All CHIC modules

Electronics workshop 3: PCB assembly

Participants will learn about reflow soldering and PCB testing techniques.

Community Onboarding

Discover the CHIC community platform and resources. REQUIRED FOR ALL CHIC TEAMS.

MILESTONE: Prototyping Stage 2

The participants should be able to present the design files which are ready for manufacturing.

Low-tech Social Network

After writing down 3 strengths of temselves on a name tag, the participants mingle and try to find someone else who has 3 different strenghts. They then draw a connection between each other's photos on the "social network" wall.

Kick-off Weekend - Introduction

Introduction and global overview of the CHIC program of the ongoing edition. Overview of the activities of the kick-off weekend.

MILESTONE: Prototyping Stage 3

The participants should be able to present the first manufactured prototype and show a demo (PCB level)

Marshmallow Challenge

In this team work activity, the participants are asked to build the tallest freestanding structure in 18 minutes, using only 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 m of tape, 1 m of string and one marshmallow.

Alumni Activity

For the kick-off, gather some previous CHIC participants to share their experiences by pitching an old CHIC project that was not their own.

RIPLS Questionnaire

Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) questionnary. The purpose of the questionary is to examine the attitude of CHIC participants towards interprofessional learning.

Visa application Procedure

Visa for mainland China: Forms, advice and consular service address.

Mix & Mash

In groups of 3-4 around a table, one participant presents their opportunity and receives feedback from other participants: What did I like, what could be different, what did I not understand, and how would you improve it?

The wallet

Get introduced to the design thinking process by designing the ideal wallet.

Design Ethnography

An introduction and practical exercise in human-centered design field work. Participants will collect artefacts in public spaces that help to identify opportunities as starting point for their CHIC project.

MILESTONE: Take-off (5-minutes pitch)

Each team will have to present a 5 minutes pitch addressed to investors, potential customers, makers or another specific audience defined by the team.

Team Contract

Short version of the Team Work Workshop. Participants will define how to manage meetings and keep up a good collaboration by writing down a team contract.

Lego Challenge

Two participants are tasked to sit back-to-back, whereas one of them instructs the other to build a pre-defined LEGO figure without seeing the build process. This activity helps creating a common language accross the team.

Hibachi: The example of an interdisciplinary project

Using the example of a former CHIC project, Hibachi, the biggest challenges that may arise during the project for each disciplines are discussed. Many of those often concern more than one discipline, and the sooner they are addressed, the better.

Team Bonding

The teams have just been formed. Now, they have to go out of the building to take a group picture, find a team name and discuss their values.

User Testing

A guide to perform meaningful user tests in order to inform your product strategy.

How Might We

Get from the insights collected during the research phase to an actionable trigger question in order to start the ideation phase.

MILESTONE: Opportunity Research

Usually the first milestone, the participants have to outline their initial findings from the inspiration phase.

Workshop on Team Work

Participants will learn how to manage meetings and keep up a good collaboration in the team.

Pitching Workshop - The Basics

Participants learn how to bring their product idea across an audience of potential investors in a compelling manner. The DOs and DONTs are highlighted along with detailed feedback for each group's pitch.

Ideation Workshop

Teams learn to generate a large quantity of ideas addressing their opportunity. Criteria for selecting the most promising one are presented.

Critical Incident

Job-to-be-done

The notion of a value proposition is introduced, along with the techniques used to build customer profiles. How to validate a hypothesis about the product you are building? And how to differentiate between facts and opinions?

Internet of Things

What does it mean to build a connected device? It's a piece of hardware, but also a service behind it and a (legal, societal, ...) context englobing it. The presentation also mentions different technologies of wireless connectivity, from short to long range.

Shenzhen lodging and transport

Hotel and subway information for Shenzhen.

Requirements and specifications

A worksheet to be completed mainly by the engineers of the team listing various product requirements and initial specifications.

Nabaztag Challenge

The Nabaztag is a failed IoT product from 2006. In groups of mixed disciplines, the participants are asked to come up with 1-2 technical functionalities, design aspects, or business dimensions that would improve the product in today's context.

Circles

Participants are asked to draw as many objects as possible using circles during 3 minutes. This serves as a warm-up for subsequent ideation and brainstorming activities.

