Promoting Creativity through Integration of Arts & Design

Faculty members in engineering and technology are working with their counterparts in the fine arts to integrate Engineering, Technology, and Arts (ETA) and develop an experimental Design Track in the existing Mechanical Engineering master's program at IUPUI. Students in the proposed ETA Design Track will acquire real-world problem solving skills through short-term programs with industry and national laboratories. This project involves the development of three interdisciplinary courses: (i) Irregular, free-form, and origami inspired structures, (ii) Optimal design of mechatronic systems: toys, robots and interactive structures, and (iii) Environmental pollution and emission control. The courses will be team-developed and taught by faculty from programs in interior design, video art and interactive installations, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering technology. These three courses will constitute the proposed ETA Design Track and support a new Graduate Certificate in Design. Pedagogical approaches will include problem-based, studio-based, and experiential learning. The project will test the ability of ETA curriculum integration, as well as experiential learning in industry or government laboratories, to enhance creativity and innovation among participating graduate students.

SEIRI Personnel: Grant Fore; Justin L Hess

Collaborators: Sohel Anwar (PI); Young Suk Lee (IU South Bend); Afshin Izadian; Razi Nalim; Anusha Rao; Andres Tovar; Jiangme Wu (IU Bloomington) 

Funding Organization: NSF Division of Graduate Education

RFP: National Research Traineeship (NRT) Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE)

Grant Status: Current (09/01/2016 - 08/31/2019)

Grant #: 1633426

Award Amount: $452,958

Presentations:  Inside Indiana Business with Gerry Dick