The word creativity invokes different images in people. Some think of arts, music, and drama, while others might think about the innovative scientific discoveries made in recent years. As part of my work in the College of Engineering at Penn State, I have begun to do some research on creativity and the creative process. Given my interests, I thought it might be interesting to create a blog dedicated to this topic. Engineering is the ideal domain for exploring the creative process. Innovation is perceived to be very important to engineers, although many of them do not consider themselves to be creative. Yet the most successful engineers need to be creative in order to come up with the next new technological feat.
A little bit about me... I was trained as an educational psychologist specializing in testing and measurement. I began working in the College of Engineering in 2007 and have realized the importance of the professional skill set for engineers. For full disclosure, I do not really consider myself to be a creative individual. When I look at the different steps in the creative process, as defined by Mumford and colleagues, I would consider myself to be better at the implementation aspects rather than the generative aspects. In other words, I can get things done. I am a doer, but I am not a visionary. I feel like I have trouble coming up with new ideas and with conceptual combinations. But since I know that training can help with different aspects of the creative process, I am hoping to stretch myself and become better at idea generation. Maybe this blog will be the start! This blog will be a repository for interesting topics, research, and ideas that have stemmed out of engineering. I am excited to get started and hope that you'll all join me!
P.S. Here's a picture of me and my son, who inspires me everyday with the interesting conceptual combinations his brain comes up with. Since I think he will be an engineer some day, you may hear about him again in future posts!
