Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise

to design awareness

Cynthia J. Atman, Ph.D.

Mitchell T. & Lella Blanche Bowie Endowed Chair

Director, Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching

Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering University of Washington

atman@uw.edu

Pronouns: she/her

Distinguished Lecture sponsored by the DEED & ERM Divisions

American Society of Engineering Education Conference

June 24, 2024

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Special thanks to Jennifer Turns, partner in crime since 1998.

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This work was supported by the Mark & Carolyn Guidry Foundation, the Mitchell T. and Lella Blanche Bowie Endowment and the Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching at the University of Washington. It includes a review of work funded by National Science Foundation grants 9358516, 9714459, 9872498, 012554, 0227558, and 0354453. Many thanks to Jennifer Turns, Eileen Zhang, Yuliana Flores, Rene Capella & Susannah Howe for their help with iterations of this talk.

Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

Thinking forward to the engineer of 2040

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• How might you fill in the following?

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Altman, A., Krauss, G.G., Lande, M., Atman, C.J., & Turns, J. (2018). The Key Ideas of MDW X: A Summary. International Journal of Engineering Education, 34 (2B), 549-557.

In 2040, the engineering graduate who wants to “X”

...might need to know “Y”

...and could learn it through “Z”

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1. Change the world/ help/impact/make a difference/transform
2. Design/build/system
3. Politics/activism
4. Solve/define problems
5. Be happy
6. Know themselves
7. Shift/grow/disrupt
8. Ethics/humility/virtues
9. Be a good citizen
10. Teach/learn/spread STEM literacy

• Communication/listen/talk/

handle conflict

• Empathy/kindness/compassion/

perspective

• Know themselves/ self-reflective /self-directed learning
• How to learn/theory
• Engineering is only part of the solution/policy/politics
• Design/design thinking/human centered design
• How to not rely on technology/

take a digital vacation

• multiple languages
• Dance with ambiguity
• Systems-thinking

• Reflecting
• Failing
• Doing
• Interdisciplinary work
• Humility/following/

mentoring

• Listening
• Laughing
• Dreaming
• Emotional learning
• Neural implants

In 2040, the engineering graduate who wants to “X”

...might need to know “Y”

...and could learn it through “Z”

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• Change the world/ help/impact/make a difference/transform
• Design/build/system
• Politics/activism
• Solve/define problems
• Be happy
• Know themselves
• Shift/grow/disrupt
• Ethics/humility/virtues
• Be a good citizen
• Teach/learn/spread STEM literacy

• Communication/listen/talk/

handle conflict

• Empathy/kindness/compassion/

perspective

• Know themselves/ self-reflective /self-directed learning
• How to learn/theory
• Engineering is only part of the solution/policy/politics
• Design/design thinking/human centered design
• How to not rely on technology/

take a digital vacation

• multiple languages
• Dance with ambiguity
• Systems-thinking

• Reflecting
• Failing
• Doing
• Interdisciplinary work
• Humility/following/

mentoring

• Listening
• Laughing
• Dreaming
• Emotional learning
• Neural implants

Engineering is...

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…design under constraint.

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(William Wulf, U.S. National Academy of Engineering President,1998)

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In 2040, the engineering graduate who wants to “X”

...might need to know “Y”

...and could learn it through “Z”

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• Change the world/ help/impact/make a difference/transform
• Design/build/system
• Politics/activism
• Solve/define problems
• Be happy
• Know themselves
• Shift/grow/disrupt
• Ethics/humility/virtues
• Be a good citizen
• Teach/learn/spread STEM literacy

• Communication/listen/talk/

handle conflict

• Empathy/kindness/compassion/

perspective

• Know themselves/ self-reflective /self-directed learning
• How to learn/theory
• Engineering is only part of the solution/policy/politics
• Design/design thinking/human centered design
• How to not rely on technology/

take a digital vacation

• multiple languages
• Dance with ambiguity
• Systems-thinking

• Reflecting
• Failing
• Doing
• Interdisciplinary work
• Humility/following/

mentoring

• Listening
• Laughing
• Dreaming
• Emotional learning
• Neural implants

Ambiguity

Something we expect our students to engage with

What about ourselves?

