Pilot action: Design and prototype model (O.T4.8)
- The pilot action was the last of six pilot actions carried out simultaneously in all seven partner regions to test and introduce the new services on the SYNERGY platform for Crowd Innovation.
- The pilot action “Design and Prototype Model” was comprising of two parts:
- Project team launched a challenge on the SYNERGY platform
- Solution providers solved the challenge in a micro-working approach
- The SYNERGY partners launched a challenge, HOUSE OF THE FUTURE, asking Platform users to develop a house ornament, object or piece of furniture with possibility of integration of advanced technologies (sensors, AI) that can help people with everyday activities and improve their quality of life. Platform users were asked to explore the challenge on the platform and elaborate a sketch or a first draft of a solution or associate to solutions already presented on the platform. Then, they were asked to create a research team (at least 2 SCIP accounts) and contribute with their expertise at the development of a CAD model of the solution. Once uploaded on SCIP, platform users had to look for support from other platform’s users and they had to promote it online and collect as many “likes” as possible. At the end, the 3 best solutions which got more likes, were awarded with a voucher based on a ranking and received a 3D printed gadgets of their proposed solution.
- In addition to promoting the recently published SYNERGY Platform, the pilot action was intended as an opportunity for crowd innovation and social product development as a revolutionary process to design, create and manufacture innovative products, favoring collaboration and the exchange of competences among SYNERGY Platform users. The best & most successful projects were awarded a voucher to the value of up to €1250 that could be used for different services like consultancy, training, business plans, market analysis, research ordering and a lot more (article winner Design and Prototype Model pilot action).
- With this pilot we wanted to create collaboration possibilities between regional and trans-regional groups of researchers and students to develop an innovative idea together. The pilot action was very successful with a high number of participants that contributed many different solutions to the challenge published on the platform. The experiences from these actions showed that interest in a new pilot activity can be increased by addressing entire groups of targeted participants with an interesting innovation topic. The pilot action attracted a lot of media attention thanks to the targeted events and activities of the project partners (example media articles Design and Prototype Model Action at CRIT).
By including various interest groups from all partner regions, the pilot action had a transnational character. The reproducibility of the pilot action is given, the pilot action can be carried out well in this format in other partner regions or subject areas to increase the awareness on social product development and micro-working initiatives.- In the following we provide you with links to all relevant outputs and tools:
SYNERGY Platform Crowdsourcing/Microworking Service https://synergyplatform.pwr.edu.pl/challenges.
SYNERGY Design and Prototype Model Pilot Action; Image Source: SYNERGY Project
