Design Thinking: A New Foundational Science for Engineering and Innovation Ecologies

Design, the process of artifact creation, has historically been a qualitative art. But that has changed.  We now understand the cognitive and communicative basis of artifact creation and diffusion. We can measure artifact creation at the human interaction level, and can measure its diffusion at the economic, ecological, and sociological levels. We can also model the behaviors associated with artifact creation and design new ones. We can solve problems with innovative solutions that result in improvements in self and group efficacy, utilization efficiency, and impact effectiveness. In the last two decades, breakthroughs in information technology and genetics have turned biology from a classificatory science to a more quantitative and predictive one. Biology has thus become a foundational science for engineering. We believe we are witnessing a similar transformation in design thinking whereby it is becoming a quantitative science like physics, chemistry, and biology. In this talk, Mr. Mabogunje will explore the proposition that design thinking is ready to become a foundational science for engineering, and thus pave the way for the controlled emergence of many innovation ecologies like the Silicon Valley in city clusters around the world as well as within large organizations.

Speaker: Ade Mabogunje, Stanford