Sprint Innovation Festival

At the Sprint Innovation Festival, multidisciplinary student teams tackle sustainable future challenges, supported by insights from experts across different fields. Professionals from working life accompany you throughout the process, and your team is also supported by a group of inspiring coaches. You’ll gain new perspectives and practical tips from diverse keynote speakers.

The course focuses on sustainability through three dimensions: ecological, social and economic. Coaches and experts guide you through the innovation process using a variety of methods and tools inspired by the Lean Startup approach. On the final day of the Sprint, each team presents their solution to an expert panel, which provides feedback for the teams.

Although the course is intensive, we also make sure to have fun together: For example, on one of the campus days we offer a communal breakfast, and the Sprint week concludes with a shared After Party!

You will earn three credits by participating in the first two weeks of the event and the After Sprint. The Sprint “add-on,” worth two additional credits (5 in total), is optional and requires your team or independent work to continue on the online platform.

After attending the Sprint Innovation Festival, you can: 

• initiate and carry out an agile, customer-oriented innovation process 
• think creatively and develop your ideas into a solution 
• act as a team player in a multidisciplinary team 
• create a pitch and sell ideas to customers 
• demonstrate you have practical experience in cooperating with experts

By enrolling to Sprint 2026, you must commit to the following schedules (more detailed schedules will be published later):

• Pre-assignments on the Howspace online learning platform, approx. 1 hour
• 3.3.2026 Sprint kick-off day, Zoom, 10:00–14:00
• 4.–9.3.2026 Teamwork on the online platform, approx. 2–4 hours per weekday
• 10.–13.3.2026 Live campus days at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, 8:00/9:00–16:00, Friday’s After Party from 16:30 onwards
• 25.3.2026 After Sprint reflection session, Zoom, 14:00–15:00

Approved when you have demonstrated to be involved and committed to each Sprint Innovation Festival -day in an active manner, e.g., you can study and work both independently and as a member of the team. You can provide ideas, prototype, and validate the solutions, present your suggestions and give/ receive feedback. You can independently describe the complete innovation process, its phases, and its outcome.  

Failed if you have missed more than one day out of the four without replacing the hours in an agreed manner (e.g., covering the work by independent working hours). Failed if you do not actively participate in activities before Sprint (forming a team), during the ideation phase, and in the after-Sprint activity. 
Fail may occur if you cannot describe what you and your team accomplished during the innovation process, its phases, methods, and outcome.