Symposium on Computational Approaches to Creativity in Science

Institute For The Study Of Learning And Expertise, Palo Alto CA

Investigators

Abstract

This symposium explores the role of creativity in scientific discovery and how computational tools help us understand and increase scientific creativity. The symposium brings together researchers from a number of disciplines, who study science and creativity from different perspectives but who share a commitment to the computational metaphor. In addition to fostering interdisciplinary discussions, the participants in the symposium address the following questions at the intersection of creativity and scientific reasoning. - What role does creativity play in different facets of the scientific enterprise, and how can computational tools help in each context? - When does scientific creativity manifest as a systematic search through a problem space and when does it involve altering the problem representation? - When does background knowledge aid creativity in science and when does it interfere with the discovery of creative solutions? - How should we structure computational discovery aids to encourage scientific creativity? - What is the appropriate tradeoff between constraints and flexibility in creativity-support tools? - When do interactions among scientists increase creativity and how can computational aids for interaction support this process?