The Innovation Hub is pleased to share its 2024-2025 Annual Report. In this post, Innovation Hub Manager Julia shares some highlights from the past year, what the Innovation Hub has been up to and how to get involved in the work.
Written by Julia Allworth, Manager, Innovation Projects
It is hard to believe that 2024-2025 is the ninth year of the Innovation Hub. It seems like only yesterday 260+ students, staff, faculty, and U of T community members gathered together at Chestnut Residence to launch the iHub and brainstorm around the question: what do students need to live a good life? This gathering and the post-it note answers to this question would eventually form our Domains of Innovation, leading to many Innovation Hour conversations about what the iHub should be. This event started a journey that (like the design thinking process), would have many iterations, ups and downs, and twists and turns.
This year we had the opportunity to screen and officially launch the International Students: First 48 Hours documentary short in partnership with the Centre for International Experience and Cal Campos, our incredible filmmaker. The documentary was met with a great deal of media attention because of the incredible stories of the seven incoming international students featured. We are so proud of this work and can’t wait to launch the sequel: International Students: Life After Graduation in 2025-26.
As we enter the iHub’s 10th year, we reflect on all of the human-centred design projects we have had the privilege to work on, thanks to our trusted partners across U of T. We also appreciate all of the incredible humans who have joined us along the way in this work. In challenging global times, our work grounds us and centres us on human topics that truly matter.
Our Impact Since 2016
Since our inception in 2016, we’ve had the pleasure to connect with people in all areas of U of T to learn more about campus experiences through our design research projects. To date we have:
Completed 85 design research projects
Listened to 1900+ students’ stories & experiences
Listened to 150+ staff & faculty stories & experiences
Our Student Team
The students at the Innovation Hub are diverse and come from all programs and degree levels. Students are placed on project teams that provide real-world experiential learning to build skills in four areas: personal development, interpersonal relations, workplace skills and technical skills in design thinking.
This year we had:
114 Students Employed
108 Work Study Opportunities
12 Leadership Roles
22 Project Teams
Innovation Hub Projects 2024-25
This year we saw demand for our design thinking research grow as our teams had the opportunity to work on a wide range of meaningful projects detailed below.
EDIA at the School of the Environment
We worked with the School of the Environment on how equity, diversity, inclusion, and access (EDIA) is embedded in the School’s curriculum, programming, communications, hiring, events, spaces, processes, and culture, and to understand where gaps exist.
Engagement and Belonging for Students with Disabilities
We partnered with Accessibility Services understand factors that enable students with disabilities to fully engage in campus life outside of the classroom and to learn where gaps exist.
Reception Experiences at Health & Wellness
In partnership with Health & Wellness (H&W), the Innovation Hub design research team looked at all possible interactions, including virtual and in person, at various points in time to uncover opportunities to improve reception experiences.
International Students: Life After Graduation
We partnered with the Office of the Associate Vice-President, International Student Experience and Centre for International Experience, to discover the diverse pathways and opportunities that international students pursue after graduation from the University of Toronto
and to highlight recent graduates’ perspectives
Supporting Student Parents
We continued our partnership with Family Care Office to to synthesize learnings from several years of design research into a toolkit for the university to engage faculty, staff and student leaders in creating a more family-friendly university.
University of Toronto Quality Assurance Process (UTQAP)
We continued our partnership with the Faculty of Arts & Science to support units as they prepare for their self-studies as part of the University of Toronto Quality Assurance Process (UTQAP).
International Students: First 48 Hours in Canada Documentary
In Fall 2024, we premiered the International Students: First 48 Hours in Canada Documentary to the three U of T campuses, followed by a public release on YouTube. This documentary was the result of the Innovation Hub’s collaboration with the Office of the Associate Vice-Provost, International Student Experience, and the Centre for International Experience to document the journeys of international students while first arriving to Canada for school. Since its launch, the documentary has been featured across campus and Canadian media outlets, including CP24, CBC Radio, and iHeart Radio.
Get Involved in Our Work
If you have a project that might benefit from a student design thinking team at the Innovation Hub, we’d love to talk to you! If you have any questions about the Innovation Hub or how to get involved, contact innovationhub@utoronto.ca for more information.
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