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“Dance with ambiguity” in our work as educators

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• Teaching/learning is a complex ecosystem
• We design for one set of conditions – emergent classroom dynamics present a different reality
• Need to meet students where they are
• 1000 students, 1000 pathways
• Changes over time
• Must be
• Flexible
• Prepared to meet challenges
• Resilient

“We live our lives forwards, and understand it backwards” (Kierkegaard)

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• When we look back at our life/career – we tell a coherent story

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• But looking forward things are always uncertain

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• There is a moving “ambiguous edge”

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Suggested listening prompt

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• What is a current “ambiguous edge” for you?

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• Jot down on your card & share with a colleague

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The Blank Signature, Magritte

“Magritte Moments”

My journey of ambiguous edges

• My aspirations informed by early experiences
• High school experiences always crunchy
• Wanted to have positive impact on the world… Rachel Carson days
• Kids in my family became engineers, wanted to be a teacher

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• On graduation day with my BS in industrial engineering a research mentor (Don Gochenour) took me aside and said

“You should think about getting a PhD, we need people like you teaching at the university level”

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• Ambiguous edges of my 20’s
• Work in industry
• Masters degree in IE
• Work in industry, U.S. Senate (leaning towards teaching)

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My journey of ambiguous edges

• Wanting to have a positive impact on the world kept tugging on me
• Commitments resonated with what was going in the world in the mid 80’s
• How to use my engineering education to help solve problems not create them
• My mentor’s suggestion kept tickling the back of my brain
• Pursue a PhD to formally teach engineers about thinking broadly
• Along the way I realized I loved to do research as well

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• 1986-1990: PhD, Engineering & Public Policy, CMU
• Risk communication & mental models/risk analysis
• Behavioral decision theory/decision theory
• Expert/novice studies
• Common theme: Interweaving “actually” do with “should” do

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My journey of ambiguous edges

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• My ambiguous edge getting more specific
• Help teach engineering students to change the world
• think about impact of engineering on society and globe
• consider context in their engineering work
• minimize unintended consequences
• If engineering is “design under constraint”, then how to help teach engineers to change the world?
• …as they engage in design
• My more refined goal:
• deeply understand the doing of engineering design
• To inform design teaching
• To help engineering students become more accomplished designers

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Learning & teaching design: A wicked problem

• Many definitions of design
• Noun, verb, adjective
• What we call a final product, or a sketch of an idea…
• Engaging in an act of creation
• An important component of engineering….
• …of architecture, writing, composing, cooking…
• …of being human
• The name of a profession
• Recent emphasis on design thinking
• Confusing to figure out how to teach
• Traded one ambiguous edge for another!

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Photo by Jess Bailey, UX Indonesia, Daniel McCullough, Katie Rosario on Unsplash

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching

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• Wrapping up

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching

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• Wrapping up

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Goal: deeply understand the doing of engineering design

• Questions:
• How do engineering students and experts engage in design?
• Are there differences that can inform how to teach design?

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Setting the stage

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• My audience was engineers
• Quantitative data
• Large sample sizes
• Embarked on quest, funded by National Science Foundation
• Data from a large number of engineers doing design
• with various levels of expertise
• Solving design problems out loud
• Create quantitative measures from verbal data
• Compare processes across levels of expertise
• E.g., experts and novices

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Many Collaborators

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Collaborators, co-authors, and research team members include Robin Adams, Arif Ahmer, Shiva Anem, Brad Arneson, Reid Bailey, Grace Barar, Theresa Barker, Nicole Batrouny, Maria Buan, Emma Bulojewski, Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Jim Blair, Carie Bodle, Laura Bogusch, Jim Borgford-Parnell, Karen Bursic, Ryan Campbell, René Capella, Monica Cardella, Soomin Chang, Justin Chimka, Dharma Dailey, Kate Deibel, Yuliana Flores, Zach Goist, Brian Hayes, Susannah Howe, Melissa Jones, Khadijah Jordan, Aaron Joya, Allison Kang, Deborah Kilgore, Daria Kotys-Schwartz, Kristina Krause, Vipin Kumar, Micah Lande, Alex Lew, Terri Lovins, Stefanie Lozito, Janet McDonnell, Kenya Mejia, Annegrete Mølhave, Andrew Morozov, Susan Mosborg, Carie Mullins, Heather Nachtmann, Wai Ho Ng, Krina Patel, Eli Patten, Will Richey, Eddie Rhone, Axel Roesler, Wendy Roldan, Jason Saleem, Giovanna Scalone, Kathryn Shroyer, Elvia Sierra-Badillo, Shaunte Smith, Roy Sunarso, Rylie Sweem, Steve Tanimoto, Jennifer Turns, Hannah Twigg-Smith, Cheryl Wang, Nicole Washington, Ken Yasuhara, Jordan Yoon-Buck, Mark Zachry, Eileen Zhang…

