Creativity, interdiscipline and design for Innovation

Abstract

Innovation requires of the interaction of several disciplinary views and of the collaboration of individuals with different abilities. There is no innovation without creativity, which positions it as a fundamental methodological instrument in the professional exercise. To meet this requirement, universities have incorporated several courses and programs oriented to develop entrepreneurial skills, creativity and innovation. However, there is not enough evidence about the effect that these courses have in their students. Different authors have observed creative processes and designer’s abilities, trying to find a replicable methodological device which facilitates innovation processes. This article sets out the preliminary results of the inaugural research project of the research area of design faculty “characterization of the creative process of interdisciplinary equipment” which seeks to characterize the creative process of interdisciplinary teams, identifying the particularities that each discipline contributes to the process. For that purpose, there were organized unidisciplinary and interdisciplinary groups with students of 5th year from the three degrees participating in Icubo: design, engineering, and business. Inside the nterdisciplinary work teams, there were groups of dLab students, trained on creativity and with experience in interdisciplinary work and control groups formed by students of the same majors, who did not participate in the dlab program.