On April 20, 2016, Professor Giovanni Emanuele Corazza will deliver a talk “Beyond incremental research: the science of creative thinking” for the audience of the COST IC1301 Spring PhD School: “Electromagnetics and emerging technologies for pervasive applications: Internet of Things, Health and Safety” (Villa Griffone, Pontecchio Marconi, 18 – 20 April).
At first sight, PhD research could apparently involve a lot of thinking freedom, but in reality it must undergo a large variety of constraints, coming from the supervisor, the scientific community, and the PhD student him/her-self. In fact, it is perfectly reasonable to decide that, in order to be fairly sure about achieving publishable results, a well opened research path should be followed. Quantity of publications is taken as a success criterion, which clearly points to the convenience of pursuing the most accredited trends, leading to incremental research. This is fine 95% of the time. Still, 5% of a PhD activity should be devoted to the pursuit of risky avenues, truly original ideas, disruptive innovation. This small investment may in fact turn out to give the most significant results in one’s life. This seminar will discuss scientific approaches to creative thinking that can allow to approach this kind of unconventional activity in a disciplined and systematic way.
For more information about the program click here.