A free online lecture aims to educate the Brock community on an innovative form of problem solving.

Brock will host “Design-Thinking: An Innovation Engine for the 21st Century” with expert Fiona Chambers on Wednesday, May 5 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Head of the School of Education at University College Cork in Ireland, Chambers will spend the hour-long lecture discussing how design thinking can be used to implement human-centred solutions to difficult problems.

Though the concept has traditionally been used in the fields of business, economics and engineering, it can be used in almost any situation, said Brock Associate Professor of Kinesiology Nathan Hall, who played a key role in organizing the lecture.

“Design thinking is both an ideology and a process, concerned with solving complex problems in a highly user-centric way,” he said. “It focuses on humans first and foremost, seeking to understand people’s needs and come up with effective solutions to meet those needs.”

Design thinking emphasizes observation, collaboration, fast learning, visualization of ideas, rapid concept prototyping and concurrent business analysis.

“All members of the Brock community can benefit from learning about design thinking because it can be applied successfully to all fields and all facets of life where problem solving is required,” he said. “It is through this type of thinking that huge corporations get beaten by kids creating ideas in a garage.”

Hall encouraged faculty, staff, students and community members to take advantage of the opportunity to hear from Chambers, an internationally recognized academic and the only Hasso Plattner Institute-licensed Design Thinking Coach in her field.

The presentation is part of the Ireland Canada University Foundation (ICUF) D’Arcy McGee Beacon Fellowship, which is designed to enable leading Irish and Canadian academics to connect and share knowledge virtually, while also promoting collaborations that will enrich scholarship and general connections between the two countries.

To register, visit the lecture’s Eventbrite page.