Meet the 2020-2021 Innovation Hub Team!

Betelehem outdoors, smiling to the camera
Betelehem Gulilat, Writer & Editor

This year at the Innovation Hub we are excited to continue our work for students by students with our largest and most diverse team yet! Like many, we have adapted to the “new normal” by re-directing our team into a collaborative virtual space to help keep our momentum going through the coming year. Despite these uncertain times, our multidisciplinary team continues to mirror the diversity of the University of Toronto community and is expanding to support our growing number of projects.

Our Fall/Winter 2020-2021 team consists of undergraduate to doctorate level students with backgrounds in UX design, anthropology, engineering, psychology, education, social behaviour, health and much more. Outside of our degrees, we are a group of lifelong learners, creators and thinkers passionate about building positive social change on UofT’s campuses. To fulfill our vision, we incorporate our diverse backgrounds and perspectives using design thinking methodologies to understand students’ needs.

We’ve already hit the ground running this year with some new and ongoing partnerships. Here are some of our current goals with our design research projects this year:

  • Utilizing our wealth of existing data to understand Student Experiences
  • Engaging with students to understand what the UofT community needs in a Robarts Library space redesign
  • Thinking deeply about Academic Integrity and supporting students in online learning spaces this year
  • Supporting the School of Graduate Studies’ development of the long-term vision for its new Centre for Graduate Mentorship and Supervision by exploring graduate student perspectives on supervision and mentorship
  • Understanding the experiences and needs of students, instructors and staff in this new teaching and learning environment by continuing our work with the Transforming the Instructional Landscape initiative

Coupled with our projects above, since March 2020 we have also responded to challenges caused by COVID-19 through launching Stories from a Distance – a virtual community for students to create meaningful connections and support networks that were lost during the pandemic. Likewise, our long-standing Redefining Traditional community has also shifted to supporting our members in a virtual space and we’ll continually share resources, insights, and upcoming events to support student parents and redefine higher education.

Our team is ready to bring positive social change to the UofT student community no matter where we’re located across the globe. Stay tuned for our weekly blog posts to see our project insights and future opportunities – you can subscribe here.

Get to know our Fall/Winter 2020-2021 Team here!

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