Engaging digital engineering students in design thinking

Abstract

This research paper examines the impact of the Design Thinking process in cultivating creative confidence among Digital Engineering students and encouraging them to become more empathetic towards others. The setting for the research is a one-week educational workshop at the HPI School of Design Thinking (D-School) in Potsdam, Germany, called the Global Design Thinking Week (GDTW). The workshop takes place twice a year. This research draws on findings from two GDTW workshops, the first was conducted in September 2017 and the second took place in April 2018. At these workshops, Digital Engineering Students from the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) were grouped with other participants who came from Germany and other different countries, and had different educational and cultural backgrounds. The workshops were delivered through theoretical inputs and intensive practical sessions on interviewing, ideation, prototyping and testing. Our hypothesis is: By engaging Digital Engineering students in multidisciplinary teams and introducing them to the Design Thinking methodology, students will have increased confidence in their creative thinking skills. The process also encourages them to adapt the Design Thinking mindset so they may become able to defer judgment, be more open minded, and learn to better empathize with others. Qualitative and quantitative methods such as observation, pre and post workshop survey were used to assess if the Design Thinking process affected the participants' creative confidence and how the students engaged with other team members (especially with those who come from different cultures). The research results show that most participants had doubts about their creative abilities before starting the workshops. They were also not sure about how they could connect with those who do not work in IT or do not understand their culture. These beliefs however changed after day 1 of the workshop and a shift in the learning mood was observed. The research found that the intensive Design Thinking workshop had an immediate and positive impact not only on Digital Engineering students but on all participants' creative confidence, and their willingness to develop better understanding of other cultures and experiences through learning to listen and empathize.