The role of software tools in influencing creative problem solving in engineering design and education

Creativity is increasingly recognised as an essential component of engineering design. This paper describes an exploratory study into the nature and importance of creativity in engineering design problem solving in relation to the possible impact of software design tools. The first stage of the study involved an empirical investigation in the form of a case study of the use of standard CAD tool sets and the development of a systems engineering software support tool. It was found that there were several ways in which CAD influenced the creative process, including enhancing visualisation and communication, premature fixation, circumscribed thinking and bounded ideation. The tool development experience uncovered the difficulty in supporting creative processes from the developer's perspective. The issues were the necessity of making assumptions, achieving a balance between structure and flexibility, and the pitfalls of satisfying user wants and needs. The second part of the study involved the development of a model of the creative problem solving process in engineering design. This provided a possible explanation for why purpose designed engineering software tools might encourage an analytical problem solving approach and discourage a more creative approach.

Closing the gender gap in Bangladesh: Inequality in education, employment and earnings

Assesses the status of women in Bangladesh by analysing the dynamics of female participation in labour force and education as well as gender earnings differentials at the macro level. The study finds evidence of growing commercialisation of women’s work in Bangladesh. Although the bulk of the female labour force is engaged in self-employment activities in the rural area or in low-skilled textile and readymade garment industries in the urban area, women’s participation in high-skill and entrepreneurial jobs as well as various decision-making bodies is also on the rise. While the gender wage differentials have been considerably reduced in many industries, in general women tend to be paid less than men. There have been remarkable improvements in women’s educational attainments compared to men. Further, female access to education is found to be highly correlated with overall female labour force participation, and relative to male participation. The overall results are suggestive of an improvement in the status of women in Bangladesh.