Can Induced Gratitude Improve Creative Performance on Repurposing Tasks?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Natalie M. Sisson ◽  
Emily Impett ◽  
L.H. Shu
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Creativity Research ◽  
Full Study ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
First Time

Abstract Urgent societal problems, including climate change, require innovation and can benefit from interdisciplinary solutions. A small body of research has demonstrated the potential of positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, awe) to promote creativity and prosocial behavior, which may help address these problems. This study integrates, for the first time, psychology research on a positive and prosocial emotion (i.e., gratitude) with engineering-design creativity research. In a pre-registered study design, engineering students and working engineers (pilot N = 49; full study N = 329) completed gratitude, positive-emotion control, or neutral-control inductions. Design creativity was assessed through rater scores of responses to an Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and a Wind-Turbine-Blade Repurposing Task (WRT). No significant differences among AUT scores emerged across conditions in either sample. While only the pilot-study manipulation of gratitude was successful, WRT results warrant further studies on the effect of gratitude on engineering-design creativity. The reported work may also inform other strategies to incorporate prosocial emotion to help engineers arrive at more original and effective concepts to tackle environmental sustainability, and in the future, other problems facing society.

Can Gratitude Promote More Creative Engineering Design?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie M. Sisson ◽  
Emily A. Impett ◽  
L. H. Shu
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Creativity Research ◽  
Full Study ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
First Time

Abstract Urgent societal problems, including climate change, require innovation, and can benefit from interdisciplinary solutions. A small body of research has demonstrated the potential of positive emotions (e.g., gratitude, awe) to promote creativity and prosocial behavior, which may help address these problems. This study integrates, for the first time, psychology research on a positive and prosocial emotion (i.e., gratitude) with engineering-design creativity research. In a pre-registered study design, engineering students and working engineers (pilot N = 49; full study N = 329) completed gratitude, positive-emotion control, or neutral-control inductions. Design creativity was assessed through rater scores of responses to an Alternate Uses Task (AUT) and a Wind-Turbine-Blade Repurposing Task (WRT). No significant differences among AUT scores emerged across conditions in either sample. While only the pilot-study manipulation of gratitude was successful, WRT results warrant further studies on the effect of gratitude on engineering-design creativity. The reported work may also inform other strategies to incorporate prosocial emotion to help engineers arrive at more original and effective concepts to tackle environmental sustainability, and in the future, other problems facing society.

Biomedical Engineering Design Education at King Saud University: A First of Its Kind Approach

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harcharan Singh Ranu ◽  
Aman Sweet Bhullar
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
King Saud University ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Medical Centers ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Established Firms ◽  
First Time

Biomedical Engineering in the Millennium is building the future of biology and medicine. New products, from biotechnology and novel devices for diagnosis and treatment, are marketed through interactions between universities, medical centers, small start-up companies, and large, more established firms. The role of biomedical engineering in the 21st century has already been highlighted by Ranu as far as research, education and space age technologies are concerned. Therefore, educating the modern biomedical engineering students in design processes is extremely important. This paper highlights how biomedical engineering design is taught for the first time to King Saud University students in Saudi Arabia. The conclusion drawn from this is that for the first time an innovative design course has been developed to teach the biomedical engineering students at King Saud University to meet the needs of tomorrow’s biomedical engineers.

Implementing Creativity Evaluation Tools Into the Concept Selection Process in Engineering Education

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Christopher A. Gosnell ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Selection Method ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Design Students ◽  
Study Teams ◽  
Expert Ratings

In design research, creativity assessment methods have been studied to obtain quantitative measurements of design novelty and feasibility for use in the concept selection process. However, little research exists that studies the application and implementation of these tools by engineering students on grade-dependent class projects. In this study, teams of undergraduate engineering design students evaluated their own early product sketches using informal team discussions, a creativity scale and our Tool for Assessing Semantic Creativity (TASC) adjective selection method. The resulting evaluations were compared and contrasted with evaluations obtained from the widely adopted Shah Vargas-Hernandez and Smith (SVS) method and expert ratings. These findings demonstrate that our TASC adjective selection method of evaluating design creativity is tapping into similar constructs of creativity as informal team discussions and expert evaluations. They also indicate that the SVS method does not appear to be evaluating creativity as perceived by engineering design students or experts. The results of this study can be used to understand how students make decisions during the concept selection process and how tools can be developed or implemented in the classroom setting to aid in this process.

