Workshop from 08:00 to 10:00 every weekday morning week 11.
Co-Create is available to students at UiO, BI, OsloMet, Kristiania and NMBU.
In today’s?tech?environment, the motion from iPhones towards ever more connected devices - watches, pods, rings and eventually implants facilitating transhumanism?may seem inevitable. Yet, other possible futures and ways of interacting with?technology could equally well be envisioned: we can imagine futures where we?use?technology?but don’t?become?technology?ourselves.
An alternative?tech?utopia?is pictured in Marvel’s?Wakanda?series. The country Wakanda is highly?technological, yet human relations and traditions remain intact. Similarly, an alternative?dystopia?is pictured in Disney’s Star-wars spin-off?Andor, which is rich on?technology like hovering scooters, light speed travel and light sabres, but the use of a central device like an iPhone is all but abandoned.
Certain aspects of?ubiquitous?computing,?where?technology (like electricity) is always around but doesn’t directly ask for our attention is yet another path that has been researched for decades by designers.
On a detailed level, we could imagine future equivalents of phone booths (or lamp posts), packed with privately accessible displays or projector interfaces making?technology available when needed, but not always right at our fingertips.
In this project, we try to imagine what a different and less intrusive?technological future could look like. We then look for solutions (aka startup initiatives) to take us closer to that future.
Application deadline: 7 March
The workshop is led by Joseph Makokha, PhD.
Learn more about Joseph's background.
- Joseph is a postdoctoral research fellow at University of Oslo Institute for Informatics (IFI) in the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
- He specializes in collaborative artificial intelligence (AI) systems that augment humans on thinking tasks such as designing, hence works at the intersection of innovative teams, design and artificial intelligence.
- In addition to teaching, he develops and runs experiments/studies involving a variety of AI systems to explore their impact on creativity, perception, decision making, collaboration, team dynamics, among others.
- To bridge knowledge and practice, he engages industry leaders in understanding, deploying and evaluating AI in diverse enterprises, and has run design thinking workshops for corporate teams like Toshiba and Turkey’s Ministry of National Education (MNE) among many others.
- He has a bachelors degree in EE/CS (Nairobi, Kenya), masters degrees in Education (Holy Names and Stanford in the US), and a PhD in Mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Learn more about the Co-Create concept
Co-Create is an initiative between the Oslo universities and colleges to motivate students to solve real world problems through entrepreneurship and startup activities. A series of Design Thinking workshops followed by pitches, team selection and funding, as well as lectures in the topics you need to successfully launch a company, will be available to you. Having identified a set of challenges we invite you to find, understand and make solutions to these real-world problems, creating an impact.
During the workshops you will be able to engage with experienced entrepreneurs, problem owners and people who will inspire you. The events will have an informal setting open for participants to ask frank questions, get feedback on their ideas and also mix and mingle with each other to create a team of cofounders. Each team will be assigned a mentor who will coach them towards their goals.
Teams from all universities and colleges will meet up for events where they will be challenged, gain new knowledge and seek new team members.
Over summer, teams will work on their ideas to bring them to the next level. Coaching will be available on how to become founders of their own start-ups. Further lectures and meet-ups are scheduled for the early fall, adding momentum and knowledge to the projects.
The finale of Co-Create is a pitch event where the projects will be presented to an expert panel of judges. In this event we?ll celebrate the achievements of all projects and showcase them to outsiders.
For the teams interested the program continues with mentoring towards the submission of STUD-ENT applications to Innovation Norway in February 2025.
Collaborators: The University of Oslo, BI, OsloMet, Kristiania, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and the Students' Entrepreneurship Fund in Oslo (SEFiO).
Partners: Startuplab, Sharelab, Aleap and Oslo Cancer Cluster Incubator
Supported by: The Innovation Norway funding scheme STUD-ENT entrepreneurship culture
An initiative from the UiO Growth House