The Synthesis of Engineering and Art for Innovative Education

尽管创造力对于科学和工程领域的创新发现和应用也是必不可少的，但创造力常常与艺术联系在一起。工程师除了技术能力外，还应该具有创新精神和人文精神。本项目旨在实现这一愿景。指导这个项目的一个首要问题是：在环境工程中，越来越多地要求为复杂的人类和环境系统提出解决方案，艺术创造性思维的认知能力如何为创造性解决问题的发展提供信息？该项目侧重于研究和教育，通过开发和实施以综合和设计工作室为中心的工程本科课程的跨学科序列，以及一系列教师发展研讨会，帮助教师将创造力融入他们的课堂，来解决这一问题。这项工作的智力价值在于将该项目纳入当前心理学、认知科学、教育学和工程教育的研究中。该项目具有更广泛的社会影响，因为它进一步了解如何教育学生成为创造性和创新的思想家，使他们能够更好地为解决大规模问题做好准备。

Interdisciplinary (99)Creativity has often been associated with the arts, although creativity is also essential for innovative discoveries and applications in science and engineering. An engineer should be innovative and humanistic in addition to being technically competent. This project is designed to actualize that vision. An overarching question that guides this project is: How may the cognitive capacity of artistic, creative thinking inform the development of creative problem solving in environmental engineering, which is increasingly called upon to propose solutions for complex human and environmental systems? This project focuses on both research and education to address this concern by developing and implementing an interdisciplinary sequence in the engineering undergraduate curriculum centered on synthesis and design studios, and a series of faculty development workshops to help faculty integrate creativity into their classrooms. The intellectual merit of this work lies in framing this project within current research in psychology, cognitive science, education, and engineering education. This project has broader societal impacts as it is furthers understanding of how to teach students to be creative and innovative thinkers so that they can be better prepared for tackling large scale issues.