Improving the campus experience at the University of Toronto through student-led design
The Innovation Hub is ready to take on new design thinking and storytelling projects for the 2025-2026 academic year. Our student teams can help you co-create programs, services, resources, and spaces. Working together, we help you build positivity around your project and ensure the highest possible student engagement in the process. Our teams are hired and trained specifically for your project and work directly with you and your teams throughout the process.
The Innovation Hub is ready to take on new design thinking and storytelling projects for the 2025-2026 academic year. Our student teams can help you co-create programs, services, resources, and spaces. Working together, we help you build positivity around your project and ensure the highest possible student engagement in the process. Our teams are hired and trained specifically for your project and work directly with you and your teams throughout the process.
The International Students: First 48 Hours documentary chronicles selected international students departing their countries of origin to the days after they arrive in Toronto. Surprises, anxiety, joy, tips and funny revelations all describe the incredible trajectory of learners who have left their home. This film resulted from a partnership between the Innovation Hub and the Centre for International Experience. Members of the University of Toronto community are invited to join us for the premiere screenings of the documentary short, which is intended to share what it means to be new to a university, a culture and a country. Some of the students from the documentary will be participating in a moderated panel after each screening and will discuss some of their post-production thoughts as they now look back at their initial experiences.
Written by Julia Allworth, Manager, Innovation Projects
Are you interested in design thinking, qualitative research, leadership, and project management? Do you wish to create change and improve the campus student experience at U of T? The Innovation Hub is hiring a full time Project Assistant to support everything we do! We are seeking a high-capacity person with superior tech skills who wants to join our vibrant team!
Supporting all teams at the Innovation Hub is also a big commitment – but with it comes a great reward. Our past employees have gone on to have successful careers in a variety of industries. You will absolutely build confidence in this role! Our work is fast paced and involves managing tight and often competing deadlines and coordinating with various stakeholders and partners. The Project Assistant role is an incredible opportunity for you to advance your skillsets, learn through design thinking, and discover something new!
Well into our fourth year at the Innovation Hub, we continue our mission to improve campus life through student-centric design. Over the last four years, we have collected an immense amount of data, including over 600 interviews from students and other community members from across campus. Our diverse teams of students have logged over 4,600 hours of data analysis to generate empathy for students and their experiences on campus.
There is tension in our work, and our teams have learned that we must recognize the biases we carry from our respective capacities. The diversity of our teams is a strength and we challenge each other daily to understand how our own perspective is just one perspective, shaped by our own positionality. I feel so privileged to lead these diverse teams of students in this work and I learn alongside of them each day. I also feel honoured that so many students have felt safe to share stories of their experiences with us. Our job is to constantly think about how we honour these stories and ensure that they are shared back to the larger UofT community.
By Margaryta Ignatenko, Innovation Hub Training Team
As a third-year undergraduate student at UTSC I think at the core to a fulfilling undergraduate experience is connecting to a community on campus, applying my disciplinary knowledge to work that is rewarding, and discovering my untapped passions and interests. But what surrounds this core looks different for each of us and evolves as we do throughout our time in university; we need to be able to carve out unique experiences to meet our diverse needs in a flexible environment that adapts and changes with its students.
What does the future undergraduate experience look like? Will UofT be a place that fosters distinct and fulfilling experiences for each student, while creating a deep sense of unity?
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Projects Officer
The Transforming the Instructional Landscape team is pleased to invite students, staff and faculty to participate in our upcoming What Makes a Classroom Great? event. Join us to explore different learning environments, imagine classroom possibilities and play with classroom furniture options. Come and tell us what you think and we’ll have free pizza as our way of thanking you for your participation.
By Suzie Kim, Communications Team
Join us this week to shape your future classroom! As part of Academic and Campus Event’s Transforming the Instructional Landscape project, the Innovation Hub is bringing the design process into the U of T community. Join us in the Bahen Atrium and Med-Sci Lobby so we can ask you: what makes a classroom great?
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Leader
As the Innovation Hub enters its third year, we are excited to announce that there are some great opportunities for students to join our leadership team! This work can only be done for students, by students, so we welcome applications from students from across all disciplines and study levels at the University.
By Charis Lam, Chemistry PhD Student & Innovation Hub Storytelling Team Member
The Future Readiness team shouts, all over each other, in organized chaos. They stand in front of a timeline that’s been scribbled over with quotes, undergraduate milestones, and names of university programs.
By Julia Smeed, Innovation Hub Project Lead
The Innovation Hub has engaged in over one hundred honest conversations with U of T students. From these conversations we have gained a number of insights that can help us to design innovative programs, services and resources to better support students. Twenty five ideas were also imagined by the students and staff in the Innovation Hub. We have prepared a comprehensive report of our findings which can be obtained by contacting us.
