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Learning from each other: a manufacturing company collaborates with undergraduate designers during the initial stages of idea generation
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posted on 2006-07-05, 16:53 authored by Howard G. Denton, D.C. McDonaghThe paper describes an exercise where a British manufacturer and a group of industrial
design undergraduates worked together in developing initial ideas for ‘blue sky’ concepts.
The aim was for undergraduate students to experience direct involvement with a product
development team from a manufacturing company. The company, in return, wanted its
team to become exposed to initial concept development work which is normally carried
external to this team in a separate design department.
Students were placed in small design teams and worked together over an intense three-day
period. Students from all years were invited to apply for a limited number of places and
selected on the basis of enthusiasm for the project rather than expertise and previous
academic achievement.
The exercise was evaluated by staff observation, student feedback questionnaires and
questions to the company staff. Discussion concludes that there are significant advantages
to operating concentrated design project work, whether it is team or individually based.
Such techniques are highly intensive. Students rise to the challenge, outputs are good in
terms of ideas and the positive experience for students. However, it is recommended that
such projects should not be conducted too frequently, due to the intensity for both staff
and students.
History
School
- Design
Pages
159308 bytesCitation
DENTON and MCDONAGH, 2002. Learning from each other: a manufacturing company collaborates with undergraduate designers during the initial stages of idea generation. IN: PAVLOVA and GUREVICH (eds), Challenges for Technology Education in the context of globalisation, NIRO First Biennial International Conference on Technology Education, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, 2002Publication date
2002Notes
This is a conference paper.ISBN
575650043XLanguage
- en