…and over 75 additional undergraduate students

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Examining Design Expertise: Corpus of Data

• 177 individuals solved design problems
• 401 problems solved
• 298 verbal protocols
• 177 individuals of various levels of expertise
• 149 engineering students
• 19 practicing engineering experts
• 4 educators (IE, 2 ME, Nuclear physics)
• 5 domain experts (playground design, landscape architecture)

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Examining Design Expertise: Playground Problem

• Participants
• First-year engineering students (n = 26)
• Graduating senior engineering students (n = 24)
• Practicing engineering experts (n = 19)
• Experimental Task
• Individuals design a playground for a fictitious neighborhood
• Subject to a set of constraints (cost, timing, number of children, etc.)

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• Verbal protocol analysis
• Individuals had up to 3 hours in a lab setting
• Think-aloud protocol
• Analysis
• Transcribe audio
• Segment text into idea units
• Assign design process code to each idea unit

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Defining Design: Design activity codes

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(Identification of a Need) Problem Definition Information Gathering

Generation of Ideas

Modeling

Feasibility analysis Evaluation

Decision

Communication (Implementation)

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7 Engineering Design Textbooks

Content Analysis

Experimental setting

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How we scored the playground quality?

Three elements to the score (⅓, ⅓, ⅓)

• Number of constraints met
• 7 constraints listed in problem statement
• E.g., budget, number of children to keep busy, etc.
• Adherence to actual playground standards
• Qualitative assessment of user experience
• Researchers assess final design on qualitative aspects
• E.g., would the kids have fun? Is there a place for adults to sit?

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Design process timelines

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Design timeline representations

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“Hmmm, do you have a list of materials?”

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Design process research findings

• Graduating seniors were significantly more likely than first-year students to…
• have higher-quality designs¹
• scope the problem more effectively by considering more categories of information¹
• make more transitions among design activities ¹
• Iterate more frequently ²
• progress further in the design process¹

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¹Atman, Chimka, Bursic, & Nachtmann, 1999

²Adams, 2001

• Engineering experts were significantly more likely than students to…
• spend more time solving the problems in all design stages
• scope the problem more effectively by
• gathering more information (explicitly) and
• covering more categories
• Spend longer problem scoping before turning to modeling
• consider more objects in their design process
• exhibit a “cascade” pattern of transitions

(Atman, Adams, Cardella, Turns, Mosborg, & Saleem, 2007)

Adding in the experts

Similar patterns found:

• With other design problems
• With participants from other populations
• Students from different university
• Engineering faculty
• Domain experts
• With other experimental designs
• Within-subject longitudinal comparisons
• With team of designers

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Timelines as canvas for research results

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Moving towards more experienced design behaviors

• Thorough problem scoping at the start of the process before turning towards modeling

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• Gather information throughout the process

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• Transition and iterate throughout the process

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• Stay the course at certain times

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Moving towards more experienced design behaviors

• Cascade shape (ideal project envelope)

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Moving towards more experienced design behaviors

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• Cascade shape (ideal project envelope)

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Timelines as canvas: music

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Design Soundtracks

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Design Soundtracks

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More experience, more complex processes

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(Figure from “Design Timelines: Concrete & Sticky Representations of Design Process Expertise”,

Design Studies, Nov, 2019)

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For more information

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Expert/Student Comparison

Atman, C.J., Adams, R. S., Cardella, M. E., Turns, J., Mosborg, S., and Saleem, J. J. (2007). “Engineering Design Processes: A Comparison of Students and Expert Practitioners.” Journal of Engineering Education, 96(4), 359-379.

