This week Cristina Alía and Óscar Santos, teachers at the school, gave an interview where they explained the work and objectives of their community “Industrial Design 4Human (ID4H).
The motivation for the constitution as an EELISA Community stems from the common work that they had already been developing every day in the field of industrial design and sustainability. Many of the things they did linked them within ETSIDI and with other centers, schools and agents with whom they worked. With these starting connections, it was easy for them to start working and to be able to provide a common framework for action and common thread to all the activities they had been doing.
EELISA has helped them to strengthen this framework, to work in greater depth with the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda, and above all to weave new networks both of professionals in the sector and with their own colleagues (PDI and PAS).
In Industrial Design 4Human they have as reference five projects based on different SDGs with the aim of addressing issues and activities that provide a range of possibilities and connections with students: km0 food, mechatronics in the field of health, industrial design focused on the user, photovoltaic energy, network design, Service-Learning initiatives, STEAM (Art + Science) vocations, without forgetting the social initiatives within entrepreneurship.
In the community they work with and for citizens in all projects. Both Cristina and Óscar believe that communities should benefit from all our activities and receive the impact we generate. It cannot be considered as independent entities. Citizens and their participation is essential in the initiatives developed in the ApS and citizen science project ES NUESTRO (accompanied by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation) as well as in the CONECTA, SERVICIO and INNOVA ETSIDI-LAVAPIÉS citizen programs.
Cristina and Óscar mention that “the school is in the center of Madrid and our campus is in the streets of Lavapiés/Embajadores. We must connect with the territory and thus bring the University closer to the neighborhood”. It starts from a glocal approach, from the local, then towards the global. This approach is connected with the mission of the EELISA project and thus the internationalization of students, PDI and PAS is promoted.
The involvement of students in the Community and the activities carried out has been very high from the beginning and participation in events such as the annual Hackathon or community activities of prototyping in the neighborhood and the ES NUESTRO project is increasing more and more.
This year, in addition, the students of the community have also traveled abroad and have participated in activities of their partners. Traveling with EELISA grants and acquiring skills and developing soft skills within the framework of the community.
The Community is also supported by connections with other universities in the Alliance that have been working since the constitution of ID4H and collaborations with entities outside the university. They have more than 30 stakeholders who actively support them and an associative network with the neighborhood, as well as with the agents involved in many of the projects that have been developed in the center.
Full interview on this: link
