Author: kating@hsu.edu.hk

“Impact Innovation: Secrets to Unlocking Your Creative Minds” Workshop (23 January 2025)

As part of the exciting line-up of the HSUHK Innovation Project Competition 2025, the workshop “Impact Innovation: Secrets to Unlocking Your Creative Minds” was held on 23 January 2025, led by Mr Cyron Chan, Executive Director of MakerBay Foundation. With a focus on human-centred innovation, the workshop offered our students a hands-on exploration of design thinking principles, equipping them with the tools to address complex challenges through empathetic and creative problem-solving.

Organised by the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Section (TLE) of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), the workshop drew HSUHK students to explore the transformative power of design thinking in driving meaningful solutions. Cyron stressed the importance of empathy as the cornerstone of innovation, urging participants to deeply understand the experiences, needs, and challenges of others before developing solutions.

Participants engaged in an interactive exercise where they paired up to share personal challenges and brainstorm solutions tailored to their partner’s needs. This activity brought design thinking principles to life, demonstrating how empathetic approaches can lead to impactful, user-centric solutions.

The workshop aligned directly with this year’s competition theme, “ESG@HSUHK”, which focuses on advancing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.  As the workshop concluded, our students left with actionable strategies and fresh perspectives to integrate into their “ESG@HSUHK” proposals.

By embedding experiential learning opportunities like this into its academic framework, CTL empowers students and staff to make impactful contributions to sustainability and innovation on campus and beyond.

Cyron explains how design thinking can drive meaningful and impactful solutions during the HSUHK Innovation Project Competition 2025 workshop.

Interactive in action: Students dive into design thinking exercises, reimagining innovative solutions for everyday problems.

Participants collaborate enthusiastically, learning how to apply design thinking to this year’s competition theme, “ESG@HSUHK”.

Engagement at its best: A student shares their challenge while their partner brainstorms solutions during the workshop exercise.

HSUHK Innovation Project Competition 2024: InnoXplore Thursday – Design Thinking: The Gateway to Innovative Entrepreneurship (29 February 2024)

February 29, the leap day in 2024, was the day our HSUHK students literally took a leap in their creative potential. Led by Mr Cyron Chan, Executive Director of MakerBay Foundation, nearly 30 students had a joyful and powerful dialogue on human-centred innovation. As part of the HSUHK Innovative Project Competition 2024 (Theme FinTech x ChatGPT), the “Design Thinking: The Gateway to Innovative Entrepreneurship” workshop took this concept to new heights where our students could get to understand and practise Cyron’s design thinking principles: empathy. One must first deeply understand the experiences and challenges of others, Cyron stressed, to design solutions that resonate. In an interactive exercise, students were paired up to share their personal challenges encountered during the day. They also needed to brainstorm solutions that addressed each other’s challenges, focusing on designing with the user’s needs at the forefront—a true application of empathetic design thinking. As the workshop drew to a close, the participants carried with them the creative potential and the empathetic mindset to apply design thinking principles to their academics, projects, and life in general. This workshop also marked the final chapter in the InnoXplore series where a total of 6 talks, seminars and workshops were tailored to equip our HSUHK students with the tools and mindset to innovate and inspire. Now the agents of change are all ready to embark on another exciting chapter—their “FinTech x ChatGPT” proposal and the upcoming pitching competition dated 21 March.

Mr Cyron Chan explained the 5 steps in “Design Thinking”.

Mr Cyron Chan asked students to brainstorm ideas using the framework.

Students engaged in some hands-on exercise to stimulate their minds.

Students partnered up in doing some hands-on activities under Mr Cyron Chan’s guidance.

The workshop was well attended with around 30 students.

Dr Holly Chung, Associate Director, Teaching and Learning Enhancement Section, Centre for Teaching and Learning, presented Mr Cyron Chan, with a token of appreciation.