An Open-Access Curriculum for Teaching Generative Design Methodologies and Thinking

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are increasingly used during engineering design in academic and industrial settings. The Generative Design (GD) paradigm is characterized by the use of these algorithms to drive design exploration, after a user defines objectives and constraints. GD represents a paradigm shift from Traditional Design (TD) and Parametric Design (PD), in which human designers manually drive design exploration. To effectively navigate GD, students must learn novel methodologies and ways of design thinking. However, few engineering curricula currently discuss GD. To address this gap, we present the Educating Designers for Generative Engineering (EDGE) curriculum, which introduces methodologies and ways of design thinking associated with TD, PD, and GD. Our curriculum includes an open-ended design problem (OEDP), which students solve once within each paradigm and once more using any paradigm(s) of their choice. We additionally present the results of two pilot studies, during which 11 undergraduate students completed the curriculum and its OEDPs. While we do not claim that these results alone validate the EDGE curriculum’s effectiveness, we assert that they yield preliminary insights that can be used to refine educational interventions for teaching GD and guide further investigation of GD behaviors, ahead of larger-scale validation studies.