Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at UCT

Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at UCT The d-school was founded in Cape Town in August 2015 with funding, IP, and academic support from Prof.

The Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at the University of Cape Town is a place where creative intelligence is unlocked, and where future-ready leaders are developed. The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Thinking Afrika at the University of Cape Town (Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika or d-school Afrika) is the only dedicated academic institution in the region that offers academic training and capacit

ation in design thinking to university scholars and professionals in the public and private sectors. Dr. Hasso Plattner - co-founder of a software company, SAP AG, and chairman of its Supervisory Board - and the Hasso Plattner Trust. Professor Plattner initiated and funded the first academic programmes in design thinking. The establishment of the HPI Schools of Design Thinking of Stanford in the US in 2005, and at Potsdam in Germany in 2007, brought academic rigor to design-led innovation practice and made training programmes in design thinking available to academic scholars and leaders in the private and public sectors. Students from all disciplines and industry and government executives come together at the d-school to learn to work collaboratively in diverse and inclusive multi-disciplinary teams on real-world challenges and to develop human-centred innovative solutions.

03/06/2026

Today we wrap up three days of hundreds of conversations and one community that showed up from across the continent and around the world. 🌍

The Afrikan Design Thinking Convening 2026 is built on 10 years of d-school Afrika asking what it means to do this work from Afrika, for Afrika. Educators, practitioners, researchers, students and leaders came together this week, carrying different contexts into the same conversations, and leaving with a stronger sense of what this community can achieve together.

The online programme closes today, but everything the Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika has built over the last 10 years continues beyond this week. Learn more at the link in our bio.

This is what design thinking in action looks like. 🚀Day 3 of the Afrikan Design Thinking Convening was where three days ...
03/06/2026

This is what design thinking in action looks like. 🚀

Day 3 of the Afrikan Design Thinking Convening was where three days of dialogue, provocation, and community came together. Participants worked through real-world challenges across our studios, surfacing ideas and asking thought-provoking questions.

Ten years of d-school Afrika has been working toward moments like this. Here are some of the highlights. ⬇️

Day 3 of the Afrikan Design Thinking Convening started on a strong note. 💡Jewel Thompson, lecturer of entrepreneurship a...
03/06/2026

Day 3 of the Afrikan Design Thinking Convening started on a strong note. 💡

Jewel Thompson, lecturer of entrepreneurship at Ashesi University Ghana and founder of Eco-Launch, and Dr. Solange Rosa, Director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation at UCT, opened the morning with a dialogue on design, innovation and entrepreneurial futures, moderated by Dr Rael Futerman, Senior Researcher at d-school Afrika.

Thompson has spent years building entrepreneurship education that starts from the realities of the continent rather than frameworks designed elsewhere, while Rosa works at the intersection of social innovation, systems change and human rights to reshape what enterprise can look like at scale. Together they brought the kind of rigour and lived experience to the question of Afrikan entrepreneurial futures that the conversation has long needed. Here are some key insights. 👉

02/06/2026

Tonight we raised a glass to 10 years of d-school Afrika at University of Cape Town. 🎉

Ten years ago, a vision for what design thinking could look like when rooted in Afrikan soil, Afrikan knowledge and Afrikan futures began to take shape. Tonight, we celebrated how far that vision has taken us.

The gala brought together the people who have been part of this journey since the beginning: alumni who took the tools into the world, partners who believed in the work before it had a track record, staff who showed up every day to build something that did not exist before, and collaborators who pushed the thinking further than we imagined it could go. Ten years of d-school Afrika looks like this room, these people, and this community. 🧑‍🧑‍🧒

Tomorrow is the last day of the online programme and there is still an opportunity to join. We would love to have you in the room with us.

Register here: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/361111-d-school-afrika-2026-convening/ #/

Today we got a front-row seat to what design thinking looks like in research, teaching and learning. 🔍Four people with v...
02/06/2026

Today we got a front-row seat to what design thinking looks like in research, teaching and learning. 🔍

Four people with very different journeys into design thinking, Jenni van Niekerk, Dr Rael Futerman, Babalwa Ngcongolo and Dr Precious Ndebele, sat down this morning to ask the hard questions about pedagogy. This morning's Exposé session put design thinking pedagogy under the microscope.

Here are some key insights. 👉

It is day 2 of the , and today we start off by asking: How can design thinking transform how we teach and learn?It is a...
02/06/2026

It is day 2 of the , and today we start off by asking: How can design thinking transform how we teach and learn?

It is a question we have been asking in theory for years. At the Convening this morning, Josef Kembel, who helped build the Stanford d.school from the ground up, and Prof Kasturi Behari-Leak, who is the Dean of the Centre for Higher Education and Development (CHED) and leads curriculum transformation at UCT, discussed their insights on this question.

How do you think design thinking can affect pedagogy? Drop your answer in the comments.

02/06/2026

Here is a look at what you missed on day 1 of the Afrikan Design Thinking Convening 2026.

Afrikan Life-Centred Design, Global South perspectives, stories of design ingenuity from across the continent, and two milestone launches. We continue with day 2 today, and you can still join us online at no cost.

Register here: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/361111-d-school-afrika-2026-convening/ #/

📸 : Mad Little Badger

The Global South has an important contribution to make to design and innovation, and today at the Afrikan Design Thinkin...
01/06/2026

The Global South has an important contribution to make to design and innovation, and today at the Afrikan Design Thinking Convening 2026 we opened up that conversation in a room full of people who are living and practising it every day.

Prof. Mugendi M'Rithaa, transdisciplinary industrial designer and researcher from Kenya, and Anirban Bhattacharya, founder of The Painted Sky and design thinking practitioner across 18 countries, joined moderator Maurisa Moloto for a fireside chat that drew on decades of experience working across continents, cultures and contexts.

Tell us in the comments which insight resonated most with you. ⬇️

We are live! 🌍The Afrikan Design Thinking Convening 2026 has officially opened at d-school Afrika at University of Cape ...
01/06/2026

We are live! 🌍

The Afrikan Design Thinking Convening 2026 has officially opened at d-school Afrika at University of Cape Town, and the energy is everything we hoped it would be as we celebrate 10 years of design, innovation, and turning ideas into real-world impact.

This Convening marks ten years of d-school Afrika bringing together educators, practitioners and changemakers from across the continent and beyond. For these next few days we convene to learn and connect, but also to celebrate what this community has grown into.

Want to follow along or join the conversation? Use our official hashtag:

There is still time to join us online. Register here: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/361111-d-school-afrika-2026-convening/ #/

Address

HPI D-school Building, Corner Cross Campus & Woolsack Drive, Rondebosch, UCT Middle Campus
Cape Town
8005

Telephone

+27216503897

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