Good ideas are not enough to impact today’s complex world. We need ideas and solutions that are futureproofed, systemic in thought, adaptable and circular, which don’t just tackle the symptom but get to the root of the problem. That’s where design thinking can help. Join the workshop on 25 May at SBIC, led by Itika Gupta of Studio Carbon, to find out how it can help you build value proposition.

Applying design thinking to build business value proposition

Design thinking is not just a library of tools and methods but an intrinsic attitude of looking at the world. Thus, this workshop has been developed to help entrepreneurs – specifically in the space tech sector – to internalise these attitudes in design thinking and apply them to craft a unique business value proposition. In addition, the workshop will enable the participants to understand their target audience better, develop products and services that fit the market, and create a sales and marketing strategy that resonates with the target group.

The workshop will be presented by Itika Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Studio Carbon.

ABOUT STUDIO CARBON

Studio Carbon is an award winning design studio that works at the intersection of technology, systems thinking and storytelling to realise a better future. The team has a collaborative approach towards design, capitalising on a multitalented, multidisciplinary and multicultural team of creators to produce design resilient solutions.

GOOD TO KNOW:
The event is free for SBIC community members; students get 50% discount!

After the workshop, you are invited to stay for NL Space Campus Network & Drinks, the networking event for the Dutch space community, taking place at SBIC Noordwijk from 17:00. (Space is limited, so don’t delay in reserving your ticket!) Register here

Related post:
Technical partner Studio Carbon offers startups a competitive edge through design

The post Utilising design thinking to build value proposition (workshop: 25 May) appeared first on Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk.

We are pleased to introduce technical partner Studio Carbon, a full-service design agency and consultancy with offices in the Netherlands and India and clients across the globe. The company’s three focus areas cover product/industrial design, communication design and user experience/interface design. Founded in 2018, the studio already has experience of working with multiple stakeholders in the space industry, so will fit right at home with the startups at ESA BIC Noordwijk. To find out what makes the team tick, we met two of the co-founders: Itika Gupta (in person) and Neel Mehta (online).

What is at the heart of your business? 

Itika: The studio has a diverse team of designers, architects, engineers, educators and entrepreneurs. We founded the studio after a realisation that design, in its true sense, has the power to enable and empower any industry to become more holistic, human-centred and future-proof. Our ultimate goal is to help organisations of all kinds embrace design as a powerful tool for positive change, leading to a more equitable and sustainable future.

Neel: As the space industry is growing, it is becoming more competitive and there are many players across the globe who offer similar services. The only differentiating factor for startups is how their customer experiences their solution. To help them identify these gaps and opportunities, we invite the startups to connect with us over an exploratory meeting to understand how we can help them realise their innovation and business goals.

Itika: By using design thinking and methods, startups can bring concepts to life, making them more tangible and compelling. By prioritising design in the early stages, startups and entrepreneurs can gain valuable feedback from potential users, investors and stakeholders. This helps them to refine their ideas and improve their chances of success. Ultimately, design can play a critical role in helping startups to validate their ideas and build a strong foundation for growth and innovation.

What design services does your studio offer?

Itika: We are a full-service design agency. Our industrial design team works across all stages of product development, from conceptualisation to prototyping and form development all the way to design for manufacturing. We have designed everything from bicycles and brain headsets to sewage treatment pods and shoes for space habitats. Our communication design team has mastered the art of storytelling through visuals and writing. From helping develop powerful pitch-decks for fundraising to building a brand identity that communicates your audacious vision to the world, this team’s experience of narrative building can catapult your startup’s growth.

Our third expertise in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design includes product development in mobile and web applications. Our future-forward UIX team understands the nuances of deep tech and excels in making complex technologies, such as brain mapping interfaces and geographic information system (GIS) maps, more accessible and usable to all stakeholders. Additionally, our belief in the power of design-centric thinking often takes the form of a short, focused activity or a multi-day bootcamp with our clients. Such workshops are designed to be immersive and hands-on, providing participants with the tools and skills they need to take their ideas to the next level.

Neel: We have worked across 20+ sectors and with 120 businesses, at all stages of growth. In the space sector, we are proud to have designed a GIS platform from the ground up, focusing on keeping users and stakeholders at the product’s core. By putting their needs first, we developed a platform that provides a seamless experience and is optimised for their workflows.

Studio Carbon Identity: “We know the question that would come to your mind. Why “carbon”? Well, carbon is the basic building block of life. It is the most versatile element and seamlessly integrates with many other elements. It is ubiquitous. An integral part of everything we see. Just like design. The logo is derived out of the letter ‘क from the Devnagiri script. Its design depicts our presence across all types of sectors and solutions­­.” studiocarbon.in/about-us

What can you provide as technical support to our startups?

