Loughborough’s Collaborative Project Show packs out Europe’s biggest Innovation Centre
Loughborough University London celebrated its latest collaborations to a packed-out audience at this year's Collaborative Projects. The Collaborative Project Show was hosted by Loughborough University London’s neighbours, and Europe's biggest Innovation Centre, Plexal. It brought together, students, staff and commercial partners to mark the achievements of the best teams from this years module.
Show attendees were joined by guests including the Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville and Vice Chancellor of Loughborough University Professor Nick Jennings. Almost 300 attendees, including Partner Organisations, staff, students and general public were brought together as student teams selected from a multidisciplinary cohort of almost 600, showcased their solutions to innovation challenges, set by twelve partner organisations;William Joseph, Sysdoc, Poplar HARCA, Holland & Barrett, IBM, West Ham United Foundation, Sports Interactive, EngageCraft, International Media Support, Ford, this great adventure, Minority Rights International.
Kumaran Parameshwaran - Student in Sport Business and Innovation said:
“Loughborough’s Collaborative Project provided a platform for us to share our vision, network with industry professionals, and gain exposure for our work. The event fostered an atmosphere of innovation, curiosity, and growth, inspiring us to push the boundaries of what we thought was possible.”
The show marked the final part of the Collaborative Project academic module, where students work in small teams in a classroom environment. Overall, more than 100 teams, were created to provide solutions to this years briefs. Masters students from all seven academic disciplines, deconstruct challenge briefs, research and develop solutions ranging from "Increasing learning accessibility through the metaverse" with IBM to "Strategies for establishing a circular, low carbon local economy" with Poplar HARCA. This year also marked a further evolution towards real world learning, as the module shifted to a 3-week focused intensive sprint style experience.
The show was opened by Plexal CEO, Andrew Roughan and Dean of Loughborough University London, Professor Tony Edwards who said:
“We were delighted to be able to celebrate such an array of projects this year. The dedication shown by staff, students and partner organisations is testament to the strength of our highly valued collaborative community and continued commitment to providing this applied learning experience and look forward to following how the connections forged between all, might progress to future opportunities too.”
The Collaborate team are now looking for Partner Organisations for the 2023/24 programme. Applications should be submitted by 1 September.