Announcements

CEIE 896 “Design and Inventive Engineering” - a new course to consider

This course is an updated version of the popular IT 894 “Design and Inventive Engineering” graduate course, in which 12 studentsregistered last time. This fall, the course is being temporarily listed as CEIE 896. It is conveniently offered on Friday afternoons to avoid conflicts with other graduate courses and to allow guest lecturers to fly in from other parts of the country. 
“Design and Inventive Engineering” is a rigorous academic course- but it is much more than that. For many students, the course has been transformative for their education and their lives. Practical and analytical knowledge and skills (known as “practical and analytical intelligence”) are obvious subjects to learn for any scholars and engineering professionals. However, using “reason” alone does not lead to the creation of novel solutions, which are the key to progress in science and engineering. To become truly successful, we also need to learn “creative intelligence,” i.e. the ability to develop novel solutions. This course teaches the fundamentals of creative intelligence as well as how to use it. Creative intelligence leads to “out-of-the-box” thinking which, in turn, leads to the building of a significant competitive advantage both in science in general and in engineering in particular.
In this class, students work on three home assignments and on individual research projects as well. The results of these projects are presented during the final session in front of an audience of other students, faculty, and invited guests.  The instructor presents the majority of class lectures but usually several invited speakers- preeminent design scholars and inventors- lead discussions and participate in the class as well. 
The following is a short overview of CEIE 896:

1. Fundamentals

Transdisciplinarity, Successful Intelligence, Creative Class, The Medici Effect, The Renaissance Man, Leonardo Da Vinci and Seven Principles, Thomas Edison and his inventive system.

1. Design Engineering

System Designing and Architecting, Design and Inventive Engineering, Engineering Method, Heuristics and Decision Rules, AI in Design, Designing as Search, Constraint Search, Constructive Induction, Design Theories: Axiomatic Design Theory and Inferential Design Theory.

1. Inventive Engineering

Edison and his inventive System, Brainstorming, Synectics, Morphological Analysis, TRIZ and Directed Evolution, Visual Thinking in Inventive Design, Bio-Inspiration in Design and Generative Representations, Inventive Design in Practice.

1. Project Presentations

For more information, contact Dr. Tomasz Arciszewski at tarcisze@gmu.edu.