Itika: We work closely with startups to identify their unique value proposition and develop a narrative to connect with their audience and differentiate them from the competition. Our goal is to help startups and innovators succeed by allowing them to communicate their value propositions clearly and compellingly. By doing so, we can play a critical role in driving innovation forward and creating a better future for everyone.

Neel: As a full-service design studio with expertise in all verticals, we are uniquely positioned to provide ESA BIC startups with a comprehensive design solution. By working with us, startups can avoid talking to multiple vendors, saving them time, effort and resources. In addition to our broad range of design services, we also understand complex and nuanced technologies. Our team members have experience working with these technologies and are well-equipped to handle the design challenges that come with them. By partnering with us, startups can rest assured that their design needs are in good hands, freeing up their time and resources to focus on their core business.

What is your link with space? 

Itika: As a team, we have all had an interest in space for as long as we can remember, and for a few of us back during our education we considered about what design can do for the world – and designing for space really was the ultimate extreme we could think of.

Neel: Yes, this was a turning point. “Design in space” had not been explored, which sparked our interest. We saw an opportunity to develop our own design framework and methodology. Through workshops and presentations at events like the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, we have shared our insights on design thinking for human space flight. Our goal is to lead the way in demonstrating how design thinking can be leveraged in the space industry and beyond, and we are excited to continue sharing our knowledge with different communities.

Itika: Through our discussions with organisations, such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and ESA, we have received positive feedback and validation that design can bring value to their work. We are encouraged to see the industry’s response to the idea of design and its potential in space technology. Our goal is to make space technology, and conversations about it, more accessible and a part of our daily lives.

Can you share a key highlight of your studio’s design work?

Neel: Our showcase project highlights the significant impact that design can have on improving life in space. We focused on reimagining the interior of a crew capsule using design thinking as a tool to innovate and improve upon the existing design. As a result, we reworked the control panels and furnishings, using more conducive colour, materials and finishes – creating an interior that plays a crucial role in enhancing the wellbeing and performance of the astronauts.

Itika: By making the right choices for the design of the module, we can reduce the cognitive load for the astronauts and provide them with an interior that can help keep them healthy on their journey through harsh space conditions. Our team is dedicated to using design to drive innovation and help solve complex challenges in space and other industries. Our showcase project demonstrates how design can make a meaningful impact on people’s lives, even in the most challenging of environments.

What other space-related projects have you worked on?

Neel: A major touchpoint for the space industry comes from satellite imagery and we work with clients who use this data to help them and to build a great user experience for their customers. Many startups work in downstream applications using such data and imagery and we see a good amount of synergy there. So, we can build new applications and platforms to utilise those algorithms and display the data in a unique way.

Itika: Working with various startups and a foundation in India, there are plans to create an analogous habitat in an extreme environment in India – to create a Mars-like test location. This inspired us to create a footwear prototype in-house, which was designed for use in space. We created a movie simulation to present the product at conferences and received a lot of feedback from astronauts themselves, and then we tailored it further to come up with the final design. This was something that we did from our own knowledge, not for a client. It was something we felt deeply about and we just said let’s just make it and show the world what can be done.

Studio Carbon Lab: There are a number of consultancy ventures that the award-winning Studio Carbon team is working on in-house: one is the working in sustainable materials (made out of cow dung) which started in the Netherlands and you can watch Itika’s pitch about it on the website from What Design Can Do (2022); another venture relates to training centres for sports technology; and there are more in the pipeline. studiocarbon.in/lab

What are your design ambitions in relation to space?  

Itika: We have a number of “what if” scenarios. As designers, we think a lot about the future of space and what we dream of realising through design. Such as:

• What if the fourth industrial revolution was entirely implemented in human space exploration?
• What if humans could drop all their biases and inhibitions as earthlings when designing technologies for space?
• What if we defined a holistic intent and purpose to building space habitats?
• What if space exploration could leverage on cultural differences to improve well-being of astronauts?

What’s your message to our startups about reaching out?

Itika: Don’t hesitate to get in touch – whether by email, phone or in the Slack chat. There are multiple areas where we can help the ESA BIC community and it really depends on what phase the entrepreneurs are at and how far they are on their journey as a startup. A 30-minute call is all it will take for us to chat and really understand what we could do for them. We can meet up at SBIC and from then, things can move very fast in terms of the startups discovering what we can offer them and for us to understand what their needs are and to find the best solution.