Domain expertise analysis

Scalone, G., Atman, C., Mejia, K., Twigg-Smith, H., Shroyer, K., Joya, A. (2020). Dealing with Ambiguity: Leveraging Different Types of Expertise to Guide Design Questioning. International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 773–795, 2020.

Synthesis across the body of work

Scalone, G., Atman, C., Mejia, K., Twigg-Smith, H., Shroyer, K., Joya, A. (2020). Dealing with Ambiguity: Leveraging Different Types of Expertise to Guide Design Questioning. International Journal of Engineering Education, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 773–795, 2020.

So much more, but pivoting to next chapter…

• Some rough edges on the journey, honoring the ambiguous edge
• Tossing out a year of coding ¹
• Follow-on analyses, what about domain experts? ²
• Investigating high/low spatial visualizers
• Gibin Raju Dissertation³ with Sheryl Sorby, 2024

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¹Atman, et al. 1999; ²Scalone, et al., 2020; ³ Raju 2024

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“Magritte Moment”

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The Blank Signature, Magritte

A pause to connect with your ambiguous edge

once you see a timeline…

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…you see them everywhere…

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…you see them everywhere…

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching

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• Wrapping up

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Community/Leadership Experiences

• Frontiers in Education conference 1997
• Co-chair (as Assistant Professor) with Larry Shuman
• Started ERM Faculty Apprentice program, JEE special issue

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• Center for Engineering Learning & Teaching (CELT), 1998 - present
• Founding director
• Campus-based center
• Research in engineering education and support teaching

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Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education

(CAEE), 2003-10, Director & PI

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• $12.2 million Center for Teaching & Learning (NSF EEC/DUE)
• Lead Institutions: Colorado School of Mines (Streveler), Howard University (Fleming), Stanford University (Sheppard), University of Washington (Atman)
• Leadership Team: Academic Pathways Study (Sheppard); Building research capacity (Adams); Teaching decision making (Turns)
• https://depts.washington.edu/celtweb/caee/

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Final Report: Enabling Engineering Student Success

Cynthia J. Atman, Sheri D. Sheppard, Jennifer Turns, Robin S. Adams, Lorraine N. Fleming, Reed Stevens, Ruth A. Streveler, Karl A. Smith, Ronald L. Miller, Larry J. Leifer, Ken Yasuhara, and Dennis Lund

Engineering Education

Pioneers, 2013-2017

Atman, Turns, Yasuhara, co-PIs

https://depts.washington.edu/celtweb/pioneers-wp/

Interviewers: Emerging pioneers aka Graduate student & Early career educator

Gina Adam, Chelsea Andrews, Adam Carberry, Mel Chua, Alexandra Coso, Stephanie Cutler, Dara R. Fisher, Scottie-Beth Fleming, Todd France, Stacie L. Gregory, Timothy H. Hellickson, Geoffrey Herman, Wayne J. Hilson, Jr., Stefany Y. Holguin, James Huff, Rachel Louis Kajfez, Micah Lande, Jeremi London, Aisha Mahmood, Joel Alejandro Mejia, Rachel McCord, Mary McCormick, Libby Osgood, James Pembridge, Matthew W. Priddy, Gurlovleen Kaur Rathore, Rebecca M. Reck, Beth Rieken, Kevin B. Roth, Janille Smith-Colin, Mallory Squier, Angela Minichiello, Scott C. Streiner, Xiaofeng Tang, Lauren D. Thomas, Natascha Trellinger, Janet Y. Tsai

Interviewees: Pioneers

Robin Adams, Cynthia J. Atman, Stephanie G. Adams, Mary Anderson-Rowland, Rebecca Brent, John Cowan, Richard S. Culver, Denny C. Davis, Russell K. Dean, Clive L. Dym, Lyle D. Feisel, Richard Felder, Cindy Finelli, Norman Fortenberry, Duncan Fraser, Eli Fromm, Lawrence P. Grayson, Roger Hadgraft, John Heywood, Leah H. Jamieson, Edwin C. Jones, Jr., Susan Kemnitzer, Anette Kolmos, John C. Lindenlaub, Thomas A. Litzinger, Jack R. Lohmann, Louis A. Martin-Vega, Susan S. Metz, Lueny Morell, Barbara M. Olds, Michael J. Pavelich, Percy A. Pierre, John W. Prados, David F. Radcliffem, Larry Richards, James Rowland, Sheri Sheppard, Karl A. Smith, James E. Stice, Ruth A. Streveler, Jennifer Turns, Wallace S. Venable, David R. Voltmer, Philip C. Wankat, Bevlee A. Watford, Karan L. Watson, Charles F. Yokomoto

