The Synthesis of Engineering and Art for Innovative Education

跨学科的创造力通常与艺术联系在一起，尽管创造力对于科学和工程中的创新发现和应用也是必不可少的。工程师除了具备技术能力外，还应具有创新精神和人文精神。该项目旨在实现这一愿景。指导这个项目的一个首要问题是：艺术和创造性思维的认知能力如何促进环境工程中创造性问题解决的发展，环境工程越来越多地被要求为复杂的人类和环境系统提出解决方案？该项目以研究和教育为重点，通过在以合成和设计工作室为中心的工程学本科课程中开发和实施跨学科序列，以及一系列教师发展研讨会来帮助教师将创造力融入他们的课堂。这项工作的学术价值在于将这一项目置于目前心理学、认知科学、教育和工程教育的研究范围内。这个项目具有更广泛的社会影响，因为它加深了对如何教育学生成为创造性和创新的思考者的理解，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.