Learning Outcomes
The module addresses students who are interested in real challenges of urbanization and strategy design. In cooperation with the project partner Volkswagen, the students will receive a concrete practice-oriented challenge that they will work on within the scope of the seminar. Herein, students not only have to consider the central requirements of smart cities but also identify divers needs of various stakeholders. Those needs have to be taken into account and coordinated. The project focuses on mobility and its analysis in a holistic manner. In interdisciplinary teams, the students develop a stakeholder analysis and examine the interests / needs and influences of stakeholders and how they relate to each other. The students examine which stakeholders have to be taken into account in a smart city strategy and how this can be done.
Through direct, practice-related experiences, students are able to transfer their theoretical knowledge directly into practice and learn to tackle and solve problems creatively. In addition, they are enabled to process relevant content in a structured manner, to reflect on their work and effectively incorporate feedback into their work. The following should be taught in the course:
- Content related analysis with real challenges of urbanization and strategy design
- Development of a stakeholder analysis with thematic focus on mobility in the context of an innovative and sustainable smart city strategy
- Learning of creative methods for the analysis and resolution of mobility challenges in practice
- The ability to build an innovative team and work in such a team
Content
At the beginning the thematic scope is being set: From an industrial perspective, the project partner presents the current challenges with regard to the topic and demonstrates the most important points that should be tackled as part of the project seminar. The aim is to look into the future. Students will be taught the required methodological skills to cope with the challenge of the project partner in small groups and to develop a scenario for Berlin 2030. A central element is the stakeholder analysis: Students identify relevant stakeholders, who must be considered in the context of the future scenario of a sustainable smart city strategy. The stakeholder mapping is a tool that students should use in order to visualize how identified stakeholders are linked to each other and how their interests and influencing factors or dependencies relate to one another. Besides working in small groups, the students are supposed to coordinate among each other in order to create the ‘big’ picture. Throughout the semester students work on mandatory presence days on their challenge and present their interim and final results in regular intervals. Finally, they draft a recommendation for a sustainable smart city strategy. The final results will be presented to the practice partner and other experts.
Description of Teaching and Learning Methods
The introduction starts with a short, lecture-like part. This part is to clarify the question of the project partner. In addition, the methods used for the seminar are taught. Most of the work is carried out in small groups, which undertake ‘field research’ in independent teamwork. Besides that, ongoing exchange and discussions within the whole group and with experts take place. Presentations and documentation at the end of the project are integral parts of the seminar.
