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Minor Embrace TEC

  • Starts February and September
  • English
  • 30 ECTS
  • 5 months
Eindhoven

Are you ready to spend a semester on something that actually means something to you? In this minor you press pause on the standard study path and step into 20 weeks where you set the direction. This is not a minor about building the most impressive thing you can, it is about figuring out what is worth building, and then building it. You take on real challenges, build something that matters and figure out what kind of professional you want to become.

What is this minor about?

Embrace TEC stands for Technology, Entrepreneurship and Creativity. You work on two things at once: real-world challenges brought in by external partners, and a personal project that comes entirely from your own curiosity. Most minors ask you to choose between the two. Here you do both, and that combination is what shapes how you grow.

The challenges come from Pulsed for Good, a programme that connects students to societal questions from real partners. You might work with a foundation looking for better tools for people living with dementia. Or with a healthcare organisation exploring how technology can support young people dealing with mental health. Alongside that, your personal project is yours: a podcast, a product, a business idea or something you have always wanted to try but never had time for.


You collaborate with students from business, IT, design, healthcare, education and psychology. You learn by doing, in a place where technology, entrepreneurship and creativity come together.

Why the minor Embrace TEC

  • You work on a group challenge and a personal project at the same time.
  • You get personal coaching focused on who you are as a person and a professional. Not only on the project deliverables.
  • You start with the question, not the project. Here you spend the first weeks figuring out what is worth your time. The project follows from that, not the other way around.
  • You work with real partners and real users, so what you build gets tested in the actual setting it is meant for.
  • You learn alongside students from different cultures, disciplines and backgrounds.
  • You are assessed on your process, not your final product. How you decide, document and grow matters more than how polished the end result looks.
 

 
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Fontys Pulsed Academy | how did Pulsed benefit you?

'I realised Engineering not about numbers and calculations, it is about finding a way to help people.'
 

 

Who is this minor for?

Embrace TEC is open to students from any bachelor programme. What matters more than your background is your mindset. If you already know exactly what you want to build, there are minors better suited to you. This one is for students who want to use these 20 weeks to figure that out, and then make it real.

This minor suits you if:

  • You ask 'why' more often than is comfortable, and you want time and space to actually explore the answer.
  • You want to build something with your hands, not only think about it.
  • You care about the world around you and want to do something useful with that care.
  • You are comfortable with not knowing the next step yet. You prefer a compass over a fixed map.
  • You enjoy working with people from different disciplines and cultures.

You do not need a technical background, a business plan or prior creative experience. You bring your curiosity. We bring the environment, the technology, the coaching and the people.

Student Experience

Past Embrace TEC students have built a table that gave a woman with limited mobility her autonomy back. Designed a portable cookie dispenser that helps someone reward their service dog during walks. Created a modular guitar that doubles as a paddleboard. Built a bicycle-powered phone charger. Made a sensory toy for children with anxiety. Launched their own businesses. Started podcasts.

Their stories live on the Pulsed website.

“The process mattered more than perfection. By embracing uncertainty, I discovered new ways of expressing emotions, ideas, and personal growth."

Lise van den Elzen, Embrace TEC alumna

“Working with Marieke challenged our assumptions about disability, technology, and independence. It showed us how design can create dignity, freedom, and connection."

Raymond, Embrace TEC alumni

"This project taught us that innovation is most powerful when it improves everyday moments. Even something as small as rewarding a service dog during a walk."

Jelmer, Embrace TEC alumni

 

Programme

The minor starts by slowing things down. The first five weeks are a detox from how you have learned before. No lectures, no exams, no slide decks. Instead you experiment with technologies like 3D printing, laser cutting, programming and AI. You work in international teams, take creative risks, and explore what direction you want to take within the minor.

On three guided days a week you are on location. The other two days are yours to use for research, prototyping or meeting the people you want to work with.

Once you have found your direction, you start working on a larger Pulsed for Good challenge with the full Embrace group. Past groups have worked on Pulsed for Dementia, on sustainability questions, on social isolation. You decide what role suits you in the team and what you want to learn along the way.

