Draft:SUGAR Network for Design Innovation

{{Short description|non-profit organization}

The SUGAR Network for Design Innovation is a non-profit organization. established in 2011, comprising 25 universities worldwide that collaborate in delivering a nine-month course in design thinking and human-centric innovation. The organization's headquarters are based in Potsdam, Germany, as of 2022.

Origin
The SUGAR Network originated from a Stanford University problem-based learning course called ME310, founded in 1967 for mechanical engineering graduate students. In the early 2000s, to increase diversity, Professor Larry Leifer began to partner with other international academic institutions, allowing them to form teams with their students.

Creation of SUGAR Network
In 2009, universities began to form partnerships without Stanford University's involvement, leading to the creation of the SUGAR Network, the name derived from conversation between Professor Larry Leifer and Carlos Serrano. The aim of the network is to give students the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge in practice by having an industry sponsor challenge interdisciplinary and intercultural student teams.

Structure
The SUGAR Network guidelines advise a nine-month project-based learning course based on design thinking, with two interdisciplinary teams of students from different universities collaborating to develop a new product, service, or concept based on the challenge posed by the corporate sponsor.

Methodology
The university members of the SUGAR Network teach design thinking, a human-centered approach to innovative problem-solving emphasizing prototyping and iteration. The SUGAR Network collective of universities uses seven phases in their process to act as a guideline :

Design Space Exploration
Data gathering from research, personal experience, observation, and interviews.

Critical Function Prototype
Implementing the customer’s data from the previous step to produce a prototype.

Dark Horse Prototype
Inversion of the previously accepted features and finding new and creative ways to produce a prototype.

Funky Prototype
Combining the successful features of the previous prototypes to produce one that is working toward the final prototype.

Functional Prototype
Resolving the issues and successful features of the previous prototypes to prepare one for user interaction.

X-is-finished Prototype
Finding the essential feature “X” that will be integral to the completion of the final prototype.

Final Prototype
Final construction of the prototype that can then be presented to the customer.

Global Events
The SUGAR Network celebrates two events that bring the whole community of students, teaching team, and corporate partners together in one place:


 * 1) Global Kick-Off (GKO) Most teams meet for the first time and start the project
 * 2) SUGAR Expo: A public event where students pitch the completed projects and finalize the 9-month Design Thinking course.

University List
The current universities and academic institutions within the SUGAR Network include Aalto University, Finland; University of Bologna, Italy; d.school Paris Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, France; and Université Côte d'Azur, France, among others.

Past projects
Some of the projects that have been brought to market include:


 * 1) Flemo, a digital fleet management tool that originated from a project between UniMoRe and the University of St.Gallen and is now known as Vimcar
 * 2) ResilYou, a project from the University of St.Gallen, which strengthens and digitally trains the resilience capability of individuals through an application concept.
 * 3) Creative Museum, a project between the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Warsaw University of Technology, has been launched as a digital interface with user accounts designed with gamification elements to support community building, knowledge sharing, and networking in the museum ecosystem.