The objective of this workshop award is to introduce and discuss future directions for issues in cognition and social science as related to engineering design practice and research. In conjunction with the 2008 CMMI Grantees Conference to be held Monday, January 7, 2008, in Knoxville, TN, will be held a workshop entitled "Discussion on Individual and Team-Based Innovation." The discussion will be interactive. It will provide a forum to begin to generate and explore near, intermediate, and long-term research needs in innovation and it will include a relevant exercise in the use of cognitive modeling in engineering design, one in which discussion attendees will participate. The workshop will address the following questions: What is, generally, the state-of -the-art in innovation processes, tools, and methods? What are the roles of multidisciplinary research (engineering, cognitive science, and social psychology) in innovation? and What is the relationship of engineering research in innovation to engineering education?
The results of this workshop research will expand the community of researchers who are proficient in work on this area. This discussion will have immediate impact in reaching a larger set of potential participants and begin their process of thinking about and relating to the broader issues. Longer term, this discussion will have impact as the community begins to write grant proposals to NSF, as it forms conferences and working groups that focus on innovation, and, eventually, as it transfers technology and impacts innovation productivity in the US.
