Applied Design Thinking for Scientists and Engineers – Part Two

Design thinking is widely considered to be an essential skill for 21st century leaders and innovative thinkers. An important aspect of design thinking is that there is rarely a single correct answer to a complex problem. It is an iterative, interdisciplinary and collaborative process toward crafting acceptable solutions. 

This webinar, following on from Part 1, is designed to provide engineers and scientists the opportunity to sample different thinking styles – including divergent, convergent, critical, analytical, and integrative. It guides students through the different steps of the design thinking process: starting with empathy, into problem definition, ideation, prototyping, building, measurement, and analysis. On the technical side, this webinar focuses on introducing systems and system controls to emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations in solving complex challenges. 

The webinar is based on the assumption that enrolled students have no prior knowledge in the selected subject area. Rather, they will be introduced to the necessary knowledge through simple and quick activities. A number of concepts related to design thinking will be discussed, including differences between science and engineering, innovation and relationships to entrepreneurship, prototyping, theoretical systems design.