Conference Agenda

At the Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE) 2024 conference, 53 research papers were published on AI a significant increase on previous years. These papers reveal how educators are using AI and their perspectives on its use. To better understand the nature of these papers and their contribution to the scientific community, a workshop was held at the conference asking 24 education experts to code the abstracts and share their insights. This activity supported delegates shared understanding of the AI education landscape. Following the conference, a meta-analysis was conducted on the workshop outcomes. This research goes beyond a literature review of the conference papers through quantitative and qualitative analysis, revealing the challenges of conducting research in an E&PDE context. This reveals opportunities for future research, and a reflection of the value of AI research within this context.

The aim of the study is to understand transition of Chinese industrial design students from tutor-led to student-led learning environment.

First, this paper summarizes the current demand for industrial design talents in China and it outlines potential limitations of teach and learning approaches in design courses in China. Secondly, the expected teaching objectives of the Global Studio course are introduced. Collected data from four surveys filled by the participating Chinese design students was used to assess whether learning objectives of the course were consistent with the student learning outcomes. The results indicate that there are differences between the expected course learning objectives and the learning outcomes. Most Chinese students were unable to make effective decisions independently in student-led learning environment. However, a large number of students were curious and interested in the student-led teaching model. This provides a new reference for the development of design education in China.

In every professional training process, university students receive knowledge about the activities specific to the discipline they are studying. Additionally, they are often exposed to professional practice in various ways, more so in some fields than others, until they complete the curriculum established by the university. The case of the Bachelor's degree in Design at Tecnológico de Monterrey is no exception, as students start by carrying out projects under full instructor guidance while gradually becoming more independent until they reach the point where they must propose the project they will undertake and describe all the methodology and management processes as if they were already a freelance designer or a design studio. In this context, the present research identifies the key elements that designers develop before graduating to secure their first design opportunities. To achieve the main objective of this research, a study was conducted with 43 students of the Design Bachelor's program at Tecnológico de Monterrey who graduated in 2023 and 2024. Through a multi-case study, the process these students followed in the last project course of their program was determined to identify their first professional opportunities and consolidate one of them through a real project. As part of the research, the various reports presented by the students were analyzed and compared using affinity diagrams and cross-data comparison related to brand identity, strategic planning, opportunity identification, project management, design process, and communication. This allowed for the creation of a proposed process that facilitates the professional launch for product designers.

This study adopts a human-centred approach to pluralise the design process by involving Japanese high school teachers. This research aimed to determine the critical factors for pluralising the design process by first focusing on the investigating and defining of needs in the design process. The outcome of the research is to empower non-design-trained teachers to apply design thinking in complex problem-solving. The key ideas consolidated from this study are as follows. Firstly, design-based strategies used by design practitioners must be unpacked for non-design-trained teachers to apply for general educational purposes. Secondly, design vocabulary should not be used in the design-based strategies to allow non-design-trained teachers and students to comprehend the design process easily. For complex design-based strategies, the process has to be broken down further into sub-tasks to match students’ abilities and prior knowledge. Lastly, the design-based strategies used for general complex problem-solving should be scoped to the extent that they can be implemented at the school level.

This paper presents the development of a Human-Centred Multi-Level Mentorship Framework designed to empower women in design and engineering. Despite growing awareness of the need for diversity, women in engineering continue to face challenges related to career progression, and a lack of tailored support. This research uses human-centred design principles to create a mentorship model that addresses these issues by placing the experiences and needs of women at the core of its development.

The project focuses on gathering and analysing real-world mentorship experiences through a series of focus groups and interviews with female students, academics, and industry professionals. By exploring their insights on mentorship, academic and career obstacles, and support mechanisms, the research aims to understand the critical elements of effective mentorship from a human-centred perspective.

These qualitative findings will inform the creation of a practical resource aimed at fostering impactful mentorship relationships that support women’s success in design and engineering fields.

The resource will focus on:

Empowering Women: Exploring mentorship frameworks to build confidence and self-advocacy.

Clearer Career Progression: Offering guidance on defining career paths and navigating opportunities within the industry.

Building Confidence: Encouraging mentees to set and achieve professional goals, increasing their self-assurance in technical and leadership roles.

Through this resource, we aim to support women’s advancement, strengthen their professional networks, and create a supportive pathway for success in design and engineering.

The paper details the methodology of using human-centred design to extract and incorporate user experiences into a mentorship resource and discusses how the insights helped shape a resource tailored to the unique needs of women in design and engineering.

Design studio practice is a pivotal element in design education, serving as a constructivist learning environment where students tackle complex, open-ended challenges through hands-on experience. This study focused on how the design studio, with its inherent structure and interactive framework, fostered multicultural awareness among students from two different countries and academic disciplines.

Within the design studio model, three essential types of interaction drive learning: learner-teacher, learner-content, and learner-learner. These interactions enable a dynamic exchange of ideas, experimentation, and teamwork, allowing students to engage deeply with both content and their peers (Tucker, 2017). The importance of interaction in learning cannot be overstated, as Simpson and Galbo (1986) describe it as the reciprocal exchange of behaviors among individuals and groups. This process encompasses various forms of communication—verbal and nonverbal, conscious and subconscious—and is particularly effective in promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and intercultural understanding within the design studio.

Cultural awareness is crucial within the design field, as professionals are often called to collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds. Culture, encompassing one’s beliefs, values, behaviors, and communication styles, shapes how individuals view and interact with the world (Awang-Shuib et al., 2017). To prepare students for this reality, the design studio environment encourages them to engage with peers from varied cultural backgrounds, fostering skills that are increasingly valued in forming effective, globally minded teams (Finley, 2021).

This study carried out in two years, involved one hundred eleven (n = 111) undergraduate students from three design disciplines—Interior Design, Product Design, and Interactive Media Design—studying at two universities in Colombia and one in the United States. Together, these institutions implemented a virtual exchange (VE) project, which is in line with the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) framework. This collaborative endeavor had students work together to share insights on their respective cultures, cities, and design fields. Acting both as designers and clients, students were tasked with creating a concept for an "experiential environment" that transcended physical boundaries, delivering a holistic dining experience. Each discipline contributed its specialized knowledge: interior designers focused on spatial arrangements, product designers on furniture and environmental elements, and interactive media designers on user experience and interfaces.

To measure the project’s impact on cultural awareness, a validated survey, regularly used by one of the partner institutions for VE initiatives, was administered both before and after the project. This instrument, featuring 26 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale, assessed students’ attitudes toward multicultural engagement. Results showed a general increase in scores across most items, with a slight decline in “I prefer to socialize with people of my culture” and no change in “I like working in groups with students from other countries.”

Ultimately, this project illustrates the power of design studio practice in cultivating cross-cultural competencies and preparing students for the global demands of the design field. It highlights how the interactive, interdisciplinary, and collaborative nature of the studio environment contributes to a holistic, real-world learning experience that aligns with the evolving needs of the design industry.