Kolba Lab received 60 applications from across Armenia in response to its local governance challenge.  A board of advisers and a jury of international and local experts to help choose the best nine ideas to take forward.  Seven teams expressed interest in developing their ideas further at a design workshop.

In preparation for the workshop the teams carried out ethnographic research in order to find out what would best satistfy Armenian citizens and whether their ideas were meaningful and needed.  They conducted surveys among potential users, focusing on emotional preferences of the users.  With all these results, the teams attended a “Design Thinking” workshop on 12th November.

The workshop consisted of applying different tools and methods to the teams’ ideas, such as Instant Muse and Problem Definition Toolkit developed by NESTA.

At the end of the day teams pitched their ideas to the panel of judges, who evaluated and selected the five best projects for further support and investment.  The winners included:

1.Solar battery-lighting in Gyumri – Arsen Vardanyan

2. Clean Community in Vanadzor – Initiative Youth, Developing Community” initiative group -“

3. Crowdsourced monitoring of  cars usage by public officials- Shushan Doydoyan

4. E-government system- Smartcity NGO

5. Access to public transport- Artur Dolmajian

Check out the workshops’ photos on our Facebook page.