At the same time, you develop your own Track Project. This is where your personal mission lives. You choose one of three themes that fits what you want to explore:

  • — you have an idea that could help a community, small or large, and you want to turn it into something real.
  • — you are working towards a product or service and want to build a prototype, possibly an MVP, with the right support around you.
  • — there is a topic close to your heart and you want to use the minor to explore it, share it and inspire others.

During these 15 weeks you have two challenge days (Wednesday and Thursday) and three track days. The challenge weeks end with show moments where you present your work to the real users or partners involved. These are your natural deadlines: not exams, but moments to gather feedback and decide what to do next.

Embrace TEC builds three things in parallel. They are not separate phases, they happen at the same time and inform each other.

  • — you get a clearer picture of your talents, what drives you, where you struggle, and how you position yourself in a team.
  • — you learn to move through iterative design cycles: framing a problem, generating ideas, testing them with real users, refining them.
  • — you get hands-on with the tools and technologies that turn your ideas into something tangible.

We believe the learning process matters more than the final outcome. That is why we do not measure your growth through exams. You work on real challenges, with real people involved, and you reflect on what those experiences teach you.

Three principles shape the learning environment:

  • Failing is part of how you learn here. We give you the time and the support to look at what went wrong and try a different way.
  • Good ideas start with your own curiosity. We help you turn what fascinates you into a question worth exploring.
  • You get a dedicated coach who works with you on your goals, your development and the direction of your project.

    Assessment is process-driven, not result-driven. There are no exams. You are assessed individually on three things:

    • — a written reflection on who you are as a person and a professional, and how this minor has shaped that.
    • — an exhibition where you walk others through your design process, your use of makership and the outcomes from your group challenges.
    • — a portfolio of your self-initiated project, showing what you set out to do, how you worked, and what you learned.

    All three are pass/fail. What we look at is how you make decisions, document your process and grow over time. Not whether the final product is polished.

    Technology only matters when it answers a real human question. That is the principle Embrace TEC is built on. You don't develop a skill in isolation, you learn it by working on something that genuinely needs solving, with the people who have skin in the game.

    The group challenges bring in real partners with real questions. Past Embrace groups have worked on:

    • in their work with vulnerable communities in South Africa.
    • so they feel more connected and seen in their daily lives.
    • that restored her sense of autonomy and dignity at home.
    • and the daily challenges they navigate.

    These are not case studies on paper. They are projects where students worked with the people involved, tested what they made, listened to what came back, and refined it. That is how you learn to read a context, work with stakeholders, and judge which technology fits which question.

     

    How to apply for this minor

    Sign up for a minor starting in September from February 1 until July 1 at the latest.

    Sign up for a minor starting in February from July 1 until December 15 at the latest.

    Please note

    • Not every minor starts in February and in September. You can find the start dates at the top of the minor's page.
    • To take part in the minor, you must have obtained your propaedeutic diploma or have permission from the examination board of your programme.

     

    Agenda

    Register here for one of our activities. This way you can be sure whether this is the minor for you! We hope to see you soon! You are always welcome to visit us. Find us in R10, first floor (Fontys Rachelsmolen).

    There are currently no activities planned. Would you still like to visit or do you have a question? Please contact us.

    Practical information

    This minor is taught in English.

    A minor regulation informs you about what you will learn, how the assessment is structured, and when you have completed the minor. As a student, you can derive rights from the minor regulation.

    Go to minor regulations ('25-'26) Go to minor regulations ('26-'27)

    Embrace TEC is part of Fontys Pulsed: a learning environment within Fontys where students, lecturers and external partners work together on real questions from the world outside the classroom. Pulsed brings in challenges from foundations, companies and societal organisations, and connects them to students who want to learn by actually doing the work.

    Embrace TEC is one of several Pulsed programmes. The others include the Master Digital Technology Engineering and the Associate Degree Engineering. What ties them together is a shared way of working: challenge-based, student-driven, and grounded in real partnerships.