Public Lecture - Your Brain on Design: New Field of Design Neurocognition

Your Brain on Design

The New Field of Design Neurocognition

John S Gero

Research Professor in Computer Science and Architecture

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

About the lecture

What happens in your brain when you design? Recent advances in non-invasive brain measurements coupled with a dramatic reduction in their cost has made it possible to answer the question: What happens in your brain when you design? This talk will present results of studying the brains of designers from architecture, engineering and industrial design while they design. It presents answers to questions such as:

• Are there differences in the design neurocognition of architects and engineers?
• Does using design tools change the design neurocognition of the designer using them?
• Does teaching design methods change students’ design neurocognition?
• Does your creativity produce different brain responses?
• Does using VR produce different response than 2D computer display?

The talk concludes with projections for the future use of the knowledge gained from studies of your brain on design.

About John Gero

John Gero is the former Professor Design Science and Director of the Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition at the University of Sydney. He has been a Visiting Professor of Design and Computation, MIT; Visiting Professor of Architecture, Columbia University; Severance Springer Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UC-Berkeley; Harvey Perloff Chair Professor of Architecture, UCLA; Visiting Professor of Civil Engineering, INSA-Lyon; Visiting Professor of Artificial Intelligence, EPFL; Visiting Professor of Cognitive Psychology, University of Provence; Visiting Professor of Architecture, CMU and Professor of Computational Social Science at GMU. He is the author/editor of 54 books and has published some 800 research papers. His research has been funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).