Education

Creating disruption through innovation

Disruptive innovation has become a game-changer in today’s modern economy with several companies such as Uber and Airbnb paving the way for new technology-enabled services.

Nevertheless, this type of innovation is not limited to mobile technologies alone. As the global economy is rapidly evolving, TU Delft is joining in the conversation on charting the way forward, particularly in establishing the ultimate disruption: the circular economy.

During this year’s Disruptive Innovation Festival (DIF), members of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IO) will share their insights on relevant issues concerning the circular economy. Curated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the three-week festival is an annual gathering of innovators, entrepreneurs, learners and thought-leaders aimed at mobilizing system-level change for the circular future. Keynote speeches, information sessions and events on various topics ranging from design innovation to the sharing economy are currently being held at multiple venues worldwide from November 2 to 20, 2015 and can be streamed live via the DIF website.

“The appeal of the Disruptive Innovation Festival is that it brings together a huge diversity of perspectives and expertise on the circular economy under one umbrella,” said IDE post-doctoral researcher Sharon Prendeville. “From the topic of open source circular economy, to sharing knowledge on the digitisation of finance, it is truly an interdisciplinary event. Most importantly, it bridges between academia and industry to ensure state-of-the-art knowledge is actionable and relevant to the needs of businesses.”

TU Delft’s David Peck is scheduled to interview Martin Stuchtey, Director of the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment on leading the research on the potential impact of the circular economy on Europe (November 11). Furthermore, Nancy Bocken and Ingrid de Pauw will discuss their work on circular and nature-inspired product design (November 14 and 18 respectively), while Nancy Bocken and Sharon Prendeville will present their views on setting up the new European Remanufacturing Network (November 19).

“The DIF is an excellent platform to share this knowledge,” Prendeville said. “And we look forward to engaging with the global community.”

For more information on the Disruptive Innovation Festival, visit www.thinkdif.co.

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