Engineering Imagination - Summer School / Engineering Imagination - Summer School

Department of Technology and Innovation, Odense
Teaching activity id: T900005101.
Teaching language: English.ECTS / weighting: 5 ECTS / 0.083 full-time equivalent.
Period: Autumn 2018.Approved: 21-06-18.
Offered in: Odense.

Subject director:
Assistant Professor Steffen Michael Sørensen, Institut for Teknologi og Innovation.

Prerequisites:
At least two years of engineering studies.

Content - Key areas:
The mission of this interdisciplinary creative program for mixed students is to transform engineers into experience designers though the study of tangible fantasies.

Throughout the 2 week course, students in small teams will conceptualise, develop and test a concept for a Tangible Fantasy. Here a tangible fantasy is defined as a clear, definite and real idea with no current basis in reality. In short, the creation of an improbable thing.

The course will be split into 5 key phases, each phase lasting approximately 2 days.

Phase 1 - The Inspiration Bath

In this phase students will adopt an imaginative attitude. They will work with the core knowledge and skills used in the ideation and creative phases of experience design. They will build on their interdisciplinary research skills, teamwork skills, storytelling and artistic expression. This will lay the foundation for the future phases, and give a new perspective into how to add value via creative design.

Students will cain the core skills of deep personal reflection, understanding new possibilities, using readily available tools and techniques to create experiences, and will widen their toolbox of creative engineering options.

This phase can be seen as a “reboot” of classic engineering knowledge and skills, with a focus on how these skills can be transferred to the study of tangible fantasy.

This phase is taught via Inspirational introductions. It will contain a wide range of practical case studies and real world examples.

Phase 2 - Knowledge and Research

In this phase, students will adopt a Transformative attitude. They will explore the core knowledge of a select number of theories and practice from the fields of
Emotional design
Neuroscience
Behavioral psychology
Design thinking
System design
Human centered design

Students will also be introduced to key methods and theories including
Pine and Gilmore’s Experience Economy
Jordans Four Pleasure
Journey maps / experienced maps

Students will take practical class sessions and group work focusing on research via play in design
And Design anthropology. This will allow them to understand how to prototype, test and validate tangible fantasy concepts.

This phase will be taught via a combination of traditional Lectures and hands-on interactive research.

Phase 3 - Leadership and Imagination Management

In this phase students will adopt a courageous attitude. Students will be introduced to a range of flexible and adaptable leadership and management techniques that have been specially selected for working with projects with high risk, and intangible outcomes.

Tools introduced in this phase are:
Planning / Mapping
Agile Project Management
Change Management
Value proposition canvas
Leadership

This phase will be taught via: Group work, reflection, and a variety of practical case studies and examples.

Phase 4 - Experimenting

In this phase students will adopt a collaborative attitude. Students will create and take part in practical experiments and reflect upon experience design in practice. Students will develop the core knowledge of how to elicit emotions, understand the relationship between technology and emotion, and will broaden their   range of technical possibilities through experimentation. Students will build on core skills of Emotional intelligence, chaos management and their ability to break free of conventional engineering.

This phase will be taught via: workshops, group testing and practical experimentation.

Phase 5 - Production - Bringing it all to life

In this phase students will adopt an experiential attitude. Students will focus on how to explore, communicate, and validate the tangible fantasy concepts they have designed.

Core skills and knowledge for this phase will be:
Understanding explorable worlds
Effectively engineering emotions
Creating customised experiences
Innovation in a non-engineering way
Creating differentiation through experience design


Learning outcomes:
The learning outcomes for this course can be seen through the knowledge, skills and attitudes framework developed by Kaospilot - The art and Craft of Facilitating learning spaces, learning experience and strategy design.


Knowledge transfer
Whatever the source of information be it texts, audio visual or lecture slides; information cannot become knowledge until there is understanding. Knowledge is gained through an internal (phenomenal) processing of information into understanding. Therefore knowledge is developed out of engaged interaction - we discuss information and we embody it through participation and physical exercises. We do this in order to address the spectrum of learning styles represented in each unique student. Therefore we foster knowledge transfer using concrete examples through to creative conceptual thinking utilising both activities and personal reflection.

Skill acquisition and application.

Skill needs to include two key factors to be fully effective. The functional mastery of particular implements (tools and methods) that a person uses in order to accomplish something as well as the quality or finesse with which they apply these tools. These two factors also equate to the type of skill (theoretical and practical)   they master and secondly, the intellectual ability to understand the complexity of situations in which and in what way it is appropriate to wield these skill for the best outcome.

Students will have opportunities to apply and reflect upon their ability to
  • Inspire creativity and work with “out of the box” thinking.
  • Improve Knowledge and Research of intangible scenarios.
  • Gain real world skills in Leadership and Imagination Management.
  • Practically and critically work with live experiments and production.


Developing Competency.
In this course students will work independently and in groups to challenge themselves and so develop competencies in
  • The development of emerging new forms and formats for communicating and engineering experience based insights.
  • Identifying and taking action on design opportunities which emerge from in-depth practical research.
  • Reflecting on the role of experience in terms of designing meaningful outcomes for people

Time of classes:
Week 33-34, 2018

Evaluation
Internal examination with co-examiner assessed according to the 7-point grading scale based on an overall assessment of:

  • Attendance (80 %)
  • Journal with deliveries during the 2 weeks

Hand-in on the last day of the course. Marking takes place after the summer course

Comments:
Please note that registration for this course is binding

Programmes:
Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Product Development and Innovation)
5. semester, special course. Offered in: Odense
Bachelor of Engineering in Integrated Design
5. semester, special course. Offered in: Odense