Twenty of Serra's first-year Design Thinking students traveled to SAP recently to meet with Serra parent Andrea Anderson, who is Vice President - User Experience at the renowned tech company. Students were able to interact with a panel of young, accomplished professionals at SAP who shared wisdom regarding their educational and career paths, as well as their current design thinking projects.

Among their many novel concepts, the panel discussed a digital assistant for the workplace which can be used to set up meetings, check company policy and utilize machine learning to streamline workflows. A designer on the team also detailed the importance of understanding user experience in his bid to reduce food waste at Costco. The staff member immersed himself for weeks at a Costco store, learning and understanding ways to streamline the store's food operations. He even flew to Liverpool to find out how a store there finds ways to reduce delivery time. The key, he said, is to think about things from the user's perspective.

The panel, which included designers, instructors and project managers, then gave feedback to the Padres after hearing the students' project presentations. Students were also able to tour SAP's facilities and gain an understanding of the company's role in Silicon Valley and the world. We at Serra are grateful to SAP for hosting our Padres and giving them an immersive experience inside the world of a major technology company.