scholarly journals Visual Inspection or Product Dissection? The Impact of Designer-Product Interactions on Engineering Design Creativity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Visual Inspection ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Creative Thought ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
Product Interaction ◽  
The Impact

Designers commonly interact with products in the early phases of design in order to understand the solution space and gain inspiration for new designs. Although designer-product interaction methods such as visual inspection and product dissection are recognized as a pivotal component of the engineering design process, little data is available on how these practices affect idea generation or when these activities are most useful for inspiring creative thought. Therefore, the current study was developed to understand the impact of these activities on creative idea generation. During our controlled study, fifty-nine undergraduate engineering students were instructed to either visually inspect or physically dissect an example milk frother and then generate ideas for a new, innovative design. These concepts were then evaluated for their novelty, variety, quality and quantity. Our analysis (ANOVA) revealed that participants who physically dissected the example frother produced ideas that were more novel but of lower quality than those that simply inspected the frother. Our results provide insights on the impact of designer-product interactions on creativity and we use these findings to develop recommendations for the use and alterations of these practices for improving creativity in engineering design.

scholarly journals The Professional Spine: Creation of a Four-year Engineering Design and Practice Sequence

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Frank ◽  
David Strong ◽  
Rick Sellens
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
First Year ◽  
Problem Analysis ◽  
Assessment And Evaluation ◽  
Practice Sequence ◽  
Design And Practice ◽  
First Time ◽  
Academic Year

This paper discusses the development of a four-year Engineering Design and Practice Sequence (EDPS) of project-based courses at Queen’s University. The four-year sequence is a core requirement for all engineering students, and will develop competence in design process methods and tools, problem analysis, creativity, economics and entrepreneurship, engineering communications, professionalism, and ethics. The EDPS was designed to meet requirements of the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board graduate attributes , which addresses requirements of the Washington Accord. They also target applicable elements of the CDIO syllabus. The EDPS is being delivered to first year engineering students for the first time in the 2010-2011 academic year and will continue rolling out over the next three years. The paper discusses the process involved in creating the sequence, the course objectives and delivery for each year of the program, and proposed assessment and evaluation methods. The sequence will also be compared to previously published engineering design and practice sequences. The outcomes of the first year, including student feedback and attribute assessment, will also be discussed. Upper year students who will not experience the engineering design and practice sequence are being assessed on their understanding of design methods to provide baseline data for comparison with students who progress through the sequence in future years.This paper was also published in the ASEE 2011 Annual General Conference with joint permission of ASEE and CEEA.

The Role of Individual Risk Attitudes on the Selection of Creative Concepts in Engineering Design

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Ambiguity Aversion ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Individual Risk ◽  
Risk Attitudes ◽  
First Year ◽  
Concept Selection ◽  
Design Creativity ◽  
The Impact

While creativity is often seen as an indispensable quality of engineering design, individuals often select conventional or previously successful options during the concept selection process due to the inherent risk associated with creative concepts. Surprisingly, prior research has shown that this preference for conventional design alternatives is often done in an unconscious manner and is attributed to people’s inadvertent bias against creativity. While we know that designers may prematurely filter out creative ideas, little is actually known about what factors attribute to the promotion or filtering of these creative concepts during concept selection. The current paper describes an empirical study conducted with 19 first-year engineering students aimed at investigating the impact of individual risk aversion and ambiguity aversion on the selection and filtering of creative ideas during the concept selection process. The results from this study indicate that individual risk attitudes are related to both creative ability and creative concept selection. However, an individual’s ability to generate creative ideas was found to be unrelated to their preference for creative ideas during concept selection. These results add to our understanding of creativity during concept selection and provide guidelines for enhancing the design process to encourage design creativity.

