Factors affecting innovation in the context of multidisciplinary engineering capstone design projects
Faculty Member: Narges Balouchestaniasli
Student Collaborator: Majd Zouda
The project was a collaboration between the SMT Centre/OISE and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering.
The project goals were to study factors affecting innovation in the context of multidisciplinary engineering capstone design projects. The study conducted survey measurements of several psychological and social variables that affect the ability of engineering students to find innovative solutions to problems in a multidisciplinary team setting. The research may provide useful information about how to teach and foster innovation across STEM education in a multidisciplinary environment.
This research was part of a larger study aimed at examining innovation and its factors in engineering capstone projects, at the University of Toronto. Innovation is compared between monodisciplinary teams (e.g. from mechanical engineering) and multidisciplinary teams. Students’ perceptions of their innovation at the end of their project was positive. The results of interviews along with video recordings revealed five factors affecting innovation: multidisciplinary knowledge, team vision, the effect of the supervisor, the effect of the client and industry partner, and team size.
Balouchestani, N., Zouda, M., & Behdinan, K. (2016). A Qualitative Study of Team Level Factors Affecting Innovation. A paper presented at the annual conference of Canadian Engineering Education Association Conference, Dalhousie University, June, 2016