The science of creativity

Abstract

An influential writer has been employed by leading US science, engineering and technology university to teach creativity. E&T finds out why MIT is teaching engineers to think laterally. It was not so long ago that companies wanted universities to stress the value of teamwork and structure in preparing undergraduates for working life. Creativity and an interest in arts or humanities were seen as mercurial, peripheral, even dangerous. However, the problems facing engineering today have forced a rethink overcoming broad challenges such as global warming and more focused ones such as the physical limits abutting progress in electronics will demand original thinking. How do you provoke that? It's no great surprise to learn that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is an old hand at this game. The US educational system has always had a certain amount of flexibility in allowing students to mix degree majors in the sciences with minors in the arts, and MIT is one of its leading innovators. So much becomes clearer still when you learn that its current Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Creative Writing is also the holder of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Junot Diaz is well on the way to becoming a literary superstar. He won the Pulitzer for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao', and before he joined MIT produced 'Drown', a powerful collection of short stories.