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Consortium to Promote Reflection in Engineering Education (CPREE) 2014-18

Turns & Atman, co-PIs

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• $4.4 million, Helmsley Charitable Trust�
• 12 institutions
• 4 community colleges
• 4 teaching-focused
• 4 research-focused

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• Focus on impact
• “Smallest intervention possible
• bottom up - what people already doing

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CPREE Staff

Lauren D. Thomas, Brook Sattler, Lesley Pfeifer , Ahmer Arif,

Mania Orand, Kathryn Shroyer

Arizona State University – Adam Carberry, Kristine Csavina

Bellevue College – Frank Lee, Sonya Doucette

California Polytechnic State University – Trevor Harding

Clarkson University – John C. Moosbrugger

Georgia Institute of Technology – Caroline Noyes, Ruth Poproski

Green River College - Jeff McCauley, Janet Ash

Highline College - Richard Bankhead

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology - Patrick Cunningham

Seattle Central College - Rebecca Hartzler

Seattle University - Phillip Thompson

Stanford University - Sheri Sheppard

University of Washington - Ken Yasuhara

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Humor helped me get through….

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I was installing netting on a deck with cable ties on beach vacation to keep our 2 year old safe. Our 5 year old picked up one of the cable ties and pointed it at me:

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Abby: “This is a magic wand.”

Cindy: “Ah, I feel all the stress leaving me,

and I am calm.”

Abby: “No, you are a frog.”

Where did the scholarship go?

• Scholarship in the background
• but never left…
• Focus shifted to context
• Set of assessment tools¹
• Midwest Floods first year/junior year comparison

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¹Atman, C. J., Yasuhara, K., & Kilgore, D. (2014)

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching

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• Wrapping up

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So now what?: A new ambiguous edge

• Revisiting my questions:
• How do engineering students and experts engage in design?
• Are there differences that can inform how to teach design?
• Revisiting my ultimate goal:
• How to teach engineering students to consider context
• My design challenge (& new ambiguous edge)
• How can these findings be useful for teaching design?

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Broad design teaching landscape in engineering education

• Capstone design
• First-year design
• Design spine
• Design projects in many classes
• Maker spaces
• Service learning
• ……

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Photos from UW GIX program

How design can be explained

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Pahl and Bietz, Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach, 1999

Sources: “How Do You Design: A Compendium of Models (Dubberly); Stanford d.school design model, Hexagon model, accessed 1/24/23, Node/arrow model, accessed 3/10/21; Double Diamond Model, British Design Council, 2005; Socially Engaged Design Process Model, University of Michigan, accessed 1/24/23

Google search “Design process models”: 949,000,000 (6/29/23)

Recalling…

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“All models are wrong, some are useful”

~ George Box

Concrete & Sticky: Affordances of timelines

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Abstract concepts made visible

Concrete & Sticky: Teaching with timelines

(ME student)

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Concrete & Sticky: Teaching with timelines

(CE student)

“Realizing that taking your time is important, realizing that higher quality designs gather data and define the problem more thoroughly BEFORE modelling which is SO COOL to see as statistically relevant because now I can PROVE to people that understanding the problem FIRST is crucial for success.” (CE student)

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Teaching with timelines: Student reactions

Translating research into practice

• Students make great observations when they engage with the research
• But will it affect their design practice?
• Next challenge:
• Make learning active
• Invite students to see and own their design processes

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• Design work: many slices, not in focus yet
• Moving from “knowing about” to “enacting while doing”
• Classroom presentations not enough
• Student’s recording own design processes (McDonnell & Molhave)
• Reflection in engineering education (Jennifer Turns, CPREE)

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• Goal: reflective designers aware of their own process
• Reflection-in-action/reflection-on-action (Schon)
• Leaning into ambiguity
• Conversations about mindfulness and awareness, and the enthusiasm of some amazing students led to..
• Several seminars to grapple with how to be aware of what we were doing while doing design
• We called this design awareness

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(Mølhave, McDonnell, & Atman, 2011; McDonnell & Atman, 2015; Schon, D. A. (1968). The reflective practitioner. New York.)

