Making Engineers: Practical Ingenuity, Citizen Engineering, & the Future of Design Education

Virtually Maker Faire 2020

May 22nd-23rd

Making can transform both the stuff we imagine and create as well as those who engage in the enterprise of designing, tinkering, and building. How technical and non-technical people learn and advance a people-centered design innovation approach, what catalysts and barriers for their learnings are, and evidence of design learning will be illustrated through an “Ambidextrous Mindsets for Innovation” framework. Ongoing education research projects will be shared on related topics from studies of the educational pathways of adult and young makers in the making community and an additive innovation approach, empathy and invention through prototyping and building activities, and leveraging invention and innovation for public STEM literacy and outreach. Implications for making, engineering practice, and teaching engineering design will also be presented through a perspective of citizen engineering – that everyone can imagine, design, and make solutions to problems that they care about.