Virtual Creative Problem-solving Workshops
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual Conference
- Publication Date
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July 26, 2021
- Start Date
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July 26, 2021
- End Date
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July 19, 2022
- Conference Session
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Entrepreneurship and Engineering Innovation Division Technical Session 2
- Tagged Division
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Entrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation
- Page Count
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13
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--38012
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/38012
- Download Count
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422
Paper Authors
Abdullah Konak Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
Abdullah Konak is a Professor of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University Berks. Dr. Konak received his degrees in Industrial Engineering, B.S. from Yildiz Technical University, Turkey, M.S. from Bradley University, and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Konak’s current research interest is in the application of Operations Research techniques to complex problems, including such topics as network design, network reliability, facilities design, and data mining. Dr. Konak has published papers in journals such as IIE Transactions, Operations Research Letters, Informs Journal on Computing, IEEE Transactions on Reliability, International Journal of Production Research, and Production Economics. He has been a principal investigator in sponsored projects from the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Labor, and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.
Dr. Konak currently teaches courses on Database Management Systems, Information Security, and Technology-based Entrepreneurship. He is a member of IEEE and INFORMS.
Sadan Kulturel-Konak Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
Sadan Kulturel‐Konak is a professor of Management Information Systems and the director of the Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CEED) Center at Penn State Berks. She received her Ph.D.in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Auburn University. Dr. Kulturel-Konak has been teaching a variety of courses in Project Management, New Venture Creation, Statistics, etc. She engages her students in research and mission projects in the US and overseas as well. Her scholarly research interests are in i) modeling and optimization of complex systems and robustness under uncertainty with applications to facility layout, reliability, and scheduling, ii) student professional skill development and assessment. She has been a principal investigator in sponsored projects from National Science Foundation (NSF) and VentureWell. She is currently an academic member elected to the College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE). Previously, she served as the president of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Forum on Women in Operations Research and Management Science (WORMS), chair of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Mid Atlantic Section, and chair of the Facility Logistics Special Interest Group of the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics (TSL). sadan@psu.edu.
Kathleen Marie Hauser P.E. Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
Kathleen Hauser is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Engineering at Penn State Berks where she has been employed full time since 2015. Her teaching experience began as an adjunct in 2002 at Penn State's Capital College where she taught various advanced structural design and engineering mechanics courses. Since her affiliation at Penn State Berks in 2008, her focus has been on engineering design at the freshman and senior levels. She was the recipient of the Outstanding Community Engagement Award in 2020 and Outstanding Part-Time Teaching Award in 2014. A firm supporter of STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math), she has presented often at conferences for middle and high school students. She was also the Partner Representative and Regional Championship Tournament Director for the Pennsylvania East Region of FIRST LEGO League for several years.
Professor Hauser is a licensed professional engineer who spent sixteen years working as a structural engineer. Her experience includes working as a senior engineer for a structural design firm and working as a project engineer for a precast/prestressed concrete manufacturer. During her employment she obtained several patents and was recognized as Outstanding Employee of the Year in 1999. She also wrote several articles for specialized industry publications.
Professor Hauser earned a Master of Engineering in Engineering Science in 2001, a Structural Engineering Certificate in 1999, and a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering Structural Option With Distinction With Honors with an Engineering Mechanics Minor in 1995, all from The Pennsylvania State University. Her master's dissertation was on "Comparison of Approximate and more Rational Methods for Shear Wall Buildings Subject to Seismic Loads." Her honors' dissertation was on "The Progress of Building Design over the Last Twenty Years." She also studied abroad at the University of Leeds in England.
Marietta R. Scanlon Pennsylvania State University, Berks Campus
Dr. Marietta Scanlon holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and an SM and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering. She is an Associate Teaching Professor of Engineering in the Division of Engineering, Business and Computing at Penn State University, Berks Campus and serves as co-director of the FiERCE program. Her interests include 3D printing technologies as well as STEM education and outreach and innovative teaching delivery methods.
Abstract
All levels of education are facing an unprecedented challenge because of the pandemic; therefore, instructors are making all kinds of efforts to ensure to keep the high-quality education and exploring diverse ways to reach out and engage students in the content delivered. We redesigned a creative problem-solving workshop for online settings to help students think more creatively in their class projects and practice a growth mindset. One of the primary objectives of the workshop is to increase students’ awareness of cognitive biases, barriers, and traps that prevent individuals to be creative. The workshop program targets information technology and engineering classes that include significant design components. The workshop is delivered at the beginning of the semester in an hour guest-lecture format. The tools and techniques learned in the workshop can then be applied to subsequent design projects during the semester. The workshop instructors quickly adapted the workshop content to be delivered remotely in Fall 2020. The workshop exercise problems were created in the online format and made available for students through the course management system that the university uses. The course professors commented that the workshop helped to reinforce the concepts that their students had been learning before the workshop. The evaluation of the workshop program shows that students think that the concepts, techniques, and exercises discussed during the workshop introduced them to design thinking and creativity. In addition, Bono’s Six Hats method, which was introduced in a faculty workshop and then applied extensively in the remote environment, had highly positive results.
Konak, A., & Kulturel-Konak, S., & Hauser, K. M., & Scanlon, M. R. (2021, July), Virtual Creative Problem-solving Workshops Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--38012
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