Cohort story · Design Thinking Immersion · DIC Hub, IIT Hyderabad
Eleven students.
Three systems. Three ideas.
Eleven high-school students from different schools spent five days at the Design Innovation Centre, IIT Hyderabad, offered with our global education partner Lifology. They studied three systems that shape every Indian student's life, and pitched three product concepts to a jury.
Next cohort: To be announced · Global education partner: Lifology
Join the next cohort
Small cohorts. Real mentor time.
Enquiries go to dic@hcd.institute. Schools can also ask about dedicated cohorts.
Systems before solutions
They didn't start with ideas.
They started with systems.
Design thinking starts by understanding a problem before trying to solve it. So the cohort began with three macro systems, mapping their people, touchpoints and pain points, then going out to observe and talk to the people inside them.
01
Education
How learning actually happens in and beyond the classroom.
02
Healthcare
How patients, doctors, labs and insurers connect, or fail to.
03
Public infrastructure
Roads, drains, streetlights, and what happens when they break.
The five-day arc
Five days.
One design process.
The design pedagogy practised at NID and the IITs for decades, built for high-school students. They lived on the IIT Hyderabad campus, worked in DIC studios, and were mentored by DIC faculty, design practitioners and IIT alumni.
01 · Discover
Map the system
Map each system's stakeholders, touchpoints and pain points before looking for answers.
02 · Empathise
Go to the people
Field research, interviews and observation with the people inside the system.
03 · Define & ideate
Find the real gap
Frame the problem worth solving, then generate and narrow possibilities.
04 · Prototype & test
Build to think
Build a working representation, stress-test it, and rebuild it.
05 · Pitch
Grand Jury
Present the concept, the research behind it and the business case to faculty and practitioners.
What they built
Three ideas.
Grounded in research.
Unified Health: one patient, one health identity
The team started by asking what breaks in a patient's journey. Health information is created everywhere, but it is the patient who has to carry it. Their challenge: how might we make healthcare information truly portable?
- A physical Health ID card plus a digital patient portal
- "Share what is needed, with consent", not "share everything"
- An access log showing who viewed what, and when
- A phased plan from pilot clinics to a wider healthcare network
"We are not replacing healthcare. We are reducing friction around healthcare information."
Crowdsourced Infrastructure Reporting
A platform where citizens flag public infrastructure issues such as potholes, broken streetlights and blocked drains, track them, and see them resolved, turning scattered complaints into shared civic data that local authorities can act on.
Immersive Learning Game
An interactive game concept that turns classroom topics into immersive experiences, so students learn by exploring, choosing and doing rather than memorising.
Student spotlight
Bedrock, by Ruthvik Eede.
Building the bedrock for lifelong learning.
Smartphones are a necessity for children, but for 10–16-year-olds they also bring constant distraction from social media, gaming and entertainment. Ruthvik's answer is a distraction-free smartphone that keeps the essentials and removes the rest.
Built in
OS-level integration, so focus is part of the phone
Safety
Tamper-proof security and a parental control ecosystem
Purpose
Academic focus and digital wellness at its core
Model
Hardware plus subscription, with two revenue streams
What students take home
Not just a concept.
A different way of thinking.
01
Systems view
See problems as systems, not isolated issues.
02
Listen first
Empathy and field research before building.
03
Prototype fast
Fail safely, learn, then improve.
04
Pitch with evidence
Present research and a business case to a jury.
05
Teamwork
Work with strangers from different schools as one team.
Credentials & partners
Two certificates.
One portfolio-ready project.
Every student leaves with certificates from the Design Innovation Centre, IIT Hyderabad and The Institute of Human-Centred Design, plus a project they can build on for college and design-school applications.
Host
Design Innovation Centre, IIT Hyderabad
Studios, faculty and campus residency.
Programme anchor
The Institute of Human-Centred Design
Curriculum, facilitation, jury and certification.
Global education partner
Lifology
Our global education partner for the programme.
Next cohort · To be announced
Seats are limited.
Enquire for the next cohort.
Open to students in Grades 9–12. Five days, fully residential at IIT Hyderabad, with certificates from DIC and HCD Institute. Schools can also enquire about dedicated cohorts.
The HCD Institute
Design Innovation Centre (DIC)
Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad Kandi, Sangareddy,
Telangana, India – 502284
dic@hcd.institute
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