Back to the beginning…leaning into ambiguity…

Teaching design - three slices

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• Design signatures
• Good Designers do “X”
• Dear Design seminar

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching
• Design signatures
• Good designers do “X”
• Dear Design seminar

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• Wrapping up

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Take a moment and sign your name

• For a formal document
• Buying a cup of coffee
• In grade school when you were learning to write your name

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Signatures can vary according to function … and across time

Affordances of “signatures”

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• Personal
• Vary across people
• Vary based on context
• Can change over time
• Are under your control

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Timelines as canvas:

…design traces…design signatures

Design Signatures can vary according to function

• Capstone design project?
• 2 hour hackathon?

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Design signatures as organizing principle

• Plan new projects
• Use it as a guide to monitor your process
• Reflect - how did you do?

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Design signatures as organizing principle

• Gymnast Simone Biles has a signature balance beam move
• Do you have a typical way you engage in design?

➜ Do you have an aspirational design signature?

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Next steps

• Create opportunities for students to “live” their design signatures
• Active experience
• Opportunities to reflect
• Help make the invisible visible

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Design Signatures in the Wild

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• Reid Bailey, University of Virginia
• Nicole Batrouny, Northeastern
• Susannah Howe, Smith College
• Daria Kotys-Schwartz, University of Colorado, Boulder
• Micah Lande, South Dakota School of Mines
• Krina Patel, University of Buffalo
• Eli Patten, University of Washington, Mechanical Engineering
• University of Washington CELT team
• Cindy Atman
• Rene Capella
• Yuliana Flores
• Jennifer Turns
• Eileen Zhang

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Reid Bailey

Eli Patten

Micah Lande

Susannah Howe

Making invisible design processes visible

Types of design activities

• Short term, e.g.,
• Marshmallow tower
• Balloon car
• Longer term, e.g.,
• Senior capstone
• Term-long projects

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Data collection methods

• Physical bubble sheets
• Google forms
• Spreadsheets
• Web-based “Design Signatures” app

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What kinds of short-term design projects?

balloon-powered cars

marshmallow challenge

solar shade

soccer goal

newspaper tower

Oreo tower

Making the invisible visible:

Bubble sheets & Google forms

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Inspired by DEED “Design Fishbowl” Workshop, presented by Alan Chong and Jason Foster at the 2011 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Vancouver, B.C., June 2011

Spreadsheets

Capturing Design Signatures:

Design Signatures Web-based App

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Design Signatures App

Jordan Yoon-Buck

Shiva Anem

Grace Barar

Khadijah Jordan

Rylie Sweem

Nicole Washington

Kathryn Shroyer

Design Signatures Web-based App

Synchronous tracking Asynchronous tracking

(shorter projects) (longer projects)

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Design Signatures app

Design Signatures App: Input your own model

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12 minute design challenge: Student user-researchers code design team

Semester-long design project

First-year students

Reid Bailey, University of Virginia, May 2023

Design signatures as boundary objects

• Make invisible processes visible
• Plan & monitor new design projects
• Reflect:
• See patterns over time
• Compare to expert design behaviours
• Enable conversations
• Among team members
• Across projects

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Design signatures: Student responses

• “Teams need to go back to rediscover and evaluate the problem they are trying to solve after some testing and building of the prototype.”
• “It encouraged me to be more intentional and consider how the time I spend in different areas can impact my decisions and overall project.”

• “Thinking about where you are in the design process is really important especially as a team.”
• “My group and I tended to find one idea and stick with it a little too quickly rather than iterating through various potential solutions, so in this project we made sure to dedicate much more time to brainstorming…”

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It was a great reminder to reflect on the process instead of blindly going through it.