Email: itika@studiocarbon.in
Website: studiocarbon.in

The ESA BIC incubatees will have a personal introduction from Studio Carbon during the info session on 14 March to discover the design opportunities available for our space business startups!

We will also be holding a workshop in May, which will be open to our wider community and external audience. To be kept informed, you can sign up for news (and click the checkbox relating to events).

Related post:
Studio Carbon wins third prize in ESA Technology Transfer Competition

[Studio Carbon finished as a partner of SBIC at end of Oct 2024]

The post Technical partner Studio Carbon offers startups a competitive edge through design appeared first on Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk.

First competition of the ESA Technology Broker NL

The ESA Technology Broker for the Netherlands – jointly operated by SBIC Noordwijk and NL Space Campus – uses a combination of market pull and space technology push to find the optimum solution to existing problems. On behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), the broker ran this technology transfer competition to generate new ideas for successfully applying space technology with hardware focus on Earth.

“We launched this technology transfer competition as the first step for our brokerage to act as an initial funnel for bold ideas,” explains Erik van der Heide, connect & development manager at SBIC. “A number of these space technology applications have high market potential and, in our role as broker, we will support and facilitate in order to progress the ideas.”

The judges were impressed by the high quality of all submissions received, as well as the broad distribution of topics – from bio-inspired rovers to enhanced X-ray spectrophotometers. After careful consideration, the judges selected three winning ideas that are innovative, have high market potential and offer key benefits in terms of socio-economic impact of the application on Earth.

Winning ideas

• 1st prize: Producing an easy-to-use and lightweight oxygen supply for general practitioners

The judges unanimously selected HDES to be the overall winner. The first prize went to the proposal of an easy-to-use and lightweight oxygen supply for general practitioners (GP), as well as doctors working in the field. The idea is supported by a user perspective from GP Ferry Janssen. It utilises the space-tech cool gas generators developed while HDES was a startup at ESA BIC Noordwijk – read the background here. The company is continually seeking applications for this technology here on Earth. This latest idea has the potential to result in a life-saving product. The team plans to now use the prize money to further develop this concept, formulate a business case and find potential customers.

• 2nd prize: Creating a smart precision inhaler with advanced targeting capabilities

The second prize went to a solution that has the potential to benefit the lives of many lung disease patients. The idea put forward by Gilbert Technologies could offer a solution for a true societal problem by creating a smart precision inhaler. This would include advanced targeting capabilities, using space technology, that could potentially accelerate the time to go-to-market.

• 3rd prize: Regenerating resources from human waste to positively impact health

The third prize goes to the bold idea of Studio Carbon that uses two ESA IPs: the first for disposing of organic/human waste; and the second focusing on data analysis. The idea aims to regenerate resources from human waste, as well as provide analysis that can positively impact the health and lifestyle habits of communities. This proposal is ambitious and visionary, where this solution could aim to tackle the huge problem of human waste for future generations. Studio Carbon – the newest technical partner of SBIC – has a design- and systems-centric approach that, in the past, has helped create dialogue and action on tabooed problems like sewage.

Next steps

Erik comments: “We would like to thank everyone who submitted entries to the competition and shared their thought-provoking ides, and we look forward to investigating any development possibilities for the winning proposals.”

Are you excited about joining a future competition, want to make use of the networks of the brokers and/or want to know more about the winning projects? Reach out to us, join us at the monthly Network & Drinks every last Thursday of the month at SBIC Noordwijk, and stay updated through our newsletters.

In the coming months, we will share details about the winning projects and report on their progress. Get updates via our newsletter: signup today!

WINNERS:

🌟 1st prize
Entry from: Berry Sanders @ HDES with Ferry Janssen GP, based in NL
Entry title: EVE Oxygen Cool Gas Generator for General Practitioners
Basic idea: An easy-to-use oxygen supply for general practice

✨ 2nd prize
Entry from: Maurits Huigen @ Gilbert Technologies, based in NL
Entry title: Redefining Treatment for Lung Patients with Electro Hydrodynamic Atomization (EHDA)
Basic idea: Electrospray technology that enables targetted therapy delivery via smart precision inhalers

⭐ 3rd prize
Entry from: Itika Gupta @ Studio Carbon, based in NL
Entry title: Health and Wellbeing of Micro-Habitats Powered by Shit
Basic idea: To build a better future for the next generation, it will be necessary to regenerate every resource, including human waste, and provide analysis that can positively impact health

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT THE BROKER

Read the interview about the ESA Technology Broker NL here!

The post Oxygen unit for general practice wins top prize in ESA Technology Transfer Competition 2022 appeared first on Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk.