Developing Design Thinking in Multi-Disciplinary Teams

University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, 2008 - $34,500

The University of Illinois team will create a “design thinking” course for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in the areas of industrial design, engineering and entrepreneurship. Design thinking is the human-centered approach to design and innovation to address the requirements of feasibility, desirability and viability. The course will focus on E-Team formation with multidisciplinary faculty support. These E-Teams will be encouraged to apply for E-Team grants through NCIIA. The grant will offer a course called “Design thinking in multi-disciplinary teams” for both regular academic semesters and summer session, to accommodate the rigid class schedules of engineering and technology students. Most of the time will center on actual project work, but the course will also involve support lectures covering various topics as well as presentations by project teams for critique. These E-Teams will be required to prepare business models for their projects to emphasize the entrepreneurial aspect of this course.