Improvisation for Design of Engineering Alternatives (IDEA) is based on the well-known equivalence of humor and innovation. Improvisation is used as a random idea generator in much the same way the random number generators are used in stochastic simulations. These resulting ideas are then refined to sample a section of idea space near the solution to a specified design problem. Our research activities concentrate on the refinement step which is particularly challenging for technical design.
This research is carried out under IRB Human Subjects Research Protocol protocol number H08340. It is a collaboration between Pete Ludovice, Lew Lefton and Richard Catrambone of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Workshop participants are typically asked to sign a waiver that explains the results of these workshops will be used in educational research.
Cost of registration includes dinner.