Drawing from his experience in the programme, Marc crafted the course since he feels, “EIT InnoEnergy is a nest of good ideas. Most students have great ambition and dreams. However, sometimes ideas stay just that. With the Moonshot Project, students will see that even the boldest ideas can become real with little time and resources.” The course was created with the basic principle that making something 10x better is often easier than making it only 10% better. To reach this target, students need to test out their most revolutionary ideas with high goals and tight deadlines – testing prototypes with the intent to fail and then using that failure to build the next prototype significantly better.

Students will enter the “Moonshot Triangle” – during which a huge problem is explored by the students together with the help of a major player in the energy field (such as Red Eléctrica, enel, the European Commission or the IEA). The students can apply their fresh ideas and talents towards solving it – with support from techy start-ups and research centres (including EIT InnoEnergy’s supported start-ups: Flexidao, abora, AEInnova; and others members of the EIT InnoEnergy community like CITCEA). Marc shares, “Start-ups and research partners are critical stakeholders when it comes to breakthrough technology. The role of these professionals is to guide the students and act as mentors on the technologies that the crew wants to investigate, to know first-hand their potential.”

Fablab Barcelona is the perfect setting to allow students to bring their ideas into reality. In the words of Santi Fuentemilla, Fab Lab Instructor, ” We are an innovation centre rethinking the way we live, work and play in cities. Our goal for this course is for participants to gain a newly expanded view and understanding of the multiple possibilities for designing strategies and innovating as tools to expand skills and capacities at personal and professional levels. At the same time, the course provides the attitude and competences for launching ideas into the future of digital fabrication and distributed manufacturing”

Marc adds, “Bringing rapid prototyping and the Fab Labs network closer to the students, tomorrow’s entrepreneurs will not waste time before prototyping their solutions and starting to test them. This will allow them to apply to contests, accelerators, and investment rounds with worked and possibly already iterated prototypes.”

This challenging course uses project-based learning, a methodology widely used in EIT InnoEnergy Master’s programme, that takes students on a creative journey by tackling a moonshot problem via Agile project management and emphasis on multiple prototyping. Students will:

• examine and identify future long-term challenges in the energy industry – giving them the foresight to see what’s coming next
   
   
• investigate state-of-the-art technologies to keep on top of new developments
   
   
• design possible solutions, build prototypes and test them to fail so they can make improvements
   
   
• apply Agile methodology to manage the project, foster quick communication, and involve everyone through all steps of the collaboration

The course offers a blended online modality approach that fits well with the current pandemic situation, mixing remote prototyping and videoconferencing mentorships along with face-to-face sessions at the Fab Lab. Students will complete two challenging sprints, presenting their results via written report, pitch or video – with elements of self-evaluation and a flipped-classroom approach, all fostering skills that are not commonly taught in a classic engineering programme.

Fab Lab has also taken significant steps to secure the well-being of students. Santi comments, “The Institute’s priority is the health, safety, and protection of its community of students, employees, researchers, and affiliates, on and off campus. To avoid the risk related to Covid-19, contingency
measures are taken in accordance with the guidelines of the Spanish and International health and education institutions”

This dynamic course is the ultimate learning experience to teach students how to anticipate future energy market needs, think radically outside of the box, and learn how to use rapid prototyping to make large incremental developments in technologies. As Marc shares, “We don’t just want bold ideas; we want real solutions. In this context, rapid prototyping allows students to bring their ideas to reality, test them, and start iterating early.”