The U-Corp Lab (U-Corp) is a co-innovation platform that connects innovative organizations/companies with the vibrant DKUresearch and entrepreneurial community. The goal is to provide DKU students with the opportunity to master industry-proven innovation research methodologies through productive practice and co-creation projects with companies.
In Spring 2022, DKU InE worked with five companies on six student-enterprise collaboration projects, with the project areas including video production, marketing research, event planning, database making, writing a research report, and brand construction. Through 7 weeks of collaboration, all groups have completed their respective projects perfectly, remarking that they have acquired invaluable experience and knowledge by dint of the projects!
InE will host the Project Showcase for this U-Corp Lab. We’re looking forward to your attendance!
Activity Information
Topic: 2022 U-Corp Lab Spring Project Showcase
Time: 10:00-12:00 AM, May 14th (Saturday)
Zoom ID: 941 553 6713 Passcode: DKU
Project Review
U-Corp @ GloCoach
Creative Video for Communication and Marketing
In seven weeks, the team developed a creative video that can be a significant medium for Glo-Coach to communicate with the public, engage customers, and promote its brand. More importantly, it told a compelling story about this company and its uniqueness. They are focused on the following questions: who is GloCoach, why GloCoach is unique, and how GloCoach differ from other coaching solutions.
Team Members: Xinzhe Jiang, Xiaoan Bao, Ziling Chen
U-Corp @ Meiyume
User Research: Fragrances and Young Generation
This project investigated the young generation in China as users or potential users of the fragrances by working with Meiyume. The goal was to understand the persona, motivation, consuming behaviour, current dynamic, and future trends of the fragrances in the young generation. At the same time, the study provided strategic business directions for Meiyume and gave beauty companies an insightful report on fragrance’s future market.
The team did user research on fragrances and the young Chinese generation for 7 weeks via desk research, investigations, and interviews. They successfully analyzed the consuming behavior, motivation, and preference for fragrance products, and provided an in-depth report for Meiyume.
Team Members: Hongruo Wang, Ruochen Zhang, Zixuan Pei, Lingyun Feng, Yixin Gou
U-Corp @ Huochai Box
A. Featured Events Planning for Teachers in Rural Areas
This project planned featured events that can engage, support and leverage teachers from rural areas. The goal was to create opportunities for those teachers to be seen and recognised, establish a vibrant community to connect and share stories, help to reduce their emotional pressure while accompanying left-behind children and support the teachers’ personal growth.
In seven weeks, the team went from 40 brainstormed ideas down to 20 ones, and out of those, 5 were chosen as key projects. Eventually, under the company’s suggestion, detailed planning was carried out for one activity.
Team Members: Han He, Ketong Han, Tianyu Wu, Aicha Slaitane, Xinxin Zhang
B. Build a Database of Charity Foundations in China
The team helped Huochai Box construct a database containing over 100 charity programs or organizations and their collaborating partners. This database can be used on the “Huochai Home” WeChat mini-program to link participants of rural education in China, therefore empowering rural education. Simultaneously, the team also considered the future development and application of our database, such as a shared database, a database calendar, connected databases, and so on. Finally, to increase the fame of Huochai Box and their odds of collaborating with other organizations, they proposed a series of marketing strategies, including designs for websites and mini-programs, video advertisement, cooperation with other organizations, and so on.
Team Members: Wenyan Zhang, Yutong Sun, Zhiyao Li, Yanming Shen
U-Corp @ Rayplus
Portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging: the history and technical development
This research explored the history and technical development of Portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging (PMRI) by collecting various data in the field. It focused on collecting existing literature and information in PMRI by using certain research strings, including academic literature, conference papers, online news, and articles from official public platforms. The data was organised and analysed by highlighting the different focus directions, main changes, and important technological breakthroughs of PMRI with a timeline. The final database also serves as a reference document for Rayplus’ future product iteration and service development.
The team constructed a database of articles about Portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging (PMRI), including 55 articles in 7 categories. They also constructed a database of competing products belonging to national and international markets (including myriad parameters, product features, pros and cons analysis, and applicational medical reflections). In addition, the team completed a conclusive article on PMRI technological development with Hyperfine as a case study.
Group Members: Shunyu Yan, Jing Gu, Shihe Pan
U-Corp @ Liangyuandao
Brand Marketing and IP Construction
Improved the market and customer research ability based on business, and enhanced the comprehensive cognition of market and brand; was familiar with the whole process of brand marketing activities, such as briefing, planning, landing, etc., to improve the comprehensive control of the project.
The group designed an innovative marketing strategy for a super-popular Japanese manga combined with NFT elements in the field of meta-universe and provided a quantitative plausibility analysis.
Team Members: Jiayuan Li, Yutong Quan, Yufei Li, Beilong Tang, Cassandra Zia Claros, Jingyang Yan
Project Experience
Q1 What was the greatest challenge to completing the programs?
A1: The format of online collaboration has put some sand in the wheels of preserving the feeling of being involved and being active. However, we all valued the weekly meeting, an opportunity to be face-to-face with the enterprise, because we can directly inquire about ambiguous parts. This significantly increased our efficiency in later work.
– U-Corp @ Meiyume
A2: Our unfamiliarity with the meta-universe was the most significant challenge to forming innovative ideas. Hence, team members shared previous related experiences, and we collaborated to complete research in the field and compete for product analysis. We divided and conquered the problems by splitting unknown problems into known ones, and we eventually came up with more than 30 strategies.
– U-Corp @ Liangyuandao
Q2 What do you think of the collaboration and communication between group members?
A1: We found that setting our week deadlines and internal team meeting times at the start of each week, and dividing our missions, is beneficial to avoiding cramming the tasks at the last moment. In addition, before the start of each new task, we should seriously consider how to divide the work most reasonably among team members so that efficiency could be increased.
– U-Corp @ Rayplus
A2: Respecting the right of each team member to speak is an important basis for our efficient communication. In addition, we must rehearse within the group our meetings with the company beforehand, so that our logic is self-coherent and that the contents complement each other.
– U-Corp @ Huochai Box
Q3 What are the differences you feel between real collaboration with enterprises and team collaboration in courses?
A1: Collaborating with enterprises requires more communication skills with our clients, as well as the ability to solve open problems. We need to confirm the ever-changing demands of the client, and find solution plans and execution plans for questions with no standard answers.
– U-Corp @ Huochai Box
A2: The requirements of the enterprize and of course work are different. This U-Corp program helped us to know how what we learned can be applied in business and where we should learn more.
– U-Corp @ GloCoach
Personal Takeaways
Through this activity, I learned more about how those educational charity organizations function, and what problems they might face in reality. I am very surprized that I can act as a role close to a consultant, brainstorm with my teammates, and actively adjust our plans according to the client’s needs to meet their expectations.
– Tianyu Wu
The U-Corp program helped me understand what are the real products and abilities needed on the market, so that I can have a clearer goal for my own future.
– Ziling Chen
This program helped me know what it feels like to be a “second party”. We need to adjust our work directions according to the ever-changing demands of our clients. I learned how to communicate efficiently to reduce misunderstandings in the contents of our missions.
– Ketong Han
This was my first experience of knowing a technological enterprise as an entrepreneur, through which I gained many brand-new perspectives.
– Shihe Pan
The U-Corp program not only helped me to learn about user research methodology, but also cultivated my excellent team collaboration skills.
– Ruochen Zhang
This project made me learn more about advanced meta-universe and NFT, and I also gained many precious methodologies of the trade-in marketing.
– Yutong Quan
