EAGER Germination: Cultivating Creativity and Innovation in Engineering Research through Mindfulness Training

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison, under the direction of Prof. Susan C. Hagness is proposing a project to develop and evaluate a radically new learning framework for engineering graduate students that is intended to cultivate a highly creative, innovative, and grand-challenge-focused research culture. The framework is based on mindfulness training: understanding the brain, emotional styles, and how they can be modified through meditation and other contemplative practices. The rationale for introducing engineering graduate students to contemplative practices stems from recent studies suggesting that mindfulness meditation improves insight problem solving, reduces cognitive rigidity, and positively impacts creativity outcomes, as well as increasing empathy and compassion. The underlying hypothesis is that cultivating creativity, innovation, intellectual risk-taking, altruism, and overall well-being "through mindfulness training" will collectively enhance graduate students' skills to conceive and conduct transformative research, and will motivate them to address societal challenges through the research problems they pursue. Contemplative neuroscience research studies have demonstrated that brain plasticity can be exploited via mindfulness training to produce measurable effects on brain function, and physical and emotional well-being. The project represents an entirely new exploration of the potential role of mindfulness in cultivating attributes in the brain that are essential to conceiving and conducting transformative research with societal impact. The project will yield a scalable and adaptable curriculum for training engineering graduate students, integrated assessment tools suitable for evaluating creative capacity, emotional styles, and well-being, and documentation of the effectiveness of the proposed learning framework in enhancing graduate student ability and interest to conduct societally-focused transformative research.