Robert Hoekstra has lived in two worlds for many years \u2014 engineering and the arts. Now, he\u2019s officially bringing them together in unprecedented fashion at UCF.<\/p>\n
Hoekstra, an associate professor in UCF’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, was recently named an associate professor of art and is co-teaching this spring with art professor Robert Reedy to bring both fields together in the class Advanced Design Lab. Hoekstra is the first at UCF to share a joint appointment between the art and engineering colleges.<\/p>\n
The class has 44 students, with about a third of them engineering students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is have engineering come together with art,\u201d said Hoekstra, who has a bachelor\u2019s in English, a master\u2019s in design and a doctorate in engineering.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngineering has marched so far down the road, and art has too, that\u2019s it\u2019s not possible to have one person be both. The solution is not to develop a new industrial design program. The solution is to respect what artists bring to the party. And we can do that by literally getting them into a room and having them work together.\u201d<\/p>\n
For centuries, engineers and artists were mostly the same people, but as technology emerged the disciplines began to separate.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s changing at UCF.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the best of my knowledge, this isn\u2019t being done anywhere else,\u201d Hoekstra said. \u201cIt\u2019s never been done within a traditional university structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Advanced Design Lab, all is being done in the names of creativity and innovation. Reedy cites the need to \u201cadapt, improvise and overcome\u201d and warns the students to expect the unexpected from the client.<\/p>\n
Hoekstra preaches creative exploration. \u201cCreativity is at the very core of engineering,” he said. “I want students to explore 100 ideas before they arrive at one solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the class, students are being asked to work on projects in partnership with an Orlando theme park that will challenge them to create solutions for real-world scenarios.<\/p>\n
\u201cArt students who go into industry need to know how to work with engineers,\u201d Hoekstra said. \u201cThey might need to know how to speak some of the language; they have to have some basic engineering and physics concepts. That\u2019s the communications link. The artist can have the discussion with the engineer. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to teach here.\u201d<\/p>\n
UCF\u2019s new Maker Space Labs in the Engineering II building and the Advanced Design Lab in the School of Visual Arts and Design illustrate the new approach. Each area is designed to foster collaboration across academic lines. \u201cWhile many universities are looking at this, UCF is the first to make it happen in this way,\u201d he said about the labs.<\/p>\n
Reedy said it is his goal to establish a place where these kinds of experiences can continue. \u201cIt\u2019s critical that artists understand the importance of science and math and what engineers do, and even business. And the reverse is true for engineers and businesspeople,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Michael Shears, a senior in mechanical engineering, said he is looking forward to working with the art students.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir different backgrounds may give an\u00a0alternative\u00a0view on a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cThey often\u00a0ask questions on whether or not something technical can be done. And so far, many of the ideas in my group have come from one of the artists asking the engineers if a process\u00a0was possible, and after discussion we found new ways that it may be accomplished that we hadn’t entertained previously.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hoekstra, who came to UCF as an assistant professor in 1993, the move is a natural. Aside from his multiple degrees in art and engineering, and before he became an academician, he conducted advanced research at IBM in artificial intelligence, designed cars for Penske Racing, and ran an award-winning media production company that won an Emmy.<\/p>\n
His quest at UCF is to foster the kind of synergy and exploration that ultimately lead to breakthrough creativity: \u201cIt\u2019s getting engineers and artists to work together\u2026It brings the artists out of their studio into industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Hoekstra has lived in two worlds for many years \u2014 engineering and the arts. Now, he\u2019s officially bringing them together in unprecedented fashion at UCF. Hoekstra, an associate professor in UCF’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, was recently named an associate professor of art and is co-teaching this spring with art professor Robert Reedy to bring both…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":64247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[24,29],"tags":[7429,13268,13269,11258,8676,4168],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-64245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-technology","category-visual-arts","tag-advanced-design-lab","tag-department-of-industrial-engineering-and-management-systems","tag-maker-space-labs","tag-robert-hoekstra","tag-robert-reedy","tag-school-of-visual-arts-and-design"],"yoast_head":"\n