This development is about the absolute necessity of Engino to address the Social and Economic impacts created by COVID-19 pandemic crisis. To deal with these issues, Engino is launching an innovative product, raising the bar of the STEM market.
This is made possible through the accreditation received on project INNOVATE-COVID/0420/0016, which is co-funded by the European Union Structural Funds 2021-2027 and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation.
The STEM Club Subscription Box Development
Socio-economic Status Quo
Digitalization of traditional markets is one of the main objectives for all organizations to cope with the nowadays habits of the digital consumerism.
COVID-19 has accelerated this trend with physical toy stores closing under quarantines and social interaction forced to be minimal, parents turned to online channels in search of STEM Toys that provide valuable educational time to kids. Thus, Engino had to adapt by developing a product that answers a need of at-home edutainment.
Multi-Layered Toys
The goal was to create a subscription box, taking advantage of the existing gap in STEM & Robotics toy products which help children discover STEM and acquire key 21st century skills.
There are four different categories of subscription boxes. The Junior Engineers for 4-7 years old, The Young Engineers for 7-10 years old, The Master Engineers for 10-14 years old and the Professional Engineers for 14+. Each category has its toy line which focuses on engaging the children through STEM activities and the coding line for Robotics.
Since the subscription boxes are multi-layered toys, they occasionally incorporate a fun board game as the ideal way to bring the whole family together and promote quality time, as well as additional elements such as AR posters and puzzles relating to the events of the story in addition to the core principles of the subscription (Engino models, activity book, story).
Stages of Development
Engino has several divisions within the R&D department, each coping with a specific set of skills and expertise that cooperate with each other very closely. The output of one division is the input to another one. An iterative process is followed which leads to the optimizing of the results whereby all final products being developed are fine-tuned and minimized of errors.
The major divisions are:
Product Design
Within this division the researchers mainly come from mechanical engineering and industrial design fields. There are two interrelated major tasks, the task to design and create new components and the task to develop physical models and their building instructions.
Educational Development
Within this division the researchers mainly come from the field of Pedagogy and Science. Their main task is to develop curriculum material and lesson plans for different age groups and complexity, using the Engino system and particular sets. They also develop “theory” material which covers the history of subjects.
Graphic Design
Within this division the researchers are graphic designers and animators. Their main task is the development of package designs and booklets as well as product catalogues and advertising material such as banners and web-designs and product videos and animations.
Electronics and Software
Within this division the researchers have background in electronic and electrical engineering and computer science. The division has two major subdivisions, hardware development and software development.
The project INNOVATE-COVID/0420/0016 is co-funded by the European Union and the Republic of Cyprus through the Research and Innovation Foundation.
