From September 17 to 21, 2024, ESIROI, the engineering school of the University of La Réunion, successfully organised its first Design Sprint as part of France Design Week.
This event brought together forty 3rd-year students around a major innovation challenge: waste management, a theme at the heart of the challenges of the ecological transition.
During the event, the Accelerate Future HEI project was showcased, highlighting the importance of fostering innovation in education. One of the main aims of this project is to promote collaboration between students and external partners, as well as to transfer essential practical knowledge to train the next generation of engineers.
The Design Sprint event perfectly reflects the core values of the Accelerate Future HEI project, offering a clear example of how these concepts can be transformed into tangible action. The Accelerate Future HEI project focuses on the importance of fostering innovation in education and the Design Sprint event serves as a practical realisation of this vision.
This event illustrates the relevance of the Accelerate Future HEI project’s ideas and provides the ESIROI project team with an opportunity to inspire their colleagues to actively engage in future initiatives. The event supports the broader ESIROI community, encouraging participation in these innovative and forward-thinking efforts.
The event…
The success of the ESIROI Design Sprint demonstrates the growing emphasis on innovation and environmental awareness in university education. During the event, students demonstrated their ability to make a significant contribution to the ecological transition and a sustainable future.
Eric Foster, a student specialising in Computer Science: “The Design Sprint was an interesting and enriching event. The group atmosphere was good, and the speakers were very helpful.”
During these five intense days, our student engineers worked in inter-specialty teams to propose innovative solutions to the problems posed by several partners:
- Brasseries de Bourbon: How to design a glass terminal to collect bottles dedicated to reuse while improving the collection conditions of collectors and meeting sustainability issues?
The first team proposed a modular terminal system combined with user awareness and the promotion of collectors around the “Ramass’ali” program. The second team proposed a collection terminal inspired by the Kaz créoles, the “Ti Kaz Boutey” with a simple and practical drawer system, supported by public awareness campaigns. The “Ti Kaz Boutey” was one of the jury’s two favourites.
Catherine Romain, a student specialising in Building and Energy: “I had the opportunity to participate in the first edition of France Design Week. Our mission? Imagine and design a creative, practical and sustainable solution for a company. We collaborated with BRASSERIES DE BOURBON to develop a container to centralise the glass bottles scattered across the island. This project aimed to promote and recognise bottle collectors, who are often overlooked in their essential role. This project made me realise the importance of collectors for the well-being of our island, as well as their working conditions, which deserve to be improved.
- ADIR: How to remove the obstacles to scaling up the manufacture of bio-based plastics in Reunion Island? The challenge of scaling up bio-based plastic in Reunion Island?
The first team proposed a solution for transforming biomass from communities into plastic polymers, a source that has the advantage of limiting competition with agricultural or food uses. The second team chose to present a pyrolysis process for recovering plastic waste as fuel.
- CIVIS: Biowaste in schools: Towards a functional economy?
The two teams sought to create certified composting educational projects and inter-school challenges. One of the teams also proposed organisational improvements and a tool for monitoring composting activities.
