publications

@inproceedings{Li2021-pm,

title = {Cross-Cultural UX Pedagogy: A China–US Case Study},

author = {Ziqing Li and Colin M Gray and Austin L Toombs and Kevin McDonald and Lukas Marinovic and Wei Liu},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2021_Lietal_LxD_CrossCulturalUXPedagogy.pdf},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-09-01},

urldate = {2021-09-01},

booktitle = {LearnxDesign: The 6th International Conference for Design 

 Education Researchers},

address = {Jinan, China},

institution = {Shandong University of Art and Design},

abstract = {The recent emergence of new undergraduate and graduate design 

 programs with a focus specific to User Experience (UX) offers 

 new opportunities to engage with the complexity of these 

 educational practices. In this paper, we report on a series of 

 ten interviews with students and faculty to describe 

 cross-cultural connections between two UX-focused programs, 

 one in China and one in the United States. Our study includes 

 the perspectives of students who engaged in intercultural UX 

 experiences, as well as the perspectives of the faculty who 

 designed those student experiences through an intercultural 

 partnership. We report on how each program was created, 

 developed, and iterated upon, describing program goals and 

 student experiences across both pro-grams from student and 

 instructor perspectives. We demonstrate the complexity of UX 

 educational experiences on an international scale, concluding 

 with opportunities for intercultural engagement and the 

 potential for links among education, profession, culture, and 

 pedagogy.},

keywords = {Cross-Cultural Education, Design Education, Instructional Design, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2019-ez,

title = {Engaging Design Students in Value Discovery as "Everyday  Ethicists"},

author = {Colin M Gray and Shruthi Sai Chivukula},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11688977},

doi = {10.3998/mpub.11688977},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

booktitle = {Dialogue: Proceedings of the AIGA Design Educators Community Conferences},

volume = {(Decipher, Vol. 1)},

pages = {187--189},

publisher = {AIGA Design Educators Community},

abstract = {In creating the not-yet-existing, the designer takes on a 

 substantial weight of responsibility not only for the present 

 use of a designed artifact or experience but also the 

 potential futures that these artifacts or experiences may 

 potentially embody. In this way, design activity can be viewed 

 as always already being linked to social change, mediated 

 through the character of the designer. In this conversation, 

 we seek to explore how design activity—in particular, the 

 education of designers—might celebrate this ethical 

 responsibility as a form of activism that inherently 

 celebrates and embodies a certain set of social values while 

 simultaneously excluding other possible social values. We 

 advocate for a repositioning of the role of values and ethics 

 in relation to design activity, seeing ethical concerns not as 

 a constraint or barrier to action but rather as a generative 

 driver of design concepts through the process of value 

 discovery.},

keywords = {Dark Patterns, Design Education, Ethics and Values, Studio Pedagogy, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Murdoch-Kitt2019-sw,

title = {Developing Students' Instrumental Judgment Capacity for Design  Research Methods},

author = {Kelly Murdoch-Kitt and Colin M Gray and Paul Parsons and Austin L Toombs and Marti Louw and Elona Van Gent},

url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11688977},

doi = {10.3998/mpub.11688977},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

booktitle = {Dialogue: Proceedings of the AIGA Design Educators Community Conferences},

volume = {(Decipher, Vol. 1)},

pages = {108--115},

publisher = {AIGA Design Educators Community},

institution = {Üniver},

abstract = {How are we currently teaching design research? How can we do 

 it better? How are educators fostering students' development 

 of "instrumental judgment"? This activity group encourages 

 participants to explore the ways that educators teach 

 research-through-making and research-informed making at 

 multiple curricular levels. For example, students seeking 

 advanced degrees in design are grappling with "rigor" and 

 "distinction," learning how these characteristics of 

 research are defined and understood in other disciplines as 

 well as in relation to creative practice. Meanwhile, educators 

 at K-12 and undergraduate levels struggle to incorporate 

 creative inquiry processes in meaningful ways, grasping for 

 resources and leaning on others' "design thinking"

 approaches.},

keywords = {Design Education, Design Methods, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2017d,

title = {Moving Towards Individual Competence From Group Work in  Transdisciplinary Education},

author = {Colin M Gray and Marisa Exter and Terri S Krause},

url = {https://peer.asee.org/28691},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-06-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2017 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition },

abstract = {Collaboration has been identified as a key 21st century skill, vital for success in multidisciplinary environments that are increasingly common in engineering and technology contexts. While researchers have frequently discussed how students develop competencies that facilitate success in groups, little is known about how individual students build their own sense of competence and autonomy after working primarily in groups. In this paper, we present results from an undergraduate transdisciplinary degree program in which students spent the first two years of their core degree experience working almost exclusively in groups, while also developing an individual set of disciplinary interests and competencies. Researchers built an understanding of students’ individual and group development through extended ethnographic engagement, focus groups, and interviews as students worked concurrently on group and individual projects for the first time during the first semester of their junior year. Based on analysis of this transitional semester, we identified strategies that students used to build an individual sense of competence, in both technical and “soft” skills. These strategies allow for a fuller conversation regarding how students adapt competence gained in their group experiences and identify new areas of competence that must be confronted and mastered. These findings indicate the need to further understand the differences in the ways that the sequencing of group and individual work might impact the development of competencies in individual students, and the ways in which a project-based environment can encourage this development in a systematic and sustainable way.},

keywords = {Design Education, Transdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2017-mi,

title = {Developing a Socially-Aware Engineering Identity Through  Transdisciplinary Learning},

