Design Thinking for Undergraduate and Post Graduate Students of STEM

 Educational Outreach

Educational outreach becomes an obligation to the ones who have the means to achieve it. One such amazing obligation is transfer of knowledge. Teaching is an art form where it is the duty of the teacher to see that the pupils understand the intent of teaching and the details in it. Being the Co-Chair of Educational Activities and DLTs under the IEEE Bangalore Section 2017, I took it upon myself to teach and educate the students of engineering colleges to think about design and its elements, how could design thought process be used to garner interest in the subjects of engineering for them. 

A half day workshop was conducted on the 18^th of April 2017 in SJCE, Mysore ( now JSS Science and Technology University) on three topics:

1.      Design Thinking for UG/PG students and Faculty.

2.      Technical Writing : A step by step understanding

3.      Introduction to LaTeX

Design Thinking

The first session for the day was Design Thinking. There are many methodologies involved in approach to design. The basic understanding for the audience was on emphasis placed on the end user rather than the solution in hand. They were initiated to think on the needs and requirements that the user has and might have in the course of using the solution. The ability to narrow down the requirements to clearly defined problem statement and the method to solve the problem was showcased. 

A used case on the setting of question papers and the method used to design them was shown. This enabled them to understand the thought process their faculty had to go through every time they set a question paper for them. The methods of design and the usage of its basic principles in everyday life inspired the students to apply it the project work and their research thesis. 

Technical Writing and Introduction to LaTeX

Subsequently, two sessions we delivered for the students to understand the methods and techniques of technical article writing and reporting. LaTeX as a tool to report the newly found information was introduced to the students and they were encouraged to used LaTeX for their final year project reports and their Masters Dissertation.

 All the three events were well attended with 200+ undergraduate and post-graduate students and the audience was extremely interactive which makes the teaching more fruitful and enjoyable. I believe that the students have taken back many ideas and are implementing in their projects and research work

Thank you Prof S K Niranjan, Prof and HoD, Dept of MCA, SJCE Mysore and Member, EXECOM, Bangalore Section for hosting me.

Dr. G. S. Javed
Co-Chair, Educational Activities and DLT,
 IEEE Bangalore Section 2017
gsjaved@ieee.org