From air pollution, to sexual health and from Ghana to Russia, the GoGlobal module, which forms part of the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) dual masters programme, takes students on a three-week cross-cultural collaborative project which covers globally significant themes within a local context. The ethos of the module stems from the philosophy that impactful innovation can be created by bringing together diverse people to work on a common goal.

The module is run by teaching and academic staff from both Imperial College and the Royal College of Art with, Dr Weston Baxter and Maria Apud-Bell the most recent module leads from Imperial. “GoGlobal partners with institutions to address pressing human-facing issues – making the project real is central to GoGlobal’s learning structure.” Explains Dr Baxter. “The focus is always on working closely with stakeholders in a local context through a human-centred design process.”

In 2019 IDE students travelled to Nairobi, Kenya to collaborate with students from the Nairobi Design Institute (NDI) and Gearbox. Students were tasked with creating innovative and actionable solutions to one of two challenges: access to sexual reproductive health services (SDG 3) and waste management and circular economy (SDG 11, 12). The final solutions ranged from cleaner ways for schools to burn rubbish to digital support to help parents talk to their children about sexual reproductive health.  

The GoGlobal project has served to strengthen institutional ties, begin research projects and lead to a range of provocative ideas for the future. The biggest impact and main focus of GoGlobal, however, has always been the transformational experience students have from participating.

Kevin Chaim, a 2020 IDE graduate said “Perhaps the most powerful and memorable moments [from GoGlobal] stem from cultural immersion, excursions and creative discussions within multi-disciplinary teams. The conversations have offered a new perspective to how design can change behaviour and impact lives with a focus on real contextual projects.”