
Mr Ross MacLachlan
Senior Teaching Fellow
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
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Publications
- Improving student success rate through linking virtual, physical and digital prototyping
- MacLachlan Ross, Gibson Dale, Shepherd Neil, Bertolaccini Dino
- International Symposium of Academic Maker Spaces 2024 (2024)
- Chat-GPT : a clever search engine or a creative design assistant for students and industry?
- Maclachlan Ross, Adams Richard, Lauro Veeti, Murray Michael, Magueijo Vitor, Flockhart Gordon, Hasty William
- 26th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (2024)
- The Learning Station Model : co-creation with student and stakeholder as a practice for knowing, thinking, feeling and doing
- Acar Emrah, ahmetola Semra, Calimli marve, Gorgul Emine, Henderson Emma, MacLachlan Ross, Strachan Scott
- 52nd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) (2024)
- Towards a new standard for FEA methodology and presentation in product design portfolios
- MacLachlan Ross
- Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2022), London South Bank University in London, UK. 8th - 9th September 2022 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (2022)
- https://doi.org/10.35199/EPDE.2022.91
- Using linkography to compare creative methods for group ideation
- Hatcher G, Ion W, MacLachlan R, Marlow M, Simpson B, Wilson N, Wodehouse A
- Design Studies Vol 58, pp. 127-152 (2018)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2018.05.002
- A new approach for patent use in student design engineering projects
- Maclachlan Ross, Wodehouse Andrew, Vasantha Gokula
- Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, E&PDE 2018 20th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, E and PDE 2018, pp. 288-293 (2018)
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Research Interests
Creative Design Methods; Culture and design; the role of Open-source in design practice; Product acoustics; and; Innovation, Design and Engineering Education.
Professional Activities
- Learner Station workshop - funded activity as part of British Council project between Strathclyde and Istanbul Technical University
- Organiser
- 29/4/2024
- International Symposium of Engineering Education (ISEE) 2022
- Chair
- 1/9/2022
Projects
- EDUWEAR: Engineering Educational Competence Development on Customisable Wearable Rehabilitation Devices
- Wodehouse, Andrew (Principal Investigator) MacLachlan, Ross (Co-investigator)
- The overall aim of EDUWEAR is to develop an e-learning course, together with a set of hands-on exercises, collectively aimed to equip learners with knowledge and competences in developing customisable wearable devices for rehabilitation. Objectives include:
- establish a common course between the engineering and health sciences faculties of the EU countries for developing healthcare products, using bespoke wearables for rehabilitation as case studies
- contribute to the standardisation of the course content which would eliminate the competences gap in EU countries concerning healthcare product development
- promote innovative use cases of the FabLab concept in engineering education on an international scale
- promote the application of a range of engineering design tools
- develop adequate course and educational materials for students to receive training that would allow them to develop and test products for target audiences in healthcare
- provide guidance to trainers on best practices to transfer knowledge on the development of such devices and;
- learn in identifying and collaborating with other professionals outside the field of engineering, for example, allied health professionals, people from the ICT field and product users, as co-designers - 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2027
- Creating Innovative and Active Co-learning Environments for Sustainable Partnerships in the Higher Education Area
- MacLachlan, Ross (Principal Investigator) Thomson, Avril (Principal Investigator) Henderson, Emma (Co-investigator) MacLachlan, Ross (Co-investigator) Race, Julia (Co-investigator) Strachan, Scott (Co-investigator) Thomson, Avril (Co-investigator)
- 19-Jan-2022 - 19-Jan-2024
- Creating Innovative and Active Co-learning Environments for Sustainable Partnerships in the Higher Education Area
- MacLachlan, Ross (Principal Investigator) Thomson, Avril (Principal Investigator) Henderson, Emma (Co-investigator) MacLachlan, Ross (Co-investigator) Race, Julia (Co-investigator) Strachan, Scott (Co-investigator) Thomson, Avril (Co-investigator)
- 19-Jan-2022 - 19-Jan-2024
- KTP - Elite Bedding
- Nair, Anup (Principal Investigator) MacLachlan, Ross (Co-investigator)
- 13-Jan-2020 - 23-Jan-2022
- Embedding Design Improv
- MacLachlan, Ross (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2017 - 31-Jan-2021
- New Engineering Design Processes through Constructs of Humour
- Ion, William (Principal Investigator) MacLachlan, Ross (Co-investigator) Marlow, Marion (Co-investigator) Simpson, Barbara (Co-investigator) Wodehouse, Andrew (Co-investigator)
- "This project aims to reinvigorate early phase concept design by developing new creative engineering design processes through constructs of humour.
Humour is a human faculty and a capacity for its generation and appreciation is detectable in most people. Humour therefore plays an inherent, often positive and unconsciously strategic, role in organisational culture, team dynamics, management and creativity. In humour and organisational studies there is significant support for the deliberate leveraging of positive humour cognitive mechanisms to further enhance creative and social processes.
Creative processes are critical to innovation through engineering design, particularly during early conceptual process phases. When engineering designers and teams engage in idea generation and other creative tasks, a lack of openness to others, engagement with the problem and willingness to take risks can inhibit the quality and volume of concepts produced. 'Brainstorming' is a group problem solving technique that can be applied to nearly any open-ended task. It has become a shorthand for any solution focused group discussion and in many cases does not take place in the open-minded, inventive, fluid atmosphere that is necessary for it to be effective. While other techniques such as morphological charts, TRIZ and the gallery method exist, they are similarly impaired by a lack of participant engagement.
A dominant theory of humour is that it is a process involving the set-up and resolution of 'incongruities'; the recipient feels emotions of surprise and satisfaction resulting in laughter. For engineering design, incongruous humour is a powerful analogy for creative design process explaining how novel, unexpected but appropriate solutions are recognised. One study suggests that a group of experienced comedians were more effective in product design idea generation than trained designers. However, the precise reasons for this are not fully understood, corresponding results have not been sought within real situated design processes, technical or otherwise, and there has been no formal attempt to package humour based processes for effective use in design practice.
Using prominent arguments in the literature in relation to incongruity, relief and superiority in humour, we have conducted a preliminary study that established the feasibility of incorporating stimuli to enhance concept design sessions Based on this, we have identified three exploratory themes based on aspects of humour with potential for further integration with creative design methods:
1. Humour to facilitate collaboration. Laughter can help free us from the shackles of day-to-day analytic thinking. This theme will explore the use of humorous material and comedy to generate group cohesion and structure sessions to achieve a positive, non-critical attitude towards the task in hand.
2. Humour to encourage immersion. Creative thinking benefits from a level of absorption or 'flow' discussed by and others to achieve depths of empathy and insight. This theme will explore the use of improvisational routines ('Yes, and...') and comedic exercises to increase the level of engagement by the group.
3. Humour to diversify the solution space. Incongruity, or the juxtaposition of dissimilar ideas, is fundamental to many jocular structures. This theme will explore the use of the properties of incongruity to encourage the group to strive for unusual ideas through the use of humorous narratives and unexpected perspectives.
This project will allow further integration of aspects of humour to enhance engagement, structure and novelty in idea generation; to assess effectiveness through a series of workshops; and to present enhanced guidelines as a basis for new methods and tools to enhance innovative working practices. This would represent a significant step forward in the academic fields of creativity, innovation and design methods." - 12-Jan-2015 - 11-Jan-2017
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Contact
Mr
Ross
MacLachlan
Senior Teaching Fellow
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
Email: r.maclachlan@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 2653