Past Work

Encouraging Creativity through Design for Additive Manufacturing

1. How can designers use DfAM to develop creative and efficient solutions in rapid response situations?

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the emergence of numerous engineered solutions for problems of varying complexity and urgency. Several of these solutions leverage the rapid manufacturing capabilities of additive manufacturing. In this study, we investigate how designers can utilize the knowledge of opportunistic and restrictive DfAM to develop solutions that are both, creative, and can be manufactured efficiently.

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2. What factors influence industry practitioners’ DfAM use and creativity in DfAM tasks?

Industry practitioners present higher levels of domain knowledge, especially in engineering and traditional manufacturing, and this prior knowledge could influence the adoption of DfAM in their engineering design process. In this study, we investigated how a DfAM educational workshop influences industry practitioners’ creativity when employing DfAM.

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3. How does the order of dual DfAM lectures influence students’ learning and creativity?

Researchers in learning and memory have argued for the occurrence of inhibition – both retroactive and proactive – in the recall and use of information. Retroactive inhibition hinders the retrieval of old information due to the learning of new and similar information. On the other hand, proactive inhibition inhibits the learning of new information due to the stronger consolidation of old information. In this project, we explored the effect of the order of presenting dual (opportunistic and restrictive) DfAM content on students’ DfAM-self-efficacy, self-reported DfAM use, and the creativity of their DfAM outcomes.

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4. What factors do students emphasize when selecting concepts in DfAM tasks?

To fully leverage the potential of AM, designers must not only employ DfAM to generate creative ideas but also ensure that these ideas are selected for development in the later stages of design. This is particularly important with DfAM as designs perceived as infeasible with traditional manufacturing could now be feasibly manufactured with AM. In this project, we explored the factors considered by student design teams when selecting concepts in a DfAM task.

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5. How does the definition of the design task and its competitive structure influence learning and design creativity?

Additive Manufacturing technologies have been applied to several domains such as aerospace and automotive industries. However, the definition of a design task influences its effectiveness as an educational tool. The aim in this project was to identify design tasks that encourage the creative application of design for AM.

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6. How does DfAM integration in designs relate to the achievement of task objectives?

AM technologies present designers with the opportunity to improve design performance and functionality through opportunistic DfAM. Additionally, designers must also ensure design feasibility through the application of restrictive DfAM. Both these design domains can potentially influence designs’ achievement of task objectives and constraints and the aim in this project was to explore this relationship.

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7. How does the content of DfAM education influence creativity?

Opportunistic DfAM helps open up a designers’ solution space through new design freedoms. In contrast, the use of restrictive DfAM narrows down the solution space and ensures that designs are feasible. The aim in this project was to understand the effect of the content of DfAM education (opportunistic and restrictive) on students’ creativity.

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8. How does the timing of DfAM education influence students’ learning and DfAM application?

The increasing presence of AM in high schools and universities has increased student exposure to AM. However, this exposure is limited to the restrictive aspects of DfAM and not so much to the opportunistic aspects. The aim in this project was to explore the potential interaction between this prior AM experience and students’ learning of opportunistic and restrictive DfAM.

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Validating the Use of a Dynamic Haptic Robotic Trainer for Teaching Needle Insertion Skills

With the growing use of simulation tools for medical training and education, our aim in the project was to develop a haptic robotic trainer for teaching needle insertion skills and validate its effectiveness compared to traditional manikin-based simulators.

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