Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Creativity in Engineering: Novel Solutions to Complex Problems focuses on creativity research, including what we know about those who are creative, what products are creative, the best processes for fostering creativity, and the ways the best environments for creativity can be applied to the engineering realm. The book provides practical advice for fostering creativity in the inception of new products, product design, and in generating novel, effective, and practical solutions to technological problems. The text defines what creativity is, and isn't, in applied settings, also discussing the role it plays in the future of technological advancement.

Front Cover; Creativity in Engineering; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; List of Figures; List of Tables; Foreword; Preface; The Approach of This Book; Why is This Book Different?; Outline of Chapters; Acknowledgments; 1 Introduction; The Sputnik Shock; The Link between Creativity and Engineering; What is Creativity?; The Definition of Creativity; The Four Ps of Creativity; The Fifth P; Paradoxes of Creativity; Summary; 2 The Importance of Creativity in Engineering; The Economics of Creativity; Engineering and Engineers; Change; The Need for Creativity.

Creative Engineering Problem SolvingThe Oil Crisis of 1973; Oil Crisis-Solution Pathways; Oil Crisis-Technology Push and Market Pull; Case Study: Creativity and Innovation in Aerospace; 3 Phases: Creativity and the Design Process; Problem Solving and Creativity; Knowledge and Problem Solving; Problem Recognition; Finding Good Problems; Problem Awareness; The Effect of the Problem on Creativity; Idea Generation; Idea Evaluation; Solution Validation; General Models of Creative Problem Solving; Other Models of Problem Solving; The Extended Phase Model; Engineering Problem Solving: Design.

Engineering Design as CreativityEngineering Divergent Thinking; Constraints and Design; Freedom versus Constraint; Engineering Models of Design; 4 Product: The Creativity of Things; What are Products?; External Indicators of Creative Products; The Fundamental Criteria of the Creativity of Products; Further Criteria of the Creativity of Products; The Hierarchical Organization of Creative Products; Situation versus Domain Relevance of Creative Products; Product Creativity as a System; Latent Functional Creativity; Measuring the Creativity of Products; Consensual Assessment; Rating Scales.

The Creative Solution Diagnosis Scale (CSDS)Industrial Design and Engineering; Summary; 5 Process: Generating Creative Ideas; Unsystematic Creativity; Effortless Creativity; Blind Combinations; Luck; Intuition; Systematic Production of Novelty; Generating Variability; Divergent Thinking; Other Concepts of Novelty-Generating Thinking; Thinking Tactics That Generate Variability; Constructing Remote Associates; Building Unusual Categories; Building Broad Networks; Accommodating Rather than Assimilating; Using Creativity-Facilitating Cognitive Styles; Meta-Cognition.

Avoiding the Wrong Approach BarrierMeasuring Divergent Thinking; Scoring Divergent-Thinking Tests; A Creativity Quotient?; Other Tests of Creative Thinking; The Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production; Tests Based on Problem Solving; Convergent Thinking: The Prepared Mind; Intuition and Convergent Thinking; The Prepared Mind; The Problem of Too Much Knowledge; The Unprepared Mind; Knowledge and Creativity; Knowledge as the Source of Ideas; Knowledge Defines What is Creative; Knowledge Guides and Shapes Creativity; The Interaction Between Divergent and Convergent Thinking.