Design Thinking and Creative Problem Solving for Undergraduate Engineering Education in India: The Need and Relevance

Abstract

A way to spark design, creativity and innovation culture in the country is by encouraging Design Thinking and Creative Problem Solving in the vast spread of technical educational institutes in India. Facilitating them in engineering education would benefit students by providing them a structure to think creatively and meaningfully in their education and future profession. At the same time, it would bring the much-needed awareness about design’s deeper notion of being a systematic and creative problem solving approach among engineering students. This would increase the value of design in the community of engineers. A study to evaluate the need and relevance of design thinking and creative problem solving from the perspective of engineering students was conducted in the name of a ‘pop-up class’ for one week, without any credit incentives at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD). 30 3rd year Bachelor students from various technical fields (chemical, mechanical, civil, production engineering, textile, electrical engineering and engineering physics) participated in the study. They were introduced to the topic via a mix of theoretical lectures, case discussions and practical workshops. The workshop had been evaluated by the students with a questionnaire at the end of the study and subsequently analyzed. All respondents answered that Design Thinking and Creative Problem Solving are relevant for their education. 90% responded positively to the suggestion of introducing such a course in their education stating that it’s important for engineers to know how to solve real world problems in a meaningful way, and by this to drive innovation. Although most students agreed that it should become a compulsory course, they feared for its value, when it would become grade oriented like other courses.

Appendix 1: Research Questionnaire

Part 1 (1 is bad, 5 or 10 is excellent)

For how many days did you manage to attend the course?

How would you rate the overall learning experience of the course?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5$

With respect to your engineering studies, how relevant do you think is Design Thinking?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

With respect to your engineering studies, how relevant is the creative problem solving process?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

With respect to your engineering studies, how useful are the idea generation techniques?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

What kind of an effect did the learning have on your approach to solve problems?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

Part 2

Comparing to the last day’s experience to the first. (1 is bad, 10 is excellent)

What happened to the quantity of ideas?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

What happened to the quality of solutions?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

How about the process? What effect did it had on the final outcomes?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

How was the experience of working in a team?

$1\quad \quad 2\quad \quad 3\quad \quad 4\quad \quad 5\quad \quad 6\quad \quad 7\quad \quad 8\quad \quad 9\quad \quad 10$

Part 3

Do you think that ‘design thinking for undergraduate engineers’ should be a semester course (like an elective) for all students?

Y/N

Why do you think so?

Any suggestions for improvements?