University Courses
We offer multiple courses, which combine a variety of methods and applications.
Students gain real-world hands-on practice within a comprehensive theoretical framework.
Course topics change every year. If your organization is interested in sponsoring a student project, please contact us about different options and project availability. Interested students already enrolled at Stanford University can register through the Axess system.
2008-09 / 2009-10
ME 410A. Foresight and Innovation
The art, science, and practice of design innovation. Tools such as critical foresight and anticipatory research design thinking that assist organizations in improving the quality and speed of research and design innovation programs. The path from idea to market. How to communicate a developing idea through scenarios, business pitches, and product prototypes. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. 1-5 units, Aut (Leifer, L; Cockayne, W)
ME 410X. Foresight Project Experience with Corporate Partners
Participation in a global foresight research team with real-world industrial partners. Foresight and anticipatory research developed become part of the student’s portfolio. May be repeated for credit. Limited enrollment. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. 1-5 units, Aut (Leifer, L; Cockayne, W), Win (Leifer, L; Cockayne, W), Spr (Leifer, L; Cockayne, W), Sum (Leifer, L; Cockayne, W)
2007-08
ME 410. Long-Range Design
This course is an immersion introduction to long-range design, and not simply a collection of methods and tools, although both will be integral to developing a new way of thinking. Foresight is the ability to think about and develop futures. Design is the collaborative, hands-on process that takes an idea and forms it for a market. Long-range design, or design foresight, results when foresight and design are used together, in a structured manner, to develop an idea that will not exist until sometime in the long-range future. The goal of this course is for students to understand design foresight as a way of thinking about and designing for the future. 3 units, Aut / Spr / Win (Cockayne, W)
2006-07
HUMNTIES 205. Innovation and Critical Foresight
3 units, Spr (Cockayne, W)
ME 209 / HUMNTIES 204. Redesigning the Future
ProjectÂbased. Futures and foresight methods; how the future can be envisioned, designed, and communicated. Integration of analysis with experience, foresight with design thinking, and building prototypes for the future. The role of future human needs. In previous years, students have designed the future of the university experience. Student teams of three or four. Design experience or fabrication skills not required. 3 units, Win (Cockayne, W; Leifer, L)
HUMNTIES 203. Introduction to Critical Foresight
3 units, Aut (Cockayne, W)
2005-06
HUMNTIES 181. Introduction to Strategic Foresight
How the future can be imagined and communicated. Tools to design, ponder, and share the future including narratives, scenarios, cross-impact maps, video, and artifacts. Strategic foresight methods, their advantages and disadvantages, and how to apply them in research and business. 3 units, Aut (Cockayne, W)
HUMNTIES 182. Case Studies in Strategic Foresight
Case studies, successes and failures, of individuals and organizations attempting to develop knowledge of the future: how effective was the foresight in helping to envision the future? Models and underlying methodologies. How to embed strategic foresight in organizations. 3 units, Win (Cockayne, W)
HUMNTIES 183. Strategic Foresight and Innovation
How strategic foresight methods can be used to predict future ideas, inventions, and innovations; their effects upon society? Guest lectures from field experts, seminal papers, and multiple scenarios. How to understand, explore, and prepare for impending changes in emerging technologies, and how to embed the practice in organizations. 3 units, Spr (Cockayne, W)
2004-05
HUM 202. The Future of Cooperation
3 units, Win (Cockayne, W; Rheingold, H)
2003-04
High Tech Entrepreneurship
Taught by Dr. William Cockayne, Ph.D., at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
2001-02
ME 297X. Innovation with Emerging Technologies
This seminar series will help students to develop a comprehensive design understanding of innovating with emerging technologies. The class will introduce the topic through a combination of popular readings, class discussions and lectures with leading innovators. The assignments are collaborative with assignments aimed at design thinking, need finding, research, and product development. 1 or 3 units, Spr (Cockayne, W; Feland, J)