PI: Dr. Aditya Johri Co-PIs: Dr. Vinod Lohani & Dr. Deborah Tatar Graduate Students: Andrea Goncher, James Pembridge, Shreya Kothaneth ToolsLAB

Goals

In this project we are investigating how students engage in creativity within the constraints of engineering design activities (EDA). Creativity for us entails the ability to move beyond the constraints to design novel and useful artifacts. EDAs are bound by design guidelines and limitations of space, time, material resources, and use of specific technologies, forcing students to be inventive and creative in accomplishing their goals, whether with artifacts or with people. In this scenario, how do students “make do” and what role does technology play? In particular, we are studying how the affordance of technology – in this case Tablet PCs – for concurrent creation and sharing of digital representations (organizing) affects creativity and innovation. The design and development of artifacts is increasingly being undertaken globally by converting prototypes and specimens into digital images and this project aims to understand the digital aspect of design practices.

We are undertaking a longitudinal study comprising of an ethnographic field study component and ecologically-based quasi-experimental studies of interaction. We are examining how the use of IT in engineering design activities shapes creativity. We are studying the role of IT as a tool to support both the creation and sharing of representations among designers. We are also examining how creativity varies across diverse design activities and creative practices unfold over time.

Progress

This project started in August 2008. In the initial period we are collecting base line data on design projects through naturalistic observations and surveys. We are collecting data in two courses for around 10 design teams of 3-5 students each. One is a freshmen-level general engineering course and the second is a sophomore-level mechanical engineering course. At the time of the NSF PI meeting we will have completed data collection and will be in the process of initial data analysis. We hope to be able to share some preliminary ideas for future directions related to the project and get feedback from attendees. 

Design Project: ENGE1024 Sustainable Design  Freshmen class  Overall ~1500 students, we are working with 4 workshop sections of 30 students each  Redesigned the design activity: Renewable energy for a farm in New Hampshire  Created a Wiki and using it for client communication Tablets used extensively  8 week long project (Oct-Nov)  Data collection through video and audio in class  Addition data through survey,  logs, artifacts produced Out-of-class group work data Brainstorming artifacts: 14 (4 sections) Research reports: 17 (4 sections) Video files: 19 (30 hours) Audio files: 9 (14 hours) The design activity used for this project is the design of renewable energy sources and infrastructure for a farm in New Hampshire which is off the grid.
Design Project: ME2024 Engineering Design and Economics  Sophomore-level class  Offered by Mechanical Engineering  Overall ~400 students Completely Tablet-based  We are working with 1 section  12 week long project (Oct-Nov-Dec)  Data collection through video and audio in class  Addition data through survey,  logs, artifacts produced Data collection outside of class as they work in teams 34 audio files (36 hours), 32 video files (35 hours), 6 Camtasia recordings, 2 AIM transcripts, 7 outside of class document packages

Some research questions we are investigating:
Does a specific context promote or constrain creativity? (Do client ‘requirements’ facilitate more creative results or are they necessary for successfully projects?) Is there an optimal range of constraints that promote creativity?

Does individual preference between tablet and pen-based interface affect success and/or creativity?  Does this subsequently affect team creativity?

Is face-to-face communication in addition to technology more beneficial in the creative design process than basic technological communication (e.g. email, instant messenger) or more interactive technologies (e.g. OneNote sessions).