Collaborative Research: A Framework for Modeling and Measuring Collaborative Creativity in Early Stage Engineering Design Teams

该研究奖的目的是在工程设计团队中建立协作创造力模型，同时考虑个人的内部创造性过程和通过团队互动发生的外部创造性过程。创造性的新概念的产生是在工程设计创新的关键驱动力，但持续的挑战一直是假设的战略，一贯鼓励高质量的概念生成的设计团队。许多关于创造力的研究都集中在个人内部认知的理论上，而工程和组织行为学的研究则集中在团队层面上更普遍的以创造力为中心的活动上。将制定一套全面的实验和指标，以评估个人和协作创造力的每个方面的作用。如果成功的话，这项研究将有助于推进工程设计团队的创造力的本质的基本理解和进一步的设计创新的基本知识。这项工作将对许多行业产生影响，从产品开发到汽车到服务。从这项研究中产生的度量标准和方法将作为一个基础，从中制定策略，设计团队和组织变得更具创造性和创新性。这项研究将涉及麻省理工学院，南加州大学和韦尔斯利学院的本科生，妇女和代表性不足的少数民族的积极参与。研究还将涉及城市高中学生，以鼓励通过接触设计活动追求工程职业。

The objective of this research award is to model collaborative creativity in engineering design teams in a way that considers both an individual's internal creative processes and the external creative processes that occur through team interactions. Creativity in the generation of new concepts is a key driver of innovation in engineering design, but a continuing challenge has been to postulate strategies that consistently encourage high quality concept generation in design teams. Much research on creativity has focused on theories for internal cognition in individuals, while engineering and organizational behavior research has centered on more general creativity-focused activities at the team level. A comprehensive set of experiments and metrics will be formulated to assess the role of each of these aspects of individual and collaborative creativity. If successful, this research will help advance the fundamental understanding of the nature of creativity in engineering design teams and further the basic knowledge of innovation in design. This work will have impact across many industries, from product development to automotive to services. The metrics and approaches that arise from this research will serve as a foundation from which to develop strategies for design teams and organizations to become more creative as well as innovative. This research will involve the active participation of undergraduates, women, and underrepresented minorities at MIT, USC, and Wellesley College. Research will also involve urban high school students to encourage the pursuit of careers in engineering through exposure to design activities.