A New Course on Creativity in an Engineering Program: Foundations and Issues

The importance of innovation in the world's economy, now undeniable, draws great attention to the need to improve organizations' creative potential. In the last 60 years, hundreds of books have been written on the subject and hundreds of webpages display information on how to be more creative and achieve innovation. Several North American and European universities offer graduated programs in creativity. However, building an effective and validated creativity training program is not without challenges. Because of the nature of their work, engineers are often asked to be innovative. Without aiming for a degree in creativity, could future engineers benefit from training programs in creativity? This article presents the conceptual framework and pedagogical elements of a new course in creativity for engineering students.Comment: 10 pages, Intl Conf on Innovative Design and Manufacturing (pp. 270-275). Aug 13-15, Montreal. IEEE Conference Proceeding

How Design Plays Strategic Roles in Internet Service Innovation: Lessons from Korean Companies

In order to survive in the highly competitive internet business, companies have to provide differentiated services that can satisfy the rapidly changing users’ tastes and needs. Designers have been increasingly committed to achieving user satisfaction by generating and visualizing innovative solutions in new internet service development. The roles of internet service design have expanded from a narrow focus on aesthetics into a more strategic aspect. This paper investigates the methods of managing design in order to enhance companies’ competitiveness in internet business. The main research processes are to: (1) explore the current state of internet service design in Korea through in-depth interviews with professional designers and survey questionnaires to 30 digital design agencies and 60 clients; (2) compare how design is managed between in-house design groups and digital design agencies though the case studies of five Korean companies; and (3) develop a taxonomy characterizing four roles of designers in conjunction with the levels of their strategic contributions to internet service innovation: visualist, solution provider, concept generator, and service initiator. In addition, we demonstrate the growing contributions of the strategic use of design for innovating internet services, building robust brand equity, and increasing business performance. Keywords: Design Management; Internet Business; Internet Service Design; Digital Design; Digital Design Agency; In-House Design Group, Case Study</p

ZeroAbuse, a serious game to prevent child maltreatment

La maltraitance des enfants est un problème critique qui touche environ un milliard d'enfants dans le monde chaque année. Les blessures qui persistent toute leur vie, les handicaps ou même la mort sont des conséquences risquées découlant de la maltraitance des enfants. Plusieurs approches, y compris les Jeux Sérieux (SGs), ont été conçues pour éduquer les individus sur la maltraitance des enfants et comment la prévenir. Cependant, les SGs qui sont présentement en existence se concentrent uniquement sur l’intimidation ou les abus sexuels chez les enfants et non sur toutes les formes possibles de maltraitance des enfants. De plus, la plupart des ressources concernant la prévention de la maltraitance des enfants s'adressent aux adultes et non aux enfants. Ce travail se concentre sur la conception d'un SG appelé ZeroAbuse qui englobe les quatre types de maltraitance des enfants: Physique, Émotionnel, Abus Sexuel et Négligence. Il combine les principes d'apprentissage, les éléments pour immerger le joueur dans le jeu et les critères de qualité des programmes de prévention. ZeroAbuse s'adresse aux enfants âgés de 9 à 11 ans, qui sont exposés de manière homogène à tous les types de maltraitance. Il tient également compte des compétences cognitives et physiques propres aux enfants de cet âge. La conception du SG a pris en compte les perspectives d'experts en prévention de la maltraitance des enfants et a été testée sur la population cible afin d’améliorer l'expérience de jeu et valider l'approche d'apprentissage.Child abuse is a critical problem affecting approximately one billion children worldwide annually. Lifelong injuries, disabilities, or even fatalities are risky consequences derived from child abuse. Several approaches, including Serious Games (SGs), have been designed to educate individuals about child abuse and how to prevent it. However, existing SGs focus only on bullying or sexual abuse and not all possible forms of child abuse. In addition, most of the existing resources for child abuse prevention are aimed at adults and not at children. This work focuses on designing an SG called ZeroAbuse that encompasses the four types of child abuse: Physical, Emotional, Sexual abuse and Neglect. It combines the principles of learning, the elements to immerse the player into the game, and the quality criteria of prevention programs. ZeroAbuse is aimed at children aged 9 to 11 years, given that they show homogeneous participation in all types of abuse. It also considers the cognitive and physical competencies of children at this age. The SG design considers the perspectives of experts in child abuse prevention and was tested on the target population to enhance the game experience and validate the learning approach

Dealing with abstraction: Case study generalisation as a method for eliciting design patterns

Developing a pattern language is a non-trivial problem. A critical requirement is a method to support pattern writers with abstraction, so as they can produce generalised patterns. In this paper, we address this issue by developing a structured process of generalisation. It is important that this process is initiated through engaging participants in identifying initial patterns, i.e. directly dealing with the 'cold-start' problem. We have found that short case study descriptions provide a productive 'way into' the process for participants. We reflect on a 1-year interdisciplinary pan-European research project involving the development of almost 30 cases and over 150 patterns. We provide example cases, detailing the process by which their associated patterns emerged. This was based on a foundation for generalisation from cases with common attributes. We discuss the merits of this approach and its implications for pattern development

Creativity Training for Future Engineers: Preliminary Results from an Educative Experience

Due in part to the increased pace of cultural and environmental change, as well as increased competition due to globalization, innovation is become one of the primary concerns of the 21st century. We present an academic course designed to develop cognitive abilities related to creativity within an engineering education context, based on a conceptual framework rooted in cognitive sciences. The course was held at \'Ecole Polytechnique de Montr\'eal (\'EPM), a world renowned engineering school and a pillar in Canada's engineering community. The course was offered twice in the 2014-2015 academic year and more than 30 students from the graduate and undergraduate programs participated. The course incorporated ten pedagogical strategies, including serious games, an observation book, individual and group projects, etc., that were expected to facilitate the development of cognitive abilities related to creativity such as encoding, and associative analytical thinking. The CEDA (Creative Engineering Design Assessment) test was used to measure the students' creativity at the beginning and at the end of the course. Field notes were taken after each of the 15 three-hour sessions to qualitatively document the educative intervention along the semester and students gave anonymous written feedback after completing the last session. Quantitative and qualitative results suggest that an increase in creativity is possible to obtain with a course designed to development cognitive abilities related to creativity. Also, students appreciated the course, found it relevant, and made important, meaningful learnings regarding the creative process, its cognitive mechanism and the approaches available to increase it.Comment: 10 page