Design Thinking in Engineering Education: Fab Lab as a Transversal Space
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School of Art and Design, AUT
Abstract
This study investigates the interactions between Design and Engineering, two areas that, in addition to going beyond their traditional boundaries, dialogue with other disciplines in search of innovative solutions to contemporary challenges. Focussing on the inclusion of Design teaching in Engineering courses, it uses the Design Thinking methodology as a strategic tool and the Fab Lab as a space for collaborative creation. Design is approached as a multidisciplinary element that can integrate and transcend disciplines, especially when applied to design practice, contributing to the training of engineers capable of developing innovative products and services. The exploratory research, based on a bibliographic and documentary review, built a theoretical framework that relates the ideas of great educators - such as Dewey, Montessori, Piaget, Papert and Perrenoud - to current trends in higher education. These trends include the teaching of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and STEAM (with the inclusion of the Arts), active learning strategies based on projects and maker education, which encourages creative practice. Two case studies were carried out to analyse the integration of design in engineering education. The first study took place at the Mauá Institute of Technology in São Paulo and analysed the application of Design Thinking in introductory engineering subjects. The second was conducted at the University of Porto, in Portugal, and examined the interaction between Environmental Engineering and Product Design students. In both cases, a great potential for collaboration between the areas was observed, as well as the students' positive receptiveness to the new model.Description
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Facca, C. (2024). Design thinking in engineering education: Fab Lab as a transversal space. In M. Steagall (Ed.), LINK 2024 6th International Conference in Practice-oriented
Research and Global South (pp.100-103). DOI https://10.24135/link2024.v5i1.234
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Copyright (c) 2024 LINK 2024 Conference Proceedings. Creative Commons License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.