honors summer in the city
Engineer and scholar, Theodore von Kármán, famously said “a scientist studies what is, whereas an engineer creates what never was.” To create “what never was” requires some serious creativity. This 3-credit Honors course designed for the study about program “UF in Lille: Engineering & Arts” will focus on the process of cultivating creativity. In addition to considering case studies and classroom exercises, the course will make several excursions to engage the arts and cultural resources of the city of Lille along with the city’s built environment and urban fabric to catalog and develop the skills necessary for the creative process. These skills include: observation & ways of seeing; visual thinking; creative ideation & divergent thinking. Using these skills, the class will partner with a cultural institution in Lille and work through a formal design process to generate and propose creative solutions to a real-world challenge faced by that institution.
Students will develop a foundational understanding of the history and culture of the city of Lille by engaging in a series of excursions and outside-the-classroom visits and tours.
learning outcomes
Students will synthesize what they’ve learned from the course with their own knowledge, perspectives, and experiences, analyzing course content in order to contribute to classroom discussion and apply their learnings to their own interests and fields of academic inquiry.
Students will gain a set of transferable skills, including a knowledge of the design thinking process, public communication, creative problem solving, and divergent thinking.