The event has been held every year since 2017, under the existing collaboration agreement between NOVA School of Science and Technology | NOVA FCT and the Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT). The event has grown, with more and more participants and entities involved.
This year’s edition has the following entities involved:
NOVA FCT, Portugal
Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Tokyo, Japan
Keio University, Tokyo, Japan;
King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok, Thailand
Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), Thailand
Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS), Indonesia
UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia
University of Navarra, Spain
The program objectives aim to:
Development of the ability to solve synthetic problems;
Introduction of the concepts of “Systems thinking”, “Systems Method (Engineering Method)”, and “Systems Management (Project Management)”;
Experience working in international and interdisciplinary teams.
All activities and all communication are carried out in English.
There are Japanese, Thai and Portuguese teachers and monitors.
Students work in teams. The teams are mixed, made up of Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Spanish and Portuguese students from different years and branches of degrees and masters, in addition to former students.
Each team has to build a problem-solving process indicated by the teachers. The teams begin by collecting requirements and needs from the environment, society, the market, etc. Next, they have to define the problem. The last stage is dedicated to developing a proposed solution to the problem.
Each group prepares a presentation of the proposals they developed. On the last day, proposals from all groups are presented. A jury chooses a winning group with the best proposal.
Most of the activities are developed in the form of games and recreational activities.
In the theoretical part, students have the opportunity to learn and apply some analytical techniques and tools (Brainstorming, KJ method, Mind map, Kano model, Kando Quality, QFD, TRIZ, 5W1H, logical tree, Matrix method, A3 Material, etc.).
