The goal of HEED, the Institute for Human Engineering & Empathic Design, is to empower the start-up culture in Germany and enable students to develop into innovative and entrepreneurial personalities. This is intended to drive social change that no longer stigmatises risk-taking but considers it a positive value. 

To achieve this, HEED swaps lecture halls for workshops and sees itself as an innovation lab that unfolds its effect through the empathetic interaction of creative people in an inspiring place. The innovation process developed by HEED is more holistic than traditional approaches. It places people at its centre and maps the entire product life cycle, from invention to production to distribution. This is made possible by the synergy of competences resulting from the cooperation of all three faculties at Pforzheim University (Engineering, Business & Law and Design). Measured in terms of the number of teachers in the three faculties and the degree programmes they offer, this cooperation is unique. 

In concrete terms, multidisciplinary teams of students from all three faculties of Pforzheim University work together at HEED to learn with and from each other. They are accompanied and advised not only by multidisciplinary teams of lecturers from Pforzheim University, but also by external experts, such as successful start-up founders, for example in the starTUB format. 

The practical work in project seminars goes together with research activities that examine the conditions for creativity, innovation and responsible entrepreneurship. The results are published and fed back into teaching.