Speculative Futures Central Scotland invites you to our sixth event, a Lunchtime Talk featuring Pushpi Bagchi and Kyle Morrison from the Futures & Design team at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Over three years, they've transformed how MSc Data Science students can tackle complex social challenges, working directly with organisations including the Scottish Government, Aegon, and Young Scot. They'll share what they've learned about turning futures frameworks into practical collaboration tools that deliver results under pressure.
Agenda
12:30 — Welcome & Introductions
12:35 — Presentation: Facilitating Futures-led Design Sprints
13:05 — Q&A
13:20 — Close
Presentation: Facilitating Futures-led Design Sprints
Pushpi Bagchi and Kyle Morrison will share how they've adapted the Futures Triangle framework for digital collaboration environments to support data science students working on complex social challenges. Drawing from their three-year partnership with The Data Lab Academy, they'll explore how digital platforms like Miro and Notion can serve as "digital scaffolding" to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration in time-constrained settings. The presentation will cover insights from their team's work with over 100 MSc students across 13 Scottish universities, demonstrating how futures methodologies can bridge analytical and creative workflows when tackling real-world challenges from organisations across the public, private and third sectors.
This talk will be of particular interest to anyone working with interdisciplinary teams, designing collaborative digital tools, or exploring how futures thinking can enhance problem-solving in educational and organisational contexts.
