Engineering Ideation Method Efficacy Study

Sierra Lynn Repp; Sean Lyle Gestson; Jacob P. Kimball

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Student Division Technical Session 5: Self- Efficacy
Tagged Division: Student Division (STDT)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47284

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Paper Authors

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Sierra Lynn Repp University of Portland

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Sierra Repp is a senior mechanical engineering undergraduate student from the University of Portland Honors Program. She has hosted several different design and ideation workshops, including three at the University of Portland Pilot Space (a maker space with a variety of tools for students to use for their personal or school projects) and one at the 2023 Western Regional Honors Conference in Missoula, Montana. At University of Portland, Sierra is also the secretary and STEM-outreach coordinator for the Robotics Team and is the secretary for Tau Beta Pi Oregon Gamma Chapter, the school's engineering honors society.

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Sean Lyle Gestson University of Portland

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Sean Gestson graduated from the University of Portland (UP) in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in civil engineering with a research emphasis in engineering education from Oregon State University (OSU). His engineering education research aims to understand more about the gap in student preparedness for the engineering workplace. He has worked closely with engineering practitioners, faculty, and students to understand more about their problem-solving behavior, beliefs around engineering knowledge, and learning more about what it means to be an engineer. Sean enjoys being active outdoors with his family and friends while climbing, mountain biking, and camping.

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Jacob P. Kimball University of Portland orcid.org/0000-0002-3241-6823

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Dr. Jacob P. Kimball is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering at the University of Portland. My general research interests include designing clinically relevant medical devices and systems and translating them from the lab to multiple patient care settings. A strong focus of my research is developing new algorithms and technologies for evaluating patient blood volume decompensation status or compensatory reserve. I enjoy helping students at all levels learn, apply, and develop engineering methods and tools to address problems in healthcare.

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Abstract

This research paper seeks to understand how introducing different engineering ideation methods to participants during a problem-solving workshop impacts participant’s productivity, creativity, and confidence in their ideas. Prior research shows improvement in creativity and productivity over the course of a problem-solving class. The work in this paper expands from that to show the impact of different specific ideation methods and how the introduced methods change the participant’s ideation processes during a short problem-solving session.

The data for this project will be collected during two different workshop sessions. The first workshop was conducted for 11 senior engineering students of various majors from a medium-sized university in Portland, OR, as part of an optional class breakout session. The second workshop will be conducted in a similar manner with a team of practicing engineers at a medium-sized manufacturing company as part of a monthly meeting to discuss new research related to the company. Before beginning, participants were given a pre-session survey to assess their current comfort level with engineering problem-solving methods and their current ideation process. Following this, participants were assigned an engineering challenge of improving pedestrian or vehicle safety. This broad-natured challenge was chosen because it is something with which each participant has had first-hand experience. Participants were given 15 minutes to solve this challenge without being introduced to any ideation method. Following this, participants were then asked to continue to solve the engineering design challenge for an additional 15 minutes using an assigned ideation method. The methods introduced and assigned were Chindogu, Mind-Mapping, Biomimicry, Rapid Ideation, or no method. These methods were chosen because they are unique from each other and are the foundation for many other problem-solving techniques. Finally, participants were asked to complete a post-session survey to assess their opinions related to their brainstorming and how it was impacted by the given ideation method.

Trends in the data related to productivity, creativity, and confidence were analyzed from the post-session survey. A Likert scale of 1-10 was used, with 10 meaning significant improvement and 1 meaning no improvement. From the student workshop, participants who were assigned a new problem-solving method averaged a 5.3±1.9 for increase in productivity, an 8±2.8 for increase in creativity, and 6.4±2.1 for increase in confidence in their ideas. The practicing engineering group will be evaluated in a similar manner after their session.

This study highlights why it is important to teach a variety of problem- solving methods in engineering. The trends within this study show that, even before being assigned to a problem-solving method, people solve problems in diverse ways. However, by introducing people to different ideation methods, this data suggests that it is possible to expand their problem-solving abilities to be more productive, creative, and confident with their ideas. If these methods are introduced at the undergraduate level, students may be able to utilize a larger variety of problem-solving methods in the workforce, leading to a larger diversity of solutions to the variety of challenges they face.

Citation
Format

Repp, S. L., & Gestson, S. L., & Kimball, J. P. (2024, June), Engineering Ideation Method Efficacy Study Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47284

TY - CPAPER
AB - This research paper seeks to understand how introducing different engineering ideation methods to participants during a problem-solving workshop impacts participant’s productivity, creativity, and confidence in their ideas. Prior research shows improvement in creativity and productivity over the course of a problem-solving class. The work in this paper expands from that to show the impact of different specific ideation methods and how the introduced methods change the participant’s ideation processes during a short problem-solving session.

The data for this project will be collected during two different workshop sessions. The first workshop was conducted for 11 senior engineering students of various majors from a medium-sized university in Portland, OR, as part of an optional class breakout session. The second workshop will be conducted in a similar manner with a team of practicing engineers at a medium-sized manufacturing company as part of a monthly meeting to discuss new research related to the company. Before beginning, participants were given a pre-session survey to assess their current comfort level with engineering problem-solving methods and their current ideation process. Following this, participants were assigned an engineering challenge of improving pedestrian or vehicle safety. This broad-natured challenge was chosen because it is something with which each participant has had first-hand experience. Participants were given 15 minutes to solve this challenge without being introduced to any ideation method. Following this, participants were then asked to continue to solve the engineering design challenge for an additional 15 minutes using an assigned ideation method. The methods introduced and assigned were Chindogu, Mind-Mapping, Biomimicry, Rapid Ideation, or no method. These methods were chosen because they are unique from each other and are the foundation for many other problem-solving techniques. Finally, participants were asked to complete a post-session survey to assess their opinions related to their brainstorming and how it was impacted by the given ideation method.

Trends in the data related to productivity, creativity, and confidence were analyzed from the post-session survey. A Likert scale of 1-10 was used, with 10 meaning significant improvement and 1 meaning no improvement. From the student workshop, participants who were assigned a new problem-solving method averaged a 5.3±1.9 for increase in productivity, an 8±2.8 for increase in creativity, and 6.4±2.1 for increase in confidence in their ideas. The practicing engineering group will be evaluated in a similar manner after their session.

This study highlights why it is important to teach a variety of problem- solving methods in engineering. The trends within this study show that, even before being assigned to a problem-solving method, people solve problems in diverse ways. However, by introducing people to different ideation methods, this data suggests that it is possible to expand their problem-solving abilities to be more productive, creative, and confident with their ideas. If these methods are introduced at the undergraduate level, students may be able to utilize a larger variety of problem-solving methods in the workforce, leading to a larger diversity of solutions to the variety of challenges they face.
AU - Sierra Lynn Repp
AU - Sean Lyle Gestson
AU - Jacob P. Kimball
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Engineering Ideation Method Efficacy Study
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47284
ER -