CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

The Department of Mechanical Engineering organised a TEDx viewing session on 27th February 2026 for 4^th-semester students. The session featured the TEDxVenlo talk “Speed up Innovation with Design Thinking” by Guido Stompff. It aimed to introduce students to creative problem-solving and collaborative approaches to innovation in engineering.

Mr. Stompff explained that many organisations struggle with innovation because they demand clarity about cost, risk, and profit too early. He referred to this as the “Catch 22 of innovation,” where ideas cannot progress due to the expectation of certainty at the outset. He emphasised that innovation typically emerges through teamwork, collaboration, and open discussion rather than individual effort.

The talk highlighted how design thinking encourages exploring multiple ideas instead of settling on one prematurely. Students learned that prototyping, sketching, and modelling enable teams to visualise solutions more effectively. An illustrative example shared was the “Water Square” in Rotterdam, a multifunctional public space that also stores rainwater during floods.

Overall, the session demonstrated that innovation accelerates when organisations experiment and iterate rather than over-plan. It provided valuable insights into how design thinking principles can support creative and practical engineering solutions.