CommunicationPublished on 13 March 2023

Magglingen Thinkathlon 2023: multidisciplinary and innovative

This year's Magglingen Thinkathlon, a special block week in the Bachelor's degree programme at the Swiss Federal Institute of Sport Magglingen SFISM, was attended by nine of its own students, as well as nine students from the Department of Technology and Information Technology at Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH. The aim of the event was to work an assignment devised by a sports market company on promoting occupational health as part of a joint exchange.

When students put their heads together, generate and discard ideas, engage in lively discussions and reasoned argument – and also do sports together for balance – that can only mean that it's Magglingen Thinkathlon again. This year, Sensopro, a Bernese company from the health sector, acted as external client. In addition to the SFISM, the Department of Technology and Information Technology, which has one of its sites in Biel, was also involved in the project. Ariane Weber, lecturer in sports economics at the SFISM and responsible for the course, praised the exchange between the students as highly beneficial. "The different study backgrounds of the students had a very positive effect on the whole creative process as it allowed better and more diverse ideas to emerge. The atmosphere and the way of working together throughout the week proved to be very constructive and enriching."

Methodology applying design thinking and creativity techniques

The students were tasked with solving a real-world problem from the sports environment – devised this year by Sensopro – and to develop concrete, innovative ideas, applying different approaches including design thinking. Experts from the SFISM (Christoph Conz, Valerie Allemann, Davide Codoni, Ariane Weber) and the BFH (Yacine Bouazdia) accompanied the students' work during the week.

Entrepreneurship as a field of experimentation

Sensopro selected the best ideas. Students then set about developing prototypes and presented a suitable business model. In doing so, they benefited from the diverse competences (sports know-how, variety of methods, sports market analysis, business concepts, prototyping, etc.) of the experts from teaching and practice involved. It remains to be seen whether what has been jointly developed will be pursued further. But studying this week meant at least: Practising entrepreneurship!

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