The Practical Application Project (18 ECTS credits) is designed to give students the experience of an integrated innovation process, so that it can be implemented in professional practice.
To achieve this, students work in interdisciplinary groups to develop innovative products and/or services, with the aim of putting into practice the tools and skills acquired during the theoretical and practical courses.
During the Practical Application Project, students are invited to work in groups to carry out an innovation process based on technologies (technology push) or business opportunities (market pull) selected from developments entrusted to them by external companies (startups, SMEs, NGOs, multinationals or public institutions).
The practical application project is supervised by the Master's supervisors and supported by a pool of professionals from industry and the innovation ecosystem in French-speaking Switzerland. The process, conducted in a practical and concrete manner, is divided into six main phases:
- Empathy: The empathy phase aims to gain a deep understanding of the needs, desires and constraints of the stakeholders involved in an innovation project.
- Definition: The definition phase aims to manage divergences and convergences to synthesize information and define the project's issues and opportunities.
- Ideation: The ideation phase involves the exercise of creativity with openness, combining various methods and techniques to generate innovative ideas and support stakeholders in the process of selecting the most promising solutions.
- Prototyping: The prototyping phase involves creating simplified, tangible versions of the solutions envisaged.
- Testing: The testing phase involves evaluating prototypes to confirm concepts, detect any weak points and make improvements before final implementation.
- Implementation: The implementation phase consists of testing technological feasibility, rolling out the marketing and industrialization plan for the product and/or service, and integrating it into the existing or future product portfolio.
At the end of the process, students provide principals with a variety of leads for the further development of their product portfolio. For the lead deemed most promising, they receive communication tools such as demonstrators, mock-ups and films, as well as an assessment of the potential market and a commercialization plan integrated into the company's strategy.