At the end of the two days of the product design session at UPES, the students wanted ColoredCow to stay back more and continue the session further. They wanted to interact and learn more. It was really great to see them create their own version of design for the problem. And how I really see this session is that the innate need for the designers to give flight to their thoughts and see it take a form, was fulfilled. This is what must have changed their point of view about workshops.

So far the feeling the students had about workshops was that it is a one sided program where they are taught topics and theory of design without being involved into the subject and often killing the esteem of design. Often times they would leave the workshop in between or never return to complete it. I clearly remember a remark “the students hardly attend them” and that too, right at the start of our CodeTrek design session.

It was overwhelming to hear “we have never attended such a hands-on workshop before. We would like to attend more of these” from the same students as we took them through the process of design where they actively participated to reach to the final design. It was through an open discussion and letting the students own the problem, that they connected with it better. As a trainer I nudged them towards the right path and let them discover how to reach the final design.

In our endeavour to train the students for the industry methods of designing products, through codetrek, we wanted to step up in giving back to the community and building stronger talent. Sanjay, TPO Head at UPES affirmed this to the students by thanking us for our efforts and acknowledging our monetary free initiative for the students.