect on the paths our society should follow for further development. Furthermore, feminist utopia focuses on building the bridge between reality and illusion, as utopia is a precise cognitive act which could be a beneficial tool for design creation. Unifying ecofeminist philosophy and feminist utopian thinking, this paper presents an innovative way of working with ethical considerations in product design. Hence, it aims to improve the awareness of the need for a sustainable society in future designers, engaging them with some of the UN Sustainability Development Goals such as 5. Gender equality and 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Product development today is driven to a large extent by virtual methods and can therefore be assigned to the field of virtual engineering. Various software systems are available on the market, on the one hand with embedded CAD systems and on the other hand with stand-alone systems. A major challenge in secondary and tertiary education is to combine virtual engineering methods with general engineering knowledge. This results in the quality issue of not teaching how to use the software, but rather teaching the generally applicable knowledge behind the software solutions - i.e. the methods themselves must be taught.

At Austrian HTLs (secondary vocational schools) there is a strong focus on CAD during five classes. In recent years, some aspects of virtual engineering have been taken up to prepare students well for working life. It is widely recognized that this needs to be strengthened. The paper will present the current state-of-the-art and show possible scenarios how to improve the current state. At Graz University of Technology (tertiary level) there is the situation that students have very different prior knowledge at the beginning of their studies (mainly mechanical engineering), as (only) some of them come from HTLs. To counteract this and to better adapt the teaching to the personal skills of the students, an e-learning approach for CAD and CAE education was introduced in 2012. A lot of experience and feedback has been gathered to continuously improve the teaching approach. The article shows this approach and outlines future perspectives.

This study had the aim of finding sought after values in collaborations between start-ups and consultants from large agencies. It is placed in the context of Skills-based volunteering (SBV) and the initiation of a collaboration between the two parties, facilitated on a matchmaking two-sided platform, which is designed by the two first authors. The study tries respond to the following questions 1) why a platform immediate this cooperation and, 2) how to design for matching values to generate trust? The authors firstly discuss theory and empirical research regarding challenges of initial user acquisition to multi-sided platforms, as well as suggest strategies and tactics of how two-sided platforms can help to reduce the transaction cost of social interactions when forming a business relationship. User friendliness and the design of a platform that motivates users to share their knowledge and skills and ease interaction within an SBV setting are also investigated. A design project is being developed parallel to the theory part, focusing on developing a platform to facilitate more collaborations between start-ups and consultancies in Norway by creating mutual benefits. Findings of the study show that: 1) start-up’s need IT related competency, 2) companies (consultants) benefit from engaging in Skills-based volunteering, and 3) if start-ups want be the receiver of SBV they need to have a social component to their business (e.g. care about the environment, help the local community). The study contributes to design innovation since research and development are scarce in the area and the topical companies are relatively young. It also contributes to generate knowledge on how to improve, enhance and manifest SBV collaboration. This is also a topic for future design education, which should add more emphasis on collaborations between start-ups and consultancies and adjust education towards possibilities and trends SBV. Further research and evaluation for voluntary work and contribution to societal development by firms improve the quality in content and outcome of industrial design education.