On the morning of July 15, 2019, the opening ceremony of the "City ChangeMaker" summer workshop of Tsinghua University was held in the fifth classroom building 5205.

"City ChangeMaker" summer workshop of Tsinghua University

The "City ChangeMaker" summer workshop brought 13 young instructors from well-known universities and research institutions around the world, and 62 college students from 8 universities in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan together. Fu Zhiyong, director of Service Design Institute of Tsinghua University, and academic director of the project, Yu Cangbi, deputy The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Education Alliance, Ma Xiaotian, head of the Secretariat of The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Education Research Center of China attended this ceremony.

Fu Zhiyong, Tsinghua University  

At first, Fu Zhiyong welcomed the arrival of instructors and students and introduced the initial heart of the "City ChangeMaker" workshop-The project benefited from the flourishing development of Maker's movement and culture at Tsinghua University. "City ChangeMaker" is a case of successfully integrating the concept of makers into innovative entrepreneurship education." Fu Zhiyong expressed his expectations for the workshop participants, "I hope that everyone can face the challenging problems of sustainable urban development, combine the power of ChangeMaker to make changes. So that you can change the world in the process of influencing yourself."

Finally, Fu Zhiyong shared three views on urban innovative design with participants. The first is the " holistic viewpoint ", starting from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS), to consider the elements and factors that make up the city systematically, and understand the problems and challenges faced by the city from a holistic viewpoint. The second is the "humanism concept", which is committed to promoting the construction of the human city. The third is to "create a concept of co-creation". Through the model of open innovation, we must gather multiple perspectives and contribute to our innovative ability through participatory and co-creative design.

Xia Qing, Tsinghua University  

Then, Ph.D. student Xia Qing of Academy of Arts & Design in Tsinghua University gave an introduction to the project status, evaluation criteria and the schedule. In order to make the workshop more challenging and practically meaningful, it focuses on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, starting with real cases of urban transportation, culture, food and so on. At the same time, it works closely with outstanding experts and organizations in every area and finds people's real needs from a multidimensional perspective of design, technology and business in the process. In this way, we are able to put innovative ideas into action and design products or services that can change the world. Xia Qing recommended, "In future research, students should view the city as their own labs, directly target at the users in real life and start the research in the city where they live." The workshop encourages each group to put their goals on the level of development and progress of human being.

After the brief introduction, mentors of each group shares their topics with us. Wu Yao, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the European Association of Women Scientists, gave her advice on how to handle extra city’s carbon emissions from the perspective of government, community and individual by combining with the reality in China.

This would make our products close to life and could really be promoted in the future.Liu Yuqi , a Ph.D. student at Kyushu University , shared her own experience living in Japan’s aging society and expounded the serious problem of China 's aging population. She hoped students could gave solutions to the problem from the perspective of designer. Teacher Liu Shida of Tsinghua University in Hsinchu hoped more people could have a deeper understanding of sports in the Winter Olympics as well as the value and significance behind them through this project.

Finally, the teams under the leadership of the mentor broke the ice and planned the learning points. The opening ceremony was successfully concluded.

The “City ChangeMaker "summer workshop of Tsinghua University was hosted by the Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan Affairs Office of Tsinghua University, and was organized by the Service Design Institution of Tsinghua University and the Innovation and the Secretariat of The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Education Research Center of China. The workshop was held for the fourth time since its first launch in 2016. It aims to provide students with international cutting-edge design thinking courses and practical opportunities for practitioners based on the advantages of Tsinghua University's innovative and entrepreneurial education resources.