Feeling the Heat! Exploring the Relationship Between Students’ Empathy, Attitudes Towards Sustainability, and Their Identification of Problem Requirements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Mohammed Alsager Alzayed ◽  
Elizabeth Starkey
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Primary User ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Trait Empathy ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Tools And Techniques ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract As global resources deplete, there has emerged a need for designers to emphasize sustainability in engineering design. Towards this end, several researchers have presented design tools to support sustainable design; however, designers must be encouraged to adopt a sustainable design mindset and actively utilize these design tools and techniques in the design process. Prior research has identified the need for interpersonal skills such as empathy among individuals to encourage an active sustainable mindset among them. While several researchers have demonstrated the relationship between designers’ empathy and their identification of problem requirements in engineering design, little research has explored this relationship in the context of sustainable design. This direction of research is particularly important as environment-focused decisions in engineering design do not always benefit the primary user of a solution, but often affect secondary and tertiary stakeholders. Our aim in this paper is to explore this research gap through an experimental study with undergraduate engineering students. Specifically, we compared the relationship between participants’ trait empathy and their attitudes towards sustainability, in the context of environmental sustainability. We then investigated the relationship between their trait empathy, attitudes towards sustainability, and their identification of problem requirements in a design task. From the results, we see that students’ intentions towards sustainable actions positively correlated with their identification of environment-focused requirements. On the other hand, students’ perspective-taking — a component of their trait empathy — positively correlated with their identification of user-focused requirements. These findings provide an important first step towards understanding the relationship between designers’ individual differences and their adoption of sustainability in engineering design.

Implementation of the Second-year course in an Engineering Professional Spine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umar Iqbal ◽  
Deena Salem ◽  
David Strong
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Research University ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Core Courses ◽  
Second Year ◽  
First Time ◽  
Academic Year

The objective of this paper is to document the experience of developing and implementing a second-year course in an engineering professional spine that was developed in a first-tier research university and relies on project-based core courses. The main objective of this spine is to develop the students’ cognitive and employability skills that will allow them to stand out from the crowd of other engineering graduates.The spine was developed and delivered for the first time in the academic year 2010-2011 for first-year general engineering students. In the year 2011-2012, those students joined different programs, and accordingly the second-year course was tailored to align with the different programs’ learning outcomes. This paper discusses the development and implementation of the course in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department.

HOW STUDENTS DEFINE THEIR SUCCESS: A RESEARCH STUDY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Ullrich ◽  
David S. Strong
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Survey Instrument ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Full Study ◽  
Definition Of Success ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Diverse Groups

How undergraduate engineering students define their success and plan for their future differs notably amongst students. With a push for greater diversity and inclusion in engineering schools, it is valuable to also better understand the differences in these areas among different students to allow institutions to better serve the needs of these diverse groups.  The purpose of this research study is to explore students’ definition of success both in the present and projecting forward 5 to 10 years, as well as to understand to what level students reflect on, and plan for, the future. The proposed survey instrument for the pilot stage of this research includes 56 closed-ended questions and 3 open-ended questions. Evidence for the validity of the research instrument is established through a mixed-method pilot study. This paper will discuss the survey instrument, the pilot study, and outline plans for the full study.

scholarly journals Pursuing Frugal Innovation for Sustainability at the Grassroots Level

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Mokter Hossain ◽  
Jarkko Levänen ◽  
Marleen Wierenga
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Frugal Innovation ◽  
New Business ◽  
Grassroots Level ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
New Business Models

ABSTRACT Firms are often criticized for their reluctance to embrace sustainability in their business strategies. Frugal innovation is a recent concept that represents a new way for firms to serve underserved customers in developing countries while also promoting sustainability. Based on three cases of frugal innovation at the grassroots level in India, this article demonstrates how frugal innovation presents a promising way to tackle some of today's pressing societal problems with new business models. We use a range of parameters for economic, social, and environmental sustainability to strengthen the case for frugal innovation. This article attempts to inspire scholars to consider frugal innovation further in their future research endeavors and encourage firms to integrate it into their existing business models.

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