Detection of the Creativity Potential of Engineering Students

Creativity is a training requirement and a professional skill for every engineer, yet its promotion depends on many factors, including environment, approach, model, teacher, and institution. In engineering, creativity is commonly associated with problem-solving and generating a product. This work evaluated the creativity potential of university students who use engineering-specific tools and methodologies to generate innovative ideas. Students were trained in the use of TRIZ, USIT, and SCAMPER techniques to foster their creativity in problem-solving and projects involving creating new products in mechanics, mechatronics, and nanotechnology. The initial and final creative potential were evaluated using Carter¿s creative profile and Creatrix assessment, respectively, and the creativity enhancement hypothesis was verified with parametric Z and t-tests. The findings showed that most students had intermediate creative potential at the beginning of the course and improvement in achieving high creative potential at the final evaluation. The latter was evident in some samples when segmented by program, semester, gender, and academic average. The findings indicated that the deliberate use of these methodologies in class improves the creative competency of engineering students, especially the youngest ones in a scientific career. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

Detection of the Creativity Potential of Engineering Students Chapter in Scopus