Previously known as ME310 Porto, Post-Graduation Global Team-Based Innovation, or just GTI is an interdisciplinary course which represents a true integration between engineering, business sciences and design. The course focuses on teaching students the innovation methods and processes needed for the designers, engineers and innovation project managers of the future. At the end of the course, students acquire the skills required to be global innovation leaders.

General presentation of GTI and Sugar Network

GTI, a post-graduation program from Porto Design Factory, is inspired by and borrows learning and project methodologies from the world-renowned ME310 course from Stanford University.​
For nine months, teams of 3 to 5 students, made up of members from various academic backgrounds, collaborate with partner organizations on professional innovation projects, experiencing, first-person, a human and humane-centered innovation adventure.​
This approach promotes learning mainly through hands-on practice, allowing students to gain experience and expertise in the field of System Innovation, by using Design, Engineering and Business concepts and tools, while working in an international context with a wide range of peer worldwide teams (SUGAR Network, ATHENA and Design Factory Global Network).​

In GTI, student teams work on innovation challenges proposed by corporate partners for nine months, learning and applying the Stanford/IDEO design process in product development to prototype, test and iterate to solve real world design challenges for multinational corporate sponsors. Through the projects, students go through an intense and iterative process of needfinding, ideation, and rapid prototyping to create and develop new product concepts. Company involvement provides the reality that is important for teams to improve their innovation abilities. In the end, teams deliver functional proof-of-concept prototypes along with in-depth documentation that not only capture the essence of designs but the learnings that led to the ideas.

Every team in GTI collaborates with another team from a foreign university for the duration of the project. The partnership adds diversity to the project teams and students are given the opportunity to experience true global collaboration, a skill required in this highly globalized world.

All teams in GTI typically start their projects with a design thinking kick-off workshop and experience the entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley. Final proof-of-concept prototypes are typically presented at the Stanford Design EXPE each June in California.

See the 2016/2017 presentations of Porto’s teams at StartX, in Palo Alto:

– Team SONAE MC – Continente here
– Team IKEA Industry here
– Team SILAMPOS here
– Team Sport Zone here

See the 2015/2016 presentations of Porto’s teams at Stanford University:

– Team IKEA Industry here and here
– Team SONAE-BERG Cycles here and here
– Team FORD here
– Team SONAE-WORTEN here
– Team ZIPOR here