Abstract
The paper introduces a brief student project that was carried out with a large number of groups of students from engineering and design backgrounds. This was intended to provide the students with an experience of developing innovative ideas from the pre-idea position to the stage of putting forward concrete proposals for action. The paper relays the experience of running such a project and its benefits, but then asks the questions of how close it came to achieving its goal of getting students involved in an innovation process. Innovation would seem to require three conditions for it to exist. The first is a significantly different idea: the second is an environment that nurtures the idea and the third is the society that is prepared to take up and disseminate the embodied idea. The small six-week project aims to provide some techniques that make the achievement of these criteria more likely. It resulted in changed behaviour from some students but for significant innovation to take place a longer period needs to be used to develop and nurture it.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 6 Sept 2012 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education - Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland Duration: 5 Sept 2013 → 6 Sept 2013 https://www.designsociety.org/publication/33331/DS+76%3A+Proceedings+of+E%26PDE+2013%2C+the+15th+International+Conference+on+Engineering+and+Product+Design+Education%2C+Dublin%2C+Ireland%2C+05-06.09.2013 |
Conference
| Conference | 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Ireland |
| City | Dublin |
| Period | 5/09/13 → 6/09/13 |
| Other | The 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education Conference was organised by the School of Manufacturing & Design Engineering, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), in participation with the Design Education Special Interest Group (DESIG) of the Design Society and the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED). The conference brought together representatives from education, design practice, industry and government agencies that have an interest in developing new approaches and directions in design education. The conference provided a forum for participants to discuss current educational issues and to identify new approaches, address new challenges and new directions for design education. This was reflected in the conference theme, ‘Growing our Future”. The conference aim was intended to reflect the increasing emphasis on design education as a driver for economic growth and in particular the importance of design in addressing such issues as sustainability, creativity and innovation. This was reflected within the submissions that provided varied interpretations of the phrase ‘Growing our Future’ in line with the stated conference topics. |
| Internet address |
Keywords
- group projects
- Innovation
- techniques
