All You Can Ask: The Creative Answer to Real-World Problems
Have you ever doubted if the things you do in life is worthwhile; or questioned your adaptability in multicultural environments? What about inequality? Can it be more than just income and wealth?
Inspired by the Stanford University’s SPARQ Program, the Faculty Minor Programme, CU- ASK: Innovative Problem Solving, brings you on a journey to uncover real-world problems with systematic design thinking skills from the perspective of a social scientist.
CU-ASK aims to unleash your creativity and challenge the normality. As a team, we will find answers and our own creative interpretations to global problems including, but not limited to, global mindset, social inequality and psychological well-being.
Reach innovation and hold the keys to infinite possibilities!
Let’s hear how our students say:
I am very interested in social enterprises and human-centred projects, so when there is a course that can put interdisciplinary learning into innovative doing, I undoubtedly enrolled in it. SOSC1001 is definitely an exceptionally unique course in CUHK since nearly all the courses offered in campus place much emphasises on being critical, yet, this is the course that put “critical”, “empathy”, “creative“ and “opportunities” all into practice. A wide range of guest speakers were invited to share their social enterprise stories with us, which not only adds zest to our passion, it also stimulates ideas upon service gaps in our society through multi-perspectives. All the interactive learning experience in this course is based on the fundamental knowledge of design thinking model. The model may seem to be time-consuming or inefficient, but it is totally worth it when you witness the birth of your own product and the smile of users (there is a group project for us to design and prototype an innovative personalised product targeting residents in subdivided units). From the inspiring sharing from the visit of The Good Lab, the concept of co-creation and connection of different minds hit me much as we finally understand why we are being divided into groups with members from diversified academic backgrounds. We therefore utilised our professions to collaborate and facilitate the final prototype, which admittedly, has great improvement when comparing to our first draft. We are extremely pleased to see more human-centred elements, active engagement from users and address on pain points have been actively adopted in our latest design. Overall, if you are looking for collaboration with great minds, genuine interaction between human warmth based on empathy, solving problems in creative and innovative way, SOSC1001 would be a great choice for you! | Li Ka Wing
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Ariel Migliorini MERCADO
| In a world that changes all the time, creativity and innovation are increasingly in demand. However, in practice, what is creativity? And beyond, how to turn it into innovation? In SOSC1002, you will learn concepts and authors about creativity and innovation, animatedly browse your ideas, and even access ideas on how to apply them in everyday life and managing groups. The first class in the course instantly caused immeasurable admiration and resonated with my exploration of being a more creative person. In this class, I learned that innovation itself is linked to change. This change can be noticed in the way a process is carried out, in the construction of a new product, and the solution of problems. Yet, SOSC1002 will teach you that there are stages to achieving innovation and it starts with creativity. Professor Chiu and Dr. Tong will teach you in this course that creativity exists as a skill that unleashes the potential our mind has, and it is an extraordinary outcome of ordinary processes. Creatively, our brain can conceive ideas and form thoughts that usually escape patterns. Creativity exists within our minds and can be channelled into actions. One of the things I learned in this course that most mesmerised me is that people that want to keep innovating should not focus on chasing the smoky term innovation, but rather seek relevance through a culture of co-creation and constant experimentation. The weekly learning journals, made me see how creativity can transform the world scenario and amplify my vision toward so many themes that need innovative solutions. During the term, you will have the opportunity to advance in all your creativity in the project of creating an innovative canteen for CUHK! All the steps of the project are incredibly enlightening and fun at the same time. I had the pleasure, together with my groupmates of creating a restaurant that combines the cultures of Brazil and Japan called Burajiru! In this course you will also have the chance of going to a restaurant to get inspiration on innovative features. This project couldn’t have been more exciting and productive. Through this, SOSC1002 brings us precisely the point of view in which innovation should not be seen as a utopian process. In the search for innovative methods for the development of products and projects, made some methodologies were created to enable more accurate ways of finding new solutions. Moreover, in SOSC1002, group work is often encouraged, which allows you to connect with people and cultures from all over the world providing a vast diversity of experiences, generating a powerful cultural exchange and experience for managing group dynamics more creatively. Creativity and innovation are characteristics present throughout human history. All the inventions we have today, from the airplane to luggage, came from creativity, that is, extraordinary outcomes from ordinary processes. But how could you innovate inventions such as the airplane or the concept of a suitcase? SOSC1002 will make you think outside the box with the always remarkable class exercises and teach you that it is the creative and innovative ideas that make us evolve as a society. |