Design Signatures in the Wild on the road

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• Workshops in 2024
• Engineering Capstone Conference, 2024, Knoxville
• ASEE conference 2024, Portland
• First Year Experience Conference, July 2024,Boston
• [Proposed] Frontiers in Education Conference, October, Washington, DC
• [Proposed] A2E2, December, Christchurch, NZ

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“Magritte Moment”

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The Blank Signature, Magritte

A pause to connect with your ambiguous edge

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching
• Design signatures
• Good designers do “X”
• Dear Design seminar

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• Wrapping up

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The landscape of design

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Crowdsourcing breadth: Good Designers Do “X”

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• Goal: present other experts’ perspectives on design

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• Asked colleagues to respond to the prompt:
• When you talk to someone and say “Good designers do ‘X’”, what are the top 4 or 5 things you list?
• I’m looking for “off the top of your head” answers

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• 34 scholars responded with 180 statements
• Feb 2022 - July 2023
• Design researchers and educators
• Engineering design researchers and educators

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Good Designers do “X” contributors

- Robin Adams, Purdue University

- Cindy Atman, University of Washington

- Reid Bailey, University of Virginia

- Adam Carberry, Arizona State University

- Nigel Cross, Emeritus, The Open University, England

- Dharma Dailey, University of Washington

- Shanna Daly, University of Michigan

- Andy Dong, Oregon State University

- Liz Gerber, Northwestern University

- John Gero, UNC, Charlotte

- Gabi Goldschmidt, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

- David Hendry, University of Washington

- Susannah Howe, Smith College

- Micah Lande, South Dakota School of Mines

- Peter Lloyd, T U Delft, Netherlands

- Janet McDonnell, Emerita, Central Saint Martins, England

- Laura Murphy, University of Michigan

- Eli Patten, University of Washington

- Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland

- Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University

- Lauren Thomas Quigley, IBM Research

- Jennifer Turns, University of Washington

Good Designers do “X”: Sample responses

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• Do not fall in love with their own ideas ~ Sheri Sheppard
• Are constantly learning – about problems, about possible solutions, new skills ~ Reid Bailey
• Take a broad systems approach to the given problem, rather than accepting narrow problem criteria ~ Nigel Cross
• Include as many people in the process as possible; they make design social �~ Jennifer Turns
• Attend to the ethics of their professional actions ~ Janet McDonnell
• Consider planetary limitations in their work ~ David Hendry
• Understand that every design decision impacts a person's life, even if they can't witness the impact themselves ~ Laura Murphy

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Exploring Good Designers do “X” statements

• You have an envelope with 5 cards from different people

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• Choose one that resonates with you and share it with your neighbor

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• Discuss how these cards might link to your ambiguous edge

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Good Designers do “X”in the classroom

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Good Designers do “X”: Student representations

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Good Designers do “X”: Student representations

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Good Designers do “X”: Student reflections

Use a picture, diagram, or other representation that captures something significant about your learning today

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching
• Design signatures
• Good designers do “X”
• Dear Design seminar

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• Wrapping up

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The landscape of design

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Dear Design seminar: Postcards of design processes

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• Inspired by Lupi & Posavec’s book Dear Data

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• Goal: help students develop “design awareness”
• Be reflective designers
• Develop their unique design identity

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• 10 week virtual seminar, each week:
• Engage in a design process (or use previous capture)
• Discuss design from a different lens (many models, design expertise, good designers do “X”)
• Represent their process on a postcard

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• Final postcard: their Ideal (Aspirational) Design Signature

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.Grace Barar, Yuliana Flores, Khadijah Jordan, Kathryn Shroyer

Lupi, G., & Posavec, S. (2016).

Dear data. Chronicle books.

Learning research principles I use in my teaching

• Learners come to a situation with a full life already
• (prior conceptions matter; pathways matter)
• Knowledge organization and integration are important
• (both concepts and links matter in neural networks)
• Learning happens in the learner, not the teacher
• (motivation matters; learning is personal)
• Learners should be active not passive
• (practice retrieval and application)
• (neurons that fire together, wire together)
• Goal for “transfer” - apply knowledge or skill in new context
• (invite students to think forward)
• Thinking about thinking is important
• (reflection and metacognition matter)

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1) Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn (Vol. 11). Washington, DC: National academy press; 2) Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. John Wiley & Sons.; 3) Felder, R. M., & Brent, R. (2016). Teaching and learning STEM: A practical guide. John Wiley & Sons.; 4) National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. National Academies Press.

