Sven G. Bilen - US grants

Industrial leaders have long expressed a mounting concern about the impact of traditional engineering education on the creative potential of future engineers. A lack of creativity is problematic in a rapidly changing technology-oriented world where generating new ideas is essential to survival. One of the industrial perceptions of weaknesses in new BS engineering graduates is a lack of design capability or creativity, and a lack of appreciation of considering alternatives. Further, a 1995 ASME report ranked creative thinking as 5th of 56 top desired "best practices" for new BS-level engineers as seen by industry and academe. In the past few years, universities have responded to this challenge by adding more design content and introducing more open-ended design problems into the engineering curriculum. The most common approach to idea generation or creativity, however, has been the use of brainstorming that calls upon the designer to look inward for inspiration on creative solutions to the problem at hand. This can be a daunting task, which may or may not be fruitful. Systematic creativity methods such as the theory of inventive principles (TRIZ), guide the concept generation process using solution patterns derived from problems similar to the one being solved. These methods are typically introduced in senior or graduate elective courses, if at all. An EMD proof-of-concept grant from NSF would allow the faculty of the Engineering Design Program working with faculty in the Electrical, Industrial and Mechanical Engineering Departments at Penn State to develop materials that would facilitate teaching systematic creativity methods in four core undergraduate design courses: the first-year Introduction to Engineering Design course and the capstone design courses in the three participating departments. Specifically, we propose (1) to develop systematic creativity modules and materials, based on the Theory of Inventive Principles (TRIZ), for the first-year introductory course and the three capstone courses, (2) to promote amongst the faculty an awareness and understanding of the TRIZ method, (3) to develop assessment and research strategies that would allow Penn State to contribute to the research knowledge on the teaching and learning of creativity using systematic creativity methods. It is expected that the outcome of this work will result in materials widely applicable by other engineering departments and institutions looking to address the national need to increase the creative potential of future engineers.

Methods will be developed to address two pedagogical issues currently lacking solutions: (1) effective models and materials for introducing systematic creativity in core engineering courses; (2) a comprehensive research plan to study the effects of the introduction of systematic creativity methods on the creative potential of engineering graduates. Key questions to be answered include: Can the introduction of systematic creativity result in a person learning to be more creative? To what extent does systematic creativity correlate with different learning styles or personality traits, both of which have been shown to contribute to a person's creative potential. What are the best instruments to measure the effects of the intervention on a person's creative potential? What effect would the intervention have on retention rates?

The materials developed will have impacts beyond the four targeted undergraduate courses. An interactive on-line tool, based on one of the key TRIZ concepts, technical contradictions, is being developed as part of the proposal. The tool will be publicly available and populated with a large number of real-world examples, categorized by discipline. This will go far beyond what is currently available and provide a valuable resource to other institutions and companies wishing to adopt the TRIZ approach. In addition, the developed materials incorporate the language and analysis models common in engineering design (TRIZ has a large number of unique analysis models) thereby removing one of the barriers to wider adoption of the approach. The materials will also be suitable for use in short courses in industry. Finally, the outcomes of the research strategies and assessments will advance discovery and understanding of the teaching of creativity and the learning of creativity using systematic methods such as TRIZ.

This 9-week summer REU Site program will allow undergraduate students to participate in cutting-edge research in the field of electrical engineering and expose them to interdisciplinary aspects of research through a carefully designed program of individually mentored research projects and team activities such as: 1) Weekly Scientific Seminars;
2) Professional Development Workshops in Ethics and Entrepreneurship; and 3) Field Visit Programs. The REU students will be mentored and guided by highly qualified professors and supported by state-of-the-art laboratories. Their research achievements will be documented in the EEREU Annual Research Journal which will be published yearly by this program. The main objective of this program is to strengthen the participants' educational experiences and to motivate them to select electrical engineering research careers or to enter into advanced graduate study.

The involvement of undergraduates in engineering research with exposure to ethical issues in technology and society has implications beyond the technical scope of the individual research projects, and the inclusion of entrepreneurship will show how research products from the lab transitions to products that impact society.

Recruitment efforts will be carried out nationwide, with emphasis on junior students, especially those from underrepresented groups and in colleges with limited research opportunities.

Intellectual Merit:
Knowledge of englacial and subglacial conditions are critical for ice sheet models and predictions of sea-level change. Some of the critical variables that are poorly known but essential for improving flow models and predictions of sea-level change are: basal roughness, subglacial sedimentary and hydrologic conditions, and the temporal and spatial variability of the ice sheet flow field. Seismic reflection and refraction imaging and dense arrays of continuously operating GPS receivers can determine these parameters. The PIs propose to develop a network of wirelessly interconnected geophysical sensors (geoPebble) that will allow glaciologists to carry out these experiments simultaneously. This sensor web will provide a new way of imaging the ice sheet that is not possible with current instruments. With this sensor web, the PIs will extend the range of existing instruments from 2D to 3D, from low resolution to high resolution, but more importantly, all the geophysical measurements will be conducted synchronously. By the end of the proposal period the PIs will produce a network of 150-200 geoPebbles that will be available for NSF-sponsored glaciology research projects.

Broader impacts:
Improved knowledge of the flow law of ice, the sliding of glaciers and ice streams, and paleoclimate history will contribute to assessments of the potential for abrupt ice-sheet mass change, with consequent sea-level effects and significant societal impacts. This improved modeling ability will be a direct consequence of better knowledge of the physical properties of ice sheets, which this project will facilitate. The development effort will be integrated with the undergraduate education program via the capstone design classes in EE and the senior thesis requirement in Geoscience. The PIs will also form a cohort of first-year and sophomore students who will work in their labs from the beginning of the project to develop specifications through the commissioning of the network.

This renewal REU Site program will continue to provide individually challenging experiences in research and well-organized integrative team activities and professional development in ethics, entrepreneurship, and systems engineering to accomplish its objective of attracting talented undergraduate students and providing a program of unique, high quality, and balanced research activities that positively impact the participants' lifelong career choices in engineering research.

The REU site renewal will continue to broaden opportunities and provide enhanced research experiences for talented and diversified domestic undergraduate students, especially from the underrepresented groups. Furthermore, the involvement of the undergraduates in engineering research with exposure to ethical issues in tech transfer has implications well beyond the technical scope of the individual research projects, and the inclusion of entrepreneurship shows how research products from the lab transition to products that impact society. It is expected that undergraduate participants will gain successful admission to graduate school, and become outstanding researchers in their chosen fields and strong contributors to society both as individual researchers and as team oriented professionals.