The powerpoint below was presented at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Technology in a plenary panel session on the forthcoming handbook, Anthonie Meijers (Ed.) (in press). Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Volume 9: Philosophy of Technology & Engineering Sciences, Elsevier.

The handbook is in press and more information is available on the Elsevier link above or the Amazon link here.

The Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education (iFoundry) will receive an HP Innovations in Education award package of HP technology, cash, and professional services valued at more than $260,000. Technologies such as wireless HP Tablet PCs, wide-format HP DesignJet printers, and remote access to high-power HP Blade Workstations from anywhere on campus, will be used in innovative ways to fundamentally redesign the undergraduate learning experience.

“The HP award is recognition of the systems approach iFoundry is taking to transform engineering education,” says iFoundry co-director David E. Goldberg. “Conceptual, organization, and curricular change must work together, and today they must work together in the context of great technology, both in- and outside the classroom.”

iFoundry seeks to transform the undergraduate engineering experience at a time when the demands of a creative era raise the need to develop engineers who are category creators, not just category enhancers. To help students practice engineering in an increasingly complex world, the pilot initiative maintains that engineers need increased exposure to design and increased attention to the objects of engineering, who they are made for and by whom they are made, as well as a larger picture of how engineers bring solutions to life.

iFoundry plans to deploy the HP technology, work stations, and tablet PC’s to create digital design hubs where students can explore these kinds of educational experiments and innovations conducted under the iFoundry rubric. The equipment generously provided by the grant will support collaboration in pilot courses in CAD/ID, between students in the learning community of a new freshman orientation course, and between the University of Illinois and faculty members and students at partner schools dedicated to transformative efforts in engineering education. iFoundry will also work closely with its Math, Science, Technology, and Education (MSTE) Office in the College of Education to support student volunteer efforts to educate local K-12 students on design artifacts and “how things work.”

More information about the 2009 HP Innovations in Education initiative and other global social investments is available at www.hp.com/go/grants.

iFoundry fellow Jim Leake gave a talk at Autodesk’s Global Colloquium at the ASEE Conference in Austin, TX last week.  The presentation is available in the viewer below

or on the iFoundry Slideshare page here.  Autodesk is sponsoring an iFoundry project that brings industrial design and engineering students and faculty together in and outside the classroom.

UPDATE:

See examples of student work from the above presentation in the video below:

or on the iFoundry Youtube channel here.

John Holz talks to iFoundry about his multi disciplinary career and the breadth of education he received at UIUC.

IESE alum Tim Phillis talks to iFoundry about his UIUC education and what he likes about iFoundry in the viewer below

or on the iFoundry YouTube channel (here).

Richard Henneman talks to iFoundry about the transformational experiences he had at the University of Illinois and after he graduated. Stay tuned for more interviews.

iFoundry would like to thank Dick Henneman for the interview and for the help during the IESE alumni board meeting.

The University of Illinois and Olin College co-sponsored yesterday’s Summit on the Engineer of the Future at Olin College.  iFoundry co-director David E. Goldberg helped open the summit with his remarks, Lonely Dots, Dot Connecting & the Engineer of the Future. Download the remarks in pdf form here.

In this video from the Inquiries on Education Seminar Series, Russell Korte talks about the transition from school to workplace for graduate engineers. 

Traditional product design cycle places user input on late stages of product development. User centered design places user input earlier on the design cycle. However, to really fulfill the needs of the consumer, the user input has to be placed in the very beginning of the development, right in the design brief stage.  This is one of the principles of the Empathic Design Approach.

The material landscape is everything that we surround ourselves with, from the products that we purchase and place in our home to the products that are purchased for us that we have to work with. This video talks about how the material landscape connects with our personality and how functionality and super-functionality influence industrial design.