A creative Engineer? Sounds like a crazy oxymoron… no longer
Engineering is in the top ten courses in terms of drop out rates. Why is this? Well statistics show that many engineers haven’t been given the creative opportunities to tackle and deal with real life problems and applications in engineering. For many, engineering is intimidating and acceptance into engineering is seen as a one way route - or so they are lead to believe. Our proposition is to change peoples perceptions of what engineering actually is. We want to renovate engineering, to try and make people aware of the possibilities and opportunities engineering can provide as a creative subject, diverting away from this idea of a mathematical science based community. We believe that emphasising the creative scope of possibilities engineering can provide will appeal to young people and encourage them to get involved through pursuing engineering itself or working along side engineers. Turning the engineering community into an all inclusive creative space allowing expression, design and construction of our future. By combining engineering and creativity we can create so much more, working along side each other.
To do this we plan to introduce focused creative workshops and events both for young individuals and young professionals. These workshops and programs would lead onto a foundation year for people to meet and join a creative engineering community where the courses become multidisciplinary. Creating a social media presence and name within universities and further education.
We want to make engineers without boredom !
Hello, Ailsa and team D21-04. I'm Abdelilah and I've been assigned as your mentor. You've touched on an interesting and unique subject: Creativity within engineering education. I'm looking forward to watching how your ideas develop and become more sustainable.
As you mentioned, Engineering as a sector can become corporate and specific to certain issues with little creative freedom, sometimes at the mercy of clients, sometimes not. This limitation can interfere with engineers' individuality and realising their own potential while they develop their skills. It can also create a codependency on upper management and colleagues, constantly chasing a project assigned to them without ever having the ability to create their own projects and generate ideas which could cause their company to flourish.
Really valuable ideas you've all came up with.
To take this idea to the next level:
Think about the implications of your workshop. Engineering without mathematics and science is just design, taught on courses like graphic design and art. Engineering without design is impractical. Is there a more detailed way to include both? Is there a specific topic(s) to maximise freedom and creativity while also being practical? Is this going to be unique to each individual?
To what extent will you loosen the limitations on engineers to breed new creativity? Without proper restriction, this project could become Engineers Without Order. A scope too wide could create unrealistic design goals which are not feasible.
Is there a way to make your workshops both enjoyable and sustainable? Which sustainable development goals can be prioritised?
How can you achieve the implementation of your workshop? (Finance, investment, resources, employees, the structure of the course)
Finally, I want to share with you some workshops and ideas in the world right now.
The Pavilion Project is a creative workshop introduced between A-Level and University.
Mark Rober on Youtube is a creator and inventor with a Month.ly Course for creative engineering.
Several design groups in the CrowdSolve space have similar ideas, including #D2135 and #D2129. Would it be possible to approach and collaborate on some ideas?
As I've been assigned to your project quite late, I've been told I'm allowed to provide support for a little longer, so I will be providing feedback for you until midnight on the 20th of February UTC.
Again, really great project. If you like, we can discuss this more over Zoom to make the most of what time we have left.