Understanding reality and testing ideas

India Switzerland Social Innovation Camp

Why

Engaging the next generation to fight today’s pressing and complex societal and environmental challenges.

Everything, from the tools we use and the ways we do things, is evolving rapidly. As a result an important role of education is to help students develop the skills which help them get their feet on the ground quickly in a new environment and propose solutions.

In the 21st century,

India is going to be a home to one-fourth of the world’s population.

The country faces huge challenges: the unplanned growth of cities, pressure on environmental resources, access to drinking water, sanitation, education, and medical care. India’s long and rich tradition in social entrepreneurship provides a fantastic place to explore existing and potential social innovations. INSSINC enables participants to discover complex societal challenges from the bottom-up starting from the communities’ needs.

2019, 2020, 2023 Editions

We have worked with 34 very talented and engaged students from 3 different institutions

Meet the participants

“In a sentence, INSSINC was a lesson of humility and humanly the richest experience I’ve had.”
Ismail BenkiraneRobotics + Neuroprosthetics, EPFL

“Working with people who think and implement differently, as well as immersing ourselves in a different culture (...) taught us in two weeks what people take years to learn.”
Grace LokakoBusiness/Management, HEC, Lausanne

“Take everything you think you know and throw it out the window. Improvise. Adapt. Jugaad.”
Philippe BontàSocial Sciences, UNIL

At the same time,

Breaking a technology-driven paradigm

Designing successful solutions for social issues cannot be made remotely over the night, with a top-down approach. Embracing so many cultural, social and economic constraints is a very powerful but challenging human-centered design experience. Going back to the beneficiaries to demonstrate and test prototypes enable participants to validate/invalidate their assumptions. Eventually, building a better understanding of the problem statement.