Quite some time had gone by since we last met with the CHIC 2017-2018 teams. One could think that the Xmas vacation, exams and holidays (for some…) could have distracted the teams from their deliverables. Far from it… The 5 teams and all the supervisors who joined the event for one or both days proved their commitment to make this edition a memorable one.
The second milestone was actually the first occasion to gather in one room all five teams taking part in the CHIC 2017-2018 edition (3 from Lausanne, 1 from Fribourg and 1 form Geneva – 29 students in total). For those wondering, try imaging getting students from 8 schools scattered across the French-speaking part of Switzerland all together in a room at the same time. Add the supervisors and you probably now see why one can talk about commitment…. and why we work on week-ends!
As usual, a packed schedule awaited the participants. Little time was lost since they immediately started with the milestone 2 presentations giving a chance to all teams to showcase their progress in terms of problem and solution exploration. This was followed by a round of detailed feedback by one supervisor from each disciplines.
Alex Wayenberg (who flew in from San Francisco for the occasion), pointed out the similarities between a CHIC project and the process of building a start-up (he is currently working on Shapescale, a start-up funded by Y Combinator). In order to then remove a little bit of the pressure, two CHIC alumni (Aimo and dOry) presented their projects and how they tackled difficulties along the journey.
A group activity requiring participants to locate themselves inside the sequence of a story made for a smooth transition to the traditional pizzas and drinks and the possibility to discover some of the projects developed at the EPFL-ECAL Lab.
Zoom activity – Final line-up
Giving the students some time to reflect and further (re-)define their product idea, the next day continued with some assignments on identifying risks and defining roles and responsibilities within the teams. The day ended on a cheerful note with a short role-play of each group demonstrating a use case of their product, which they did with a quick and dirty cardboard pretotype.
Ikare team in rhythm
Teams have now one month to prepare for the third milestone. Stay tuned for the teams’ weekly updates and eventual pivots…