INNO9002 Agile Innovation for STEM: User Centred Design & Development GE

2018

4.5

Specific contact hours for each topic include

• 3 x Full day intensive workshop immersions and
• 1 x full day application workshop

Attendance is also required at a number of additional course level full day application workshops.

None

Core topic

Assignments, Project, Tests

Traditionally, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education emphasizes problem solving ability through professional knowledge. Until recently, creativity was not perceived to play a major role in STEM education as the relationship between expertise and creativity is ambiguous. A lack of expertise can hardly produce creative ideas or enable engineer to recognize a creative solution among all alternatives. On the other hand, too-extensive expertise resulting in tendency to jump to first found solutions that can solve the imposed problem in a conventional manner, doesn’t promise any inventive ideas in tackling new problems. And our society is constantly transforming with new technologies and ideas imposing on individuals increased levels of cognitive complexity and a need to innovate continuously to create more, or better, value. To create market value with a technological or scientific solution the next generation of scientists and technology developers need to learn how their creative solutions better solve a problem for users and customers, who are willing to pay for the value created. This requires an emphatic understanding of user/customer problems and creative problem solving as a driver of research, technology development and commercialisation. The experiential nature of this course enables students to learn how to actively use innovation concepts like design thinking, agile development and lean startup. Engineers are learning that agile methodology in product development teams leads to more flexibility and better results, while the Lean Startup teaches students how to drive a startup with a steering wheel called the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop. Applying these, and other, concepts during hands-on exercises helps participants develop practical innovation skills and competencies.

This topic aims to:

Assist scientists, technologists, engineers and health professionals understand and apply creative problem solving techniques and user centred, iterative approaches to innovation, in order to achieve market impact with technological or scientific innovations.Students will engage in active learning promoting analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of class content. Aim is to engage students in (a) thinking. critically and creatively, (b) going outside the building and speaking with a user/customer, (c) developing and expressing ideas through ideation and evaluation, (d) exploring personal growth mindsets, (e) developing rapid prototypes as well as giving and receiving feedback on prototypes, (f) understand and apply various concepts within the innovation process while moving between problem space and solution space in short learning cycles, and (g) reflecting upon the learning process Students will not only create their own ideas but get a chance to develop prototypes of market applications for real technologies developed by Flinders or other partners.

On successful completion of this topic students should be able to:

• Understand the role of creativity in innovation and the motivation to include both in STEM education
• Breakdown creative problem solving techniques and apply user-centred design thinking to generate, evaluate and improve innovative ideas
• Demonstrate growth mindset andskills in creative, agile, customer centric and entrepreneurial thinking
• Use tools to analyse the concept of adding value and develop new ideas into opportunities that are feasible, viable and desirable
• Analyse and apply various concepts within the agile innovation process
• Make use of the build-measure-learn cycle, including rapid prototyping
• Write a business report and pitch innovative solutions for market application of existing technology/research following rapid prototype development and using a range of tools and media.