The School of Industrial Design is proud to co-host the speaker John S. Gero, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, George Mason University, who will present "TOWARDS A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF DESIGN, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION – DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH".

Designers are one of the profound change agents of the physical, virtual and social worlds. It is surprising how little is known about designing. Recent concepts from cognitive science, computational social science and neuroscience offer the opportunity to develop a new
understanding of designing. Situated cognition provides the impetus for novel models of designing and creativity. Designing and creativity appear to be situated acts where designers, whether working alone or not, construct their view of the world within they are designing. This

worldview changes as they design and at the same time affects them. Initial cognitive and computational studies based on these concepts will be presented. Computational social science uses agent-based models, founded on developments in computer science. Designing, creativity and innovation can be modeled using social, situated, cognitive agents to produce phenomenological results that emerge from the interactions of the participants. Cognitive neuroscience is now at the stage where individual designers can be studied while they design. This provides a physiological foundation for designing and creativity. This talk presents an introduction to the basic ideas, preliminary cognitive and computational studies and directions for research.

John Gero is Research Professor in the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study and holds professorial appointments in the Departments of Computer Science and Computational Social Science at George Mason University. Prior to that he was Professor of Design Science and co-Director of the Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, a Centre he established. He has been a visiting professor of architecture, civil engineering, cognitive science, computer science, design and computation and mechanical engineering in the USA, UK, France and Switzerland. He is the editor/author of 50 books and over 600 refereed research papers. His current research focuses on: computational models of design understanding; studying design creativity both computationally and cognitively; cognitive effects of design education, design discipline and the use of design tools; and innovation as phenomenological behavior. He is developing a research program in the cognitive neuroscience of designing.