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Seminar design principles

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• Postcard format: creative, abstract concepts made concrete

(motivation matters, knowledge networks)

• Looking back, looking forward

(honor prior conceptions, transfer)

• Rhythm of repetition: do design, synthesize, create representation, share out

(active learning, knowledge networks, goal-directed practice, transfer)

• Sharing postcards, learning from others

(learning is a social endeavor)

• Reflection/Focus on process

(metacognition, self-directed learner)

• Deeply personal, design identity development, story of self as designer

(motivation matters, time on task, self-directed learner)

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Ambrose et al., Bransford et al.

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Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn (Vol. 11). Washington, DC: National academy press. Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., & Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. John Wiley & Sons.; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. National Academies Press.

Dear Design Seminar topics by week

One student’s journey across the 9 weeks

Eileen Zhang

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Dear Design Seminar

Aspirational Design Signatures

Inspired by “Dear Data” project: Lupi, G., & Posavec, S. (2016). Dear data. Chronicle books.

Website

Grace Barar, Yuliana Flores, Eileen Zhang

designsignatures.org

Design Signatures website

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Dear Design: Design Awareness Questions

TIME

• How do I distribute my time in my design processes?
• What areas should I spend more time on?
• How much time do I spend thinking vs doing?
• How often do I take a break during my design process and what do I do/feel during these times?
• Which stage of my process am I most distracted?
• How much time do I spend in collaborating with others?
• How often do I diverge and converge through my design process?

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CHALLENGES

• How do I deal with roadblocks/challenges?
• At what points do I experience idle/creative blocks and "aha" moments?

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INTENTIONALITY

• What aspects of my design process can I be more intentional about?
• What prevents me from being mindful or more intentional about certain aspects of my process and how can I address that?
• How intentional am I about iteration? What differences show up when I don't iterate

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EMOTION & MOTIVATION

• How do my motivation and enthusiasm levels change and correlate throughout my design process?
• When am I feeling the most positive or negative?
• As I diverge / converge on design ideas, are there any visible emotion patterns?
• Which stages of the design process do I enjoy most (e.g. research, prototyping, UI)?

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching
• Design signatures
• Good designers do “X”
• Dear Design seminar

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• Wrapping up

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Ongoing work…

• Ongoing work
• Design Signatures in the Wild - workshops, community building, etc.
• Good Designers do “X” - posted late summer?
• Dear Design - metacognition/design awareness

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• For updates - see designsignatures.org

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Ending with the students’ take:

What is design awareness?

• “Seeing the rest of the iceberg”

~Khadijah Jordan

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• “Knowing where you have been, where you are, and where you are going”

~ Nicole Washington

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“Magritte Moment”

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The Blank Signature, Magritte

A pause to connect with your ambiguous edge

“Good designers don’t fall in love with their own ideas”

~Sheri Sheppard

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Design Signatures:

A journey from design expertise to design awareness

• Setting the stage

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• Scholarship - Design expertise research

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• Community/leadership

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• Scholarship - Innovations in design teaching
• Design signatures
• Good designers do “X”
• Dear Design

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• Wrapping up

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Back to the journey…

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We live our lives forwards,

and understand them backwards (Kierkegaard)

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Back to the journey…

…uh oh…

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Back to the journey: Detours? Side paths?

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Back to the journey: What counts?

Back to the journey: Representations matter

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Back to the journey…the path less taken…

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My name is [anonymous], I'm a Sophomore at WVU in Industrial Engineering. I just wanted to thank you once again for coming. I felt that when you were presenting what you had found and were explaining it in a way that had shown more than just numbers.. You were talking to me!

I've been talking to my friends (who didn't go) explaining to them how this is related to life and how we need to look at everything from several perspectives in order to get the most out of whatever you want to do. After about 20 minutes of explanation it seems they realize I'm crazy and move on with their day. But I think I really understand what your results say on numerous levels.

It's not that people avoid the path less taken but rather they don't even see the path less taken.

With that being said I appreciate you sharing your wisdom and wish you the best of luck!

[anonymous]

PS: I was the kid with red hair sitting in the front who talked to you after the lecture.

(received October 29, 2013)

What questions come up for you?

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atman@uw.edu