We own a very atypical apartment built on the roof of an old house. Ten years ago, we bought the apparment and arranged with everything we needed and liked. The apartment had a slightly unusual predisposition, two rooms were on the lower floor and two on the upper one. Later, when our daughter joined the family, we began to consider if there was a need for change. How should we adjust the apartment to work best for her?
Many people told us to sell it and buy something bigger outside the city center or gave us advices on how to rebuild it. All the designs had their pros and cons, but we still could not choose the best one. At that time, we were thinking of approaching architectural studio, but we encountered financial difficulties. The architectural project is financially demanding even in such a small scale.
Thus, for some time we got stuck until the idea came out to try to reach the Faculty of Architecture of the STU and its students. We wrote a brief assignment for them - what we would like to solve in our apartment - and we offered it through eDurope system. The faculty really liked the idea of connecting the school assignments with the real project, so the deal was on.
Once the faculty members listed the topic, seven students have selected it and eventually along with their lecturers visited the place. After less than a month they contacted us to join the presentations - seven different proposals. The students presented it as if we were a potential investor, which made a really great lesson for them. We have received unique new solutions and ideas that we have combined to create our vision. We plan to realize it in cooperation with students and their teachers who are willing to bring the whole project up to the implementation phase!
Last but not least, it has cost us minimum funds, the financial reward we offered by ourselves for the best project.
It was not so long ago when me and a friend of mine were thinking of starting a plan with our own little business or better say “special something” – cooking our own beer. We've been cooking our own beer for a long time, we've been improving major mistakes and minor flaws, and more and more we were convinced that we wanted to offer it to the others. We are both employed and so we really do not have time to open up a regular store, but we knew that today's beer can also be sold through the web.
I'm a transport engineer and my friend is a psychologist. None of us knows a thing about making websites or advertising. We approached a few companies, but they offered us either totally shattered, unpretentious pre-programmed eshops for huge amount of money, or asked for even more money for "a new, unique, modern solution".
We were basically reconciled with the fact that nothing is going to happen when one of our friends told us about the eDurope project, where we can try to reach out to students of various schools and universities. And than the bell ringed. Let's post our problem there and see if someone is going to solve it out...
Within the two weeks our topic was posted to the list of theses at the Faculty of Marketing Communication and we were involved in a fast and successful project of students’ theses. Two students, in their bachelor theses, made the whole visual identity and a perfect responsive (we did not know what it was before) web. And how does our story go on? You will hear about us soon!
Problem: need to conduct a terrain research on certain area according to set methodology with the objective of preparing the basis for architecture competition.
Solution: students of sociology, economy and architecture-urban planning are assigned terrain research as a semester assignment. In the first stage, students cooperate with their supervisor/external mentor on the methodology of data gathering. Varying disciplines allow the students to take into account different needs addressed in the research. In the second stage, students execute terrain research. In the third stage, they compile the research outputs.
Remuneration: students try out the real practical assignment of the terrain research according to the methodology set by an experienced expert/mentor from the practice, whereas simultaneously they may receive a special financial remuneration for the time spent on research. Moreover, they learn to cooperate across disciplines.
Problem: think tank is looking for an intern who would work on a long-term research, which may be developed into master thesis.
Solution: think tank assigns the work to students, who have an interest to conduct an applied research in their master thesis. Candidate student may be identified also through the selection of ideas/research proposal, or motivation. Student receives internship at the think tank.
Remuneration: professional internship, consultation and mentoring for the student by the think tank.
Problém: think tank hľadá stážistu na dlhodobejšiu prácu na výskume, ktorý možno rozpracovať do témy diplomovej práce.
Riešenie: think tank zadá prácu študentom, ktorí majú záujem riešiť aplikovaný výskum vo svojej diplomovej práci. Študenta možno nájsť aj cez výber nápadov/návrhov výskumu, resp. motivácie. Študent zároveň stážuje vo think tanku.
Odmena: odborná stáž, konzultácie a mentoring pre študenta zo strany think tanku.