Deep design learning happens through the very act of designing and through thoughtful and consistent reflective practice.  Our research in coaching and studio-based teaching methods has made an impact with companies and employee participants.

• Coaching design and innovation teams

• Coaching coop interns

• Problem definition and specification workshops using real problems

• Creative designing workshops using real problems

• Term-long studio-based courses using real problems

Drones for Airborne Law Enforcement (ALE) are effective tools not available to that market in the past.   During the development of these products we were asked to provide a 2 hour lunchtime workshop on creative ideation methods.  Over 40 engineers and designers participated over a pizza lunch and worked on relevant problems they were facing, giving them new perspectives and solution pathways.

A follow-up workshop was held with the co-founder, engineering director and a 4 member engineering team to find the crux of camera image stabilization issues they were having, with success!

A textile product start-up was on a mission to bring automation to as much of the factory as possible.  We coached a student-employee team to find the most impactful stage of the manufacturing process to automate and coached them, virtually, for 10 weeks to bring several novel solutions to that problem.  The Director of Automation and Chief Financial Officer were so impressed they asked we continue by us offering a $1MM development budget.

A group of interdisciplinary coop interns were hired by a global shoe manufacturer to bring about improvements to the operations of a shoe factory in Latin America.  The students were accompanied by us for the first week and then coached virtually for 16 weeks.  They found over 204 valid opportunities for improvement, proposed 2, and brought one solution to the conceptual design phase and the second to the testing phase.  

'I'd like to roll this out to all of Latin America! - Executive VP Sponsor

We worked with a second organization to coach 6 separate interdisciplinary coop interns, virtually, over 2 years in Uganda, to need find and solve pressing issues in the hospital system specifically related to maternal health.

Four students were placed in an industry setting as part of a graduate level design course.  The company provides automated factory mobility devices for warehouse applications.  A complex tolerance and inspection issue was plaguing one productline and often risking planned deliveries just at the day of planned shipping.  Students were coached to find the crux of the problem using problem representation methods and brought engineering and inspection teams together.  They found that each had a different need and that the current solution was not serving either.  Students proposed a simple and cost-effective fixture and inspection method that provided what both stakeholders needed, eliminating the shipping schedule risk.

A top Canadian engineering school undertook a faculty-wide visioning exercise where faculty were challenged to envision new ways of preparing students for professional practice.  Using the analogy of a swimming school, where the context of professional practice is the water, Oscar Nespoli envisioned establishing an Immersive Engineering Clinic in the new Engineering 7 building to act as the swimming pool.  Students would be prepared there before the go onto their coop internships where they would be working at the beach! Proud to say this has been a great success for the faculty!

"A bold and elegant vision!" - Professor & Committee Member

"Oscar ... you have synthesized things so well!" - Professor & Committee Member