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Empathy and Creativity

We empower students and teachers to design our tomorrow
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Foster creativity and humanitarian action at IRIS Education. Our non-profit organisation focuses on developing design thinking skills, empathy, and humanitarian action in young learners. Explore workshops for students, professional development for teachers, and curriculum support for school leaders.

IRIS Education

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IRIS is a word that has the same meaning in German, French and English. It represents the EYE, which is crucial for our youth to observe, recognise, identify, visualise and internalise in order to develop sustainable solutions for the world of tomorrow. The acronym IRIS also stands for ‘Integrity, Responsibility, Ingenuity, Sustainability’. These four words describe the key themes that will encourage future youth to act ethically and responsibly and to find solutions to real problems with creative and innovative design ideas and technologies that also serve humanitarian purposes with sustainable goals.

Our Goals

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The purpose of the association is to develop and implement school programmes and curricula specifically in the context of design studies, humanitarian action and sustainability goals. In a world characterised by incredibly rapid innovation and digital speed, the association aims to incorporate responsibility and ethics into all design thinking processes, whether creative or strategic. The association wants to ensure that social responsibility is embedded in school programmes. We also want to ensure that young people entering the future economy have a deep understanding of their own responsibility for humanitarian action and sustainability.

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Alex Chang

A real Design Thinker at heart, having taught Design at University and working in large companies such as Google and Amazon, I feel this is exactly what schools here need! This is an exciting step for Zurich. I am excited to be part of this forward-thinking group.

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Paul Woodward

I have been teaching Design and Technology for more than 30 years in the UK and overseas, and am delighted to be part of this initiative. A big, bold step! It's exciting that the IRIS Education Association wants to move away from the traditional concepts of design and design technology in academics settings.

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Elfyn Jones

Originally from Wales, I have spent many years developing and teaching design technology curriculums and workshops in the UK, Dubai and India. It's so exciting to see this developing in Zurich, Switzerland. 

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Dr Ben Davison

Combining my lectures at the renowned ETH Zurich with my position in the rapidly evolving world of Google, I firmly believe that human-centred computing and user experiences need to be embedded much earlier into School Curricula so that our young people can understand their responsibilities and the interdisciplinary opportunities available to them. I am thrilled to be a part of the IRIS Education think tank! 

Amar Sagoo

Originally from Germany and having studied in the UK I am an all-round designer and creator of interactive products. I apply rigorous analysis, deep conceptual thinking and knowledge of human–computer interaction research to design highly usable and effective solutions (and to help others do the same). Together we can be more humane and sustainable in our future designs! This team effort at IRIS is exciting and promises great things for the youth in Zurich. 

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