"No, but" vs. "Yes, and" mindset

This warm-up activity aims at giving the participants a supporting and positive brainstorming attitude. Instead of saying "no, but" to another idea, they will learn to say "yes, and".

Early Pitching at local accelerator

Teams present their initial idea in front of a seasoned Jury in order to make a first reality check.

From Ideation to Solution

Introduces a framework to test assumptions on Viability, Desirability and Feasibility of the imagined solution. The teams are encouraged to create a low-fidelity prototype and get first feedback from potential users.

Reflexivity Essay #1

After each semester, participants are asked to write an essay in order to reflect on their newly acquired and practiced transversal skills.

PCB assembly at Seeedstudio

Seeedstudio can accommodate the teams to perform PCB assembly: Solder paste dispensing, picking & placing as well as reflow soldering. Teams need to plan ahead and coordinate with the responsible engineer to reserve a time slot on the production line.

MILESTONE: Solution Exploration

Usually the second milestone, the participants have to present a beginning of a solution to the problem statement from the previous milestone.

Lift-off Core

Contains the skeleton of the Kick-off weekend (slides, logistics, etc)

Post-MS2 discussion with supervisors

After the students deliver their milestone 2 (solution exploration) presentation, each team receives individual feedback from each supervisor present - ideally representing all the disciplines in the project.

Data Ethics

When building a connected device, the question of data collection and the protection thereof will arise. This module aims at letting the participants think about a strategy how to handle and protect the user data they collect and imagine possible protection mechanisms against malicious attackers.

Engineering Components Selection

A working document for engineers to nail down the actual implementation of the product.

Hardware Prototyping Keynote

This Keynote serves as a foundation for the upcoming hardware development and prototyping phase. General engineering terms are introduced for better understanding inside the team.

ZOOM: Icebreaker Activity

This is a networking activity in form of a game. Every student gets a card with a picture and has to find the student who has the picture that comes before and after their own picture.

Pitch & tour at HAX

HAX was the world's first hardware accelerator, now also supporting their start-ups with seed funding. The participants have the opportunity to pitch in front of one of the investors at HAX, getting real feedback and real advice.

Reflexivity Essay #2

After each semester, participants are asked to write an essay in order to reflect on their newly acquired and practiced transversal skills.

Electronics workshop 2: The Art of PCB Layout

This is the continuation of the Schematics Workshop. The most important layout rules and best practices are presented.

Requirements, Roles & Responsibilities

Along with a repetition of what are good requirements for a product, the roles and responsibilities within the team will be discussed. This module shall help the students define who does what within their team, which is important especially if there are overlapping or missing competences.

MILESTONE: Prototyping Stage 1

Usually the third milestone, the participants present a refined solution and a first demo (breadboard level)

MVP and risk assessment

Students are asked to work on a document with questions regarding their MVP and the risks they may face during the design and development process. The assignment will then be discussed with supervisors from all disciplines present.

Electronics workshop 0: Learn PCB design in KiCAD

Introduction workshop for people making their first steps in electronics design with the open-source PCB design software KiCAD.

Electronics workshop 1: Draw PCB Schematics

Participants learn how to come up with an electronic circuit from scratch, how to read datasheets,

Guided tour at Tencent

Tencent is one of the largest internet companies in the world and their social media app WeChat has over 1 Billion users. This guided tour gives the participants a sense of the company's history, the current business fields and the company culture.

China 101 - Chinese economy, politics, technology

A short overview on Chinese economy, politics, technology as well as the relationship between China and the rest of the world.

Prototyping strategy in Shenzhen

Time in Shenzhen is limited! To get the most out of it, participants are advised to plan ahead with this guide.

SOS Assistance

Travel assistance program. Required for EPFL students only.

Take-off Core

Contains the skeleton of the take-off day (slides, logistics, etc).

Pitching Workshop - Know your Audience

This is the follow-up of the first pitching workshop ("The Basics"). It strongly focuses on audience research: Who are you pitching to, what are their needs, what do you want from them?

Visit of Huawei

The Head of Global Affairs of Huawei presents the company in general terms, including Q&A. Following that, it is possible to have a factory tour at an assembly line of the latest Huawei smartphone.

Transfer Hong Kong to Shenzhen

China 102 - Global Mindset

This module is about learning playfully how to deal with situations where not everyone on the table has the same background.