author = {Colin M Gray and Todd M Fernandez},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2017_GrayFernandez_MUDD_SociallyAwareEngineeringIdentity.pdf},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-01-01},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the Mudd Design Workshop X: Design and the Future of the Engineer of 2020},

publisher = {Harvey Mudd College},

address = {Claremont, CA},

abstract = {In conjunction with the drive towards human-centered design in engineering education, questions arise regarding how students build and engage a socially-aware engineering identity. In this paper, we describe how students in a transdisciplinary undergraduate program struggle to engage with ontological and epistemological perspectives that draw on that social turn, particularly in relation to human-centered engineering approaches and sociotechnical complexity. We use a critical qualitative meaning reconstruction approach to deeply analyze the meaning-making assumptions of these students to reveal characteristic barriers in engaging with other subjectivities, and related epistemological and ontological claims implicit in these subjectivities. We conclude with implications for encouraging socially-aware identity formation in engineering education.},

keywords = {Critical Pedagogy, Design Education, Design Knowledge, Transdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Exter2017-dv,

title = {Systematically Integrating Liberal Education in a Transdisciplinary Design Studio Environment},

author = {Marisa Exter and Iryna Ashby and Colin M Gray and Denise Mcallister Wilder and Terri S Krause},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2017_Exteretal_ASEE_HumanitiesIntegration.pdf

https://peer.asee.org/28901},

issn = {2153-5965},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-01-01},

booktitle = {ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings},

volume = {2017-June},

publisher = {ASEE},

address = {Columbus, Ohio},

abstract = {Many scholars have cited the importance of integrating humanities and social science content into engineering and technology education, noting the value in building students’ deep competence in communication and interpersonal skills, including an understanding of how technology is intertwined with societal and human needs. However, there is relatively little guidance as to how viewpoints and content from liberal education perspectives might be integrated systematically into a single, transdisciplinary learning experience that allows students to view the world through different lenses from a variety of disciplinary perspectives while locating and synthesizing information crucial to solving interesting and worthwhile problems that may not be obvious from a solely technical or solely humanities perspective. In this paper, we present a case study including multiple iterations of a learning experience that integrates liberal education, design, and technology content and forms the core of an undergraduate transdisciplinary degree program. Using an ethnographic approach, we trace the evolution of students’ and instructors’ perceptions and intentions in relation to integrating liberal education, and document these perspectives through interviews, focus groups, and course observations.},

keywords = {Design Education, Transdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Exter2017-rr,

title = {Transdisciplinary design education: Do differing disciplinary backgrounds divide or unify?},

author = {Marisa Exter and Colin M Gray and Todd M Fernandez},

url = {https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2017_ExterGrayFernandez_MUDD_ConceptionsofDesign.pdf},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-01-01},

booktitle = {Mudd Design Workshop X: Design and the Future of the Engineer of 2020},

address = {Claremont, CA},

abstract = {The purpose of this study is to explore the similarities and differences in understandings of design among faculty with differing backgrounds. By understanding how faculty conceptualize design, we can assess the impact of potential misalignment on a design-dependent educational environment. Faculty interviewed for this paper are involved in an innovative transdisciplinary program, in which students are encouraged to understand and activate both technical and humanistic skills and knowledge to address “wicked” design problems. The program relies on design philosophies (e.g., human-centered design) and pedagogical emphasis (i.e., studio). The faculty have spent significant time co-designing the program-level experience, and generally assumed that the group has a common understanding of concepts related to design and how those concepts may be operationalized in the classroom. This assumption was challenged as teaching practices evolved based on student responses and changing membership of the faculty group. An apparent lack of alignment among faculty inspired us to study the range of beliefs across the faculty group about design, conceptions and operationalization of design terminology, and processes. The following research questions are addressed in this study: 1) How do faculty members characterize design and the design process?; and 2) How consistent are the faculty in the way that they characterize design and the design process?},

keywords = {Design Education, Design Theory, Transdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Van_Epps_undated-zv,

title = {Supporting Student Attainment and Management of  Competencies in a Transdisciplinary Degree Program},

author = {Amy Van Epps and Iryna Ashby and Colin M Gray and Marisa Exter},

url = {http://peer.asee.org/25977},

doi = {10.18260/p.25977},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-06-01},

booktitle = {2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings},

publisher = {ASEE Conferences},

address = {New Orleans, Louisiana},

keywords = {Design Education, Transdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Gray2016-rd,

title = {Instructional Strategies for Incorporating Empathy in  Transdisciplinary Technology Education},

author = {Colin M Gray and Luciana Cresce El de Debs and Marisa Exter and Terri S Krause},

url = {http://peer.asee.org/25746

https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/2016_Grayetal_ASEE_EmpathyinTransdisciplinary.pdf},

doi = {10.18260/p.25746},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-01-01},

booktitle = {2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings},

volume = {2016-June},

publisher = {ASEE Conferences},

address = {New Orleans, Louisiana},

abstract = {In the past decade, there has been an increasing focus on the ethical content of designed artifacts, including the ways in which engineers and technologists are responsible for considering ethical issues relating to the end user or context for which they are designing. Creating sustainable post- secondary ethics education has been an increasing focus in engineering and technology education scholarship, with the goal of developing students’ ability to understand and make ethically-sound design decisions through evidence-based instructional strategies.

In this study, we focus on the ways in which a transdisciplinary educational experience might encourage the development of empathic ability by documenting the activities of undergraduate technology students as they sought to develop an off-the-grid toilet for the “developing” world. Students were exposed to multiple instructional strategies that encouraged them to reