Who?
Hercules Cambridge is a rapidly growing, student-led design consultancy for aspiring designers and innovators in Cambridge. They provide practical opportunities for students to apply skills in the real world with industrial client projects, as well as mentored design workshops/trainings, internally incubated projects and sponsored design tournaments.
What?
Hercules aims to match the best talents at Cambridge with industrial clients to provide innovative solutions and ideas that are specific to tackling the clients’ problems and ultimately benefit the business. They also offer brand promotion and recruitment opportunities through talented and experienced user base. Typically, they assemble a team of 3-5 students to work on a 6-10 weeks client project. The team is led by one of Hercules' skill leaders and mentored by professional partners to deliver on the task. Based on past work, clients can expect punctual delivery of high quality, innovative and productive results. Many clients were satisfied with the service and longer-term partnerships have been formed since.
Recent work[[{"fid":"297450","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":false,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"style":"float: right; margin: 15px;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]
VOX Sustainability Project was a four-month project from Dec 2020 to Apr 2021 focused on reducing the environmental impact for one of the company’s highest volume selling display units. This project involved 5 student members from the University of Cambridge, selected through internal interviews and approved by the client.
“Vox Group has had a long association with Cambridge University and has always been impressed with the standard of students that we have worked with, and the Hercules team has proved no exception. From the outset of this project, they approached the challenges in a methodical and considered manner, bringing a rigorous analytical eye to the initial research phases. What I found most exciting was the ability of the team to bring a fresh perspective to some of the issues we were looking to solve, offering solutions in a way that we had not considered previously.” - Adam Sobocinski, Development Director,Vox
[[{"fid":"297454","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":false,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"3":{"format":"default","alignment":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"style":"float: left; margin: 15px;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"3"}}]]The CDP Therapeutic Device project was a Medical Product Research and Development project from Feb 2021 to Apr 2021 with one of the UK’s biggest technical consultancies, Cambridge Design Partnership. This project involved a team of 6 undergraduate students. Overall, the team delivered a detailed concept design along with justified decisions on the technical specification based on thorough market research.
“The Hercules team delivered well-thought-out work to a tight timescale. Our project involved considering a wide range of potential stakeholders, which meant the team needed to approach the development from varied perspectives. They were great to work with – more than organised and diligent, they were engaged in the project." - David Lewis, Partner, CDP
Current work
Environmental Monitoring in Addenbrooke’s is an ongoing 5-week industrial project focused on assessing the current levels of lighting and sound on a single bay in a DME ward for a 24-hour period. This project will help inform the department of ways in which they can improve the environment for elderly in-patients and would be used to help guide ward modifications.
Contact Hercules
The nature of their work is unique among Cambridge student-led teams. Their mission is to deliver innovative design solutions to client projects by empowering and supporting students. Hercules truly believe in the power of design to inspire positive change. Right now the team are looking for more novel and exciting concept generation, design and development projects to embark on. Email hercules.cambridge@gmail.com and/or acquisition@herculescambridge.org.uk