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Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika Press Office
The Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town are the leaders of excellence in design-led thinking on the continent. We offer courses in design-led thinking with a focus on solving real-world problems for students, professionals and organisations.
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Collaboration by design, Part 2: Finding the place for innovation
In Part 1 of this two-part feature series, Richard Perez, director of the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town (UCT), unpacked the role of space in design-led thinking. Associate Professor Janice McMillan from the Learning and Discovery Lab further explores the topic by contextualising the role of place in collaboration, teaching and learning. 12 Dec 2023 Read more

Collaboration by design, Part 1: The role of spaces in teaching and learning design-led thinking
Teaching spaces have not evolved much over the past 50 years. As we prepare students for the new world of work at the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika, we’ve begun considering the environments that students need – and want to – learn in. 23 Nov 2023 Read more

Meet Jessica Ilunga: The storyteller-urbanist committed to unlocking new narratives in and about our cities
Jessica Ilunga will accept the title of 'urbanist', albeit reluctantly. Speak to her for only a few minutes and you'll understand why. The term doesn't capture her professional ambitions nor the heart with which she's pursuing them. Soft-spoken, she's nevertheless a vocal champion of better, more just urban spaces - spaces that incorporate the disenfranchised and tell a more complete story of the people and histories that made them. 16 Oct 2023 Read more

SA startups need to play a longer game to succeed
Succeeding as an entrepreneur in South Africa is trickier now than ever before. Slow economic growth, high inflation and load shedding create a cocktail of challenges that are especially formidable for small and medium businesses. But one award-winning startup owner has found a way to circumvent the obstacles while staying true to the core values driving her, inspiring other entrepreneurs to stay the course during these troubled times. 28 Sep 2023 Read more

Design thinking as a superpower: Meet Calvin Mayanta
Suddenly, the mic was in Calvin Mayanta's hands. At first, he stuttered, looking bewildered by the news he'd just received. He scanned the room full of entrepreneurs, designers and design thinking experts. An uncomfortable moment passed. Then things clicked - and Mayanta began to speak. 20 Sep 2023 Read more

Meet Tiego Monareng: Empowering startups with design thinking
Tiego Monareng has been a coach at the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika since 2019. Alongside leading the d-school's Foundation Programme, he is also coaching a group of Foundation Programme alumni through the creation of their startup, Xpecting, a company that aims to deliver ultrasound technology to women in rural areas of the Western Cape. 13 Sep 2023 Read more

Meet Tebogo Chaka: Embodying design thinking
If you've seen Tebogo Chaka conduct a design thinking training session, you'll want to know how she does it: How does she get complete strangers and serious, driven people - corporate executives, civil engineers, academics - to be at ease enough to share openly and to dance - in front of each other? 29 Aug 2023 Read more

Ghana's Trustur is crowned best democracy-affirming startup in Africa at Tech4Democracy, Cape Town
The Africa Tech4Democracy Venture Day, a competition for startups developing technologies that reinforce democratic principles and values, was held on 7 March at the HPI d-school building at the University of Cape Town's middle campus. Tech4Democracy is an IE University initiative in partnership with the US Department of State and with the strategic support of Microsoft. 10 Mar 2023 Read more

Design thinking and Ubuntu - a shared spirit of empathy
Africa's first d.confestival - a design thinking conference-meets-festival hosted by the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at UCT in October - brought together a boisterous mix of change-makers from business, government, education, and social development to celebrate the success of design thinking globally and explore its potential for dialling up Africa's creative potential to solve complex problems across the continent. 11 Nov 2022 Read more

D.confestival kicks off on a high and musical note
Explore the highlights from the first day of the d.confestival hosted by the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town. 13 Oct 2022 Read more

Global Design Thinking Challenge: Making learning in schools more sustainable with design thinking
Crucial educational indicators on the African continent are lagging. And this is despite huge improvements in pre- and primary school enrollment since the turn of the century, and the high percentage of African countries' GDP investment in education, which is on par with the highest in the world. And now, as the worst of a global pandemic subsides, Africa confronts an aftermath, in which educational gains have been reversed and fissures have grown wider. 5 Sep 2022 Read more

Design thinking proves game changer for SA tech start-up
Serial tech entrepreneurs Matthew Westaway and Lethabo Motsoaledi used a customer-centric approach to build their latest venture Voyc - a speech analytics service - into an award-winning company that currently monitors a million customer interactions a month in the UK and SA and helps clients cut customer complaints and build value. 8 Jul 2022 Read more

Africa's first Design Thinking Conference
The Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at UCT will be hosting the prestigious d.confestival, the first design thinking event of its kind in Africa, and will open the doors to its new home on the university's middle campus - an architectural marvel and first of its kind in Africa. 6 May 2022 Read more

Stay relevant, get yourself a design-led mindset
Applications now open for Foundation Programme in Design Thinking at the d-school Afrika 8 Mar 2022 Read more

Why every student and job applicant needs to learn design-led thinking
The unprecedented scale of challenges that companies and industries are facing globally, means the need to do things differently is greater than ever. Design thinking provides a way to engage with the world's complex challenges in a creative and regenerative way. 7 Mar 2022 Read more

Applications now open for Foundation Programme in Design Thinking at the d-school Afrika. 11 Feb 2022 Read more

With the loss of shared spaces due to the pandemic and a shift toward remote working, the practice of design thinking will need to adapt so that we can continue to harness its power to co-create and solve problems. 14 Dec 2020 Read more

Innovation research shows that companies are struggling to be innovative despite knowing it is vital to their survival. While some question whether the will to innovate truly exists - others say adults need to be taught to play and think creatively again. 22 May 2017 Read more

Launch of Africa's first design thinking institute
How do we design new ways of tackling poverty, new ways of innovating new products and services, new ways of thinking about the stuff that bugs us, the stuff that really matters? These are the kinds of challenges that drive the creative pulse of The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Thinking at UCT, commonly referred to as the d-school, which officially launches at the university's graduate school of business Breakwater Campus in Cape Town on Thursday, March 9. 3 Mar 2017 Read more


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Contact Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika

Contact d-school Afrika
Give us a call: +27 (0) 21 406 1610
Get in touch via email: az.ca.tcu@loohcsd
Learn more about us: www.dschoolafrika.org