Innovation Project

A small robot following a black line path next to some wodden houses.

Innovation Project 2024

‘SAVING CHRISTMAS’ - (TOM STEIN)

Santa is sick this year and can’t deliver the gifts himself.

So, who’s going to save Christmas? That’s where this year’s Innovation Project teams step in. Their challenge is to build an autonomous robot, about the size of a shoebox, capable of delivering gifts to houses in model size.

The robot needs to pick up the gifts and drop them through the chimneys of the houses along a set route. It must perform these tasks without any external control, operating entirely on its own.

There’s no obvious solution to this problem. The size of the robot and time constraints make it a tough challenge. Teams need to explore a variety of approaches, evaluate different possibilities, and refine their chosen solution to perfection. Creativity is key, as the task allows for many different engineering solutions.

In total, 88 teams will build their own robots, competing to see who can deliver the gifts most effectively and efficiently.

AGILE DEVELOPMENT AND PD|Z PRINCIPLES

The Innovation Project enables students to implement agile product development principles in a creative, competitive yet guided setting. By incorporating aspects of Scrum and Kanban methodologies, the teams operate in two-week sprint cycles and assess their interim outcomes at the end of each cycle.
Coaching Innovation Projects, a course specifically aimed at senior mechanical engineering students, provides guidance and support to coach engineering teams engaged in the Innovation Project. Using a range of product development principles, the coaches lead students through the sprints of the agile process for developing products. The foundation of these principles is a set carefully chosen practices arising from research conducted by pd|z.

AWARDS

To determine the winners of this year's competition, student teams will showcase the performance and creativity of their innovative systems. The final will take place on 17th December 2024 starting at 15:30 in ETH main building and feature 10 qualified teams competing against one another.