Educate for Technological Innovation
Year: 2019
Editor: Wartzack, Sandro; Schleich, Benjamin; Gon
Author: Smulders, Frido; Broekhans, Bertien; Kamp, Aldert; Hellendoorn, Hans; Welleman, Hans
Series: ICED
Institution: Delft University of Technology
Section: Design Education
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.1017/dsi.2019.52
ISSN: 2220-4342
Abstract
At Polytechnics design & engineering students are taught about state-of-the-art technical knowledge. Students become qualified engineers and learn to innovate artifacts related to their domain.
Not taught is how to develop new engineering knowledge within a multidisciplinary context of stakeholders, companies and regulations. In short, students don?t learn to innovate technology. What is taught today is the result of a technological innovation of yesterday. This is not sufficient for industry to innovatively deal with society?s grand challenges.
The paper describes a project that aims to educate all TU Delft graduate students in the verb of innovating technology, that is, the development of new technologies from inventions in the labs to full-fledged application in business. Such along three dimensions: technical, human and business.
The educational portfolio consists of three modules in line with growth along Bloom?s taxonomy and online materials on theoretical backbones. All modules apply the notion of technological innovation journeys (Tijo?s). Tijo?s are rich descriptions of the developmental journey of new technology and are based on inventions from the university?s own labs.
Keywords: Education, Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Human behaviour technology