Border Ecologies

Instant messaging in China

Major instant messaging services (including Whatsapp and Slack) are blocked in Mainland China. Instead, it is recommended to communicate to participants through WeChat.

Transfer from Shenzhen to Hong Kong

Confrontation with Chinese Hardware Entrepreneur

The participant with business competence gets to discuss with a local hardware entrepreneur. The goal is to pitch the project and then to find out how scaling from 1 prototype to 1000 impacts the cost structure of the product.

One blog post per day in China

All teams are asked to blog at least once per day during the whole stay in China.

Daily team briefing

Prototyping at x-factory

The teams will have access to the co-working space as well as the makerspace of x.factory during the 2-weeks stay in Shenzhen. This module summarizes what is possible in terms of tools and material.

HKSTP presentation

Hong Kong Science and Technology Park offers free or discounted office spaces for R&D-intensive start-ups in Hong Kong. This presentation outlines their key activities and how to apply.

Sourcing from Shenzhen

Understand the fundamentals about the supplier ecosystem in Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area. A practical introduction to how to source components and manufacturing services through the Alibaba platform.

Daily design reviews

The designers of each team are asked to take photos of interesting, unexpected objects or situations all along their stay in China. A daily review of the photos serves as discussion and inspiration base for the "Beyond Shanzai" activity.

Design Concept

Tour at the Shenzhen Electronics Market (Huaqiangbei)

At Huaqiangbei, the teams will be able to source any missing components or explore alternative parts for their devices.

Pitch at MakerBay

Makerbay is the largest private makerspace in Hong Kong. Their location offers - among tools for working with wood, metal, electronics, textile, plastic, etc - a coworking and presentation area, where CHIC teams can pitch their projects.

Visit at CCIS (Shenzhen Zhongjian Nanfang Testing)

CCIS is performing certification and testing for wireless devices. If the CHIC projects were to be commercialised, this would be a necessary step in the development process.

Pitch at x.factory

After a short introductory presentation about x.factory, all teams will pitch their project to makers and other guests (5' each). The pitches are followed by a Q&A.

Design workshop at Artop Group

Artop Group is a Shenzhen-based industrial design company. In this module, CHIC participants get to be paired up with Artop employees & interns in order to explain their product concept and receive feedback and suggestions for adaptations for the Chinese market.

Sino-Swiss student meetup

This is an opportunity for all teams to pitch in front of a large audience of both Swiss and Chinese students or alumni bassed or following a program in Shenzhen.

Pitch at brinc.io

brinc is a global IoT startup accelerator with a base in Hong Kong. After a 30 minutes keynote of one of the founders, the CHIC participants will be able to pitch their projects in front of investors

Hong Kong lodging and transport

Visit of PCB factory

A traditional PCB factory opens their doors to participants to see behind the scenes of every step of PCB production. Many tasks there are still done manually and can therefore be observed very closely

MILESTONE: Hong Kong & Shenzhen

DEMO + share key learnings

InvestHK presentation

InvestHK is a governmet supported entity providing funding and networking opportunities for Hong Kong-based companies. This presentations outlines the opportunities and key makets to address

Visit of Modern Terminals and Panalpina

Modern Terminals, the company operating the port of Hong Kong, as well as Panalpina, a Swiss air- and sea-logistics company, present their corporations. This is followed by a visit of the control tower and the warehouse of Panalpina.

Pitch at Dim Sum Labs

Pitch at HKUST

HKUST Business School is hosting this event, presenting their activities in entrepreneurship and inviting seasoned entrepreneurs to share their stories. The presentations are followed by pitches from CHIC participants and HKUST students.

Scavenger hunt in Hong Kong

The participants are tasked to visit a list of special places and do some activities in Hong Kong. The day ends with a gathering at the beach.

Mentoring Workshop: How to give Feedback

A training module for participants who have completed their project and want to learn how to pass on their experience to freshly starting CHIC participants.

MILESTONE: Project Finalisation

Demo Days at Masschallenge

Community resource creation

One part of the tasks in MS3 consists of writing a resource for the community.chi.camp website (about a topic you would have liked to have more information from the beginning on). The topic shall be presented in enough general terms such that it applies to a typical CHIC project.

Reflexivity Essay #3

The reflective note shall cover: 1) team work, 2) team meeting, 3) intercultural experience and 4) mentoring. A strong emphasis lays on the mentoring activity, as it is one important part of your own reflective work