This course presents new ideas about how to expand your creative thinking, opening up a world of patterns, shapes and artistic designs using 3D CAD Modeling and Conceptual Design Blending (CDB).

Key take-ways: Understand how art is central to bringing beauty, elegance and life to the sciences, technology, engineering and math - Develop a sense of spatial thinking and self-expression - Learn how random combinations drive radical innovation - Learn how to make a design your own.

The ideas in this class are geared to enhance your learning in different settings and spark more creative thought that in turn will help you generate new designs. Conceptual Design Blending: As you go through these examples you will recognize that the general concepts of “design blending” are all around you.

This teaching technique was developed under a belief that when students have the “freeform ability” to create or solve open-ended problems in a solid modeling course, it removes inhibitions and boosts creativity. Part of the motivation behind the technique is to incorporate more of the arts into engineering,

“CDB is itself a mix of Conceptual Blending and Shape Blending into something new. Once the foundational techniques of the 3D CAD software have been taught, the CDB pedagogy deviates sharply from traditional instruction. Rather than assigning designs to replicate, the instructor presents students with two or more seed designs, and instructs them to design something entirely new based on those concepts, but with functionality and/or aesthetic appeal beyond either seed design. Since students are initially unsure of themselves, and do not know where to start with such open-ended requirements, the instructor introduces CDB by walking through examples of blending and presenting multiple think-aloud illustrations of the design process. Throughout the instruction, students are reminded that they each have unique and useful ideas to contribute, and are encouraged to borrow ideas from other places, provided the ideas are used within a design rather than strictly copied.”