Goals

Small teams of 2-4 Master-level students – from social sciences (mainly General Management) and engineering background – work on current industry challenges at the intersection of innovation, quality and sustainability management. They elaborate the status quo of the challenge at hand and present solutions (e.g. informed by practices in industry and scientific literature) to a jury consisting of top management representatives of our business partners.

See also our article about the IQD Project 2018., opens in new window

Teaching Methods

1. Interdisciplinary teams: The teams analyze the meaning of concepts like Smart Products, Materials Circularity, or Products-as-a-service and further analyze how these trends affect corporate innovation, quality and sustaianbility management. Based on this, they develop a solution/suggestions how to introduce these concepts into a company and how to handle the faced challenges. The overall goal is to support companies in the development of new products and services by unearthing the gap between current capabilities and processes and those supporting innovation. Thus, the teams gain deep practical insights into latest innovation trends and service development.
2. Coaching: each team is mentored by two coaches – one internally from JKU and another one from the industry partner.
3. Site visits and industry events: Some of the course activity (e.g. interviews, final presentation) take place in the headquarter of our business partner(s). Moreover, students have the opportuntity to visit an industry event with the opportuntity to learn more about current industry challenges.

Grading

Grading will be based on the following aspects:

• Project report
• Presentation
• Attendance
• Project management

Literature (Selection)
to be announced