CERN Accelerating science

Design the Future

Design the Future (DTF) is a 1-2 week workshop that takes place at CERN IdeaSquare. The workshop is open to students from all backgrounds (e.g Science, Engineering, Business, Humanities, Design etc.). 

Desired outcome

The general objective of the workshop is that MSc level interdisciplinary students teams discover 1) What CERN is by interacting directly with CERN researchers, 2) What is happening at CERN and how innovation happens at the world's largest particle physics research institute 3) How to think disruptively and 4) How to build future world scenarios in which social aspects and technology interlink and propose transformative technology concepts. 

How it started 

DTF started as a pilot course in 2018. The pilot stemmed from the idea of expanding the conventional design thinking methodology into a more explorative multiverse thinking, the students are encouraged to overlook current technological constraints and instead aim for futuristic scenarios taking place in 2050. 

Participating entities

In the first pilot, participating students were from the Tampere University of Technology, Basque universities BIC Araba and UPV/EHU, as well as Italian students from CBI ER