Engineering design concept generation: The effect of concept combination and classification

World economic forum reported that creativity is one of the most sought after skills by employers globally. Preliminary research lead to multiple initiatives on enhancing creativity and innovation. To contribute in this field, we investigated the effect of two interventions on the creativity of undergraduate engineering students, particularly on engineering design concept generation. The primary focus of this investigation was on assessing the effect of two interventions, combining and classifying concepts, on the originality and quantity of the concepts produced. In this research, we used the Decision Tree for Originality Assessment in Design (DTOAD) as a measure of concept originality. Statistical analysis showed that both the combine and the classify interventions lead to concept generation with higher originality. We also found that students produced higher number of the radically different concept, i.e. concepts with originality score 7.5 and above, however this effect was observed in all the test groups. These interventions made improvements and thus can be encouraged as a part of an ideation or an engineering problem solving task in the undergraduate engineering education to help the students develop creative skills

Understanding engineering students' perceptions of their curiosity, diligence, and perseverance and assessing its impact on their creativity

Publisher Copyright: © The author/s, 2022.Creativity has been among the most in-demand skills for many years. Previous studies have shown that being curious, hardworking, and persevering can significantly impact one's performance. This article is an exploratory study to understand engineering students' self-perception towards their own 1) Curiosity, 2) Diligence, and 3) Perseverance and how it affects their creativity. The research uses a well-curated study based on a survey, rubrics and statistics. The study found that curiosity has the highest potential to support creativity. However, it also has a rather intriguing relationship with diligence and perseverance. Awareness of the dynamic correlations between these three aspects can help educators design their pedagogical practices to support students to be more creative problem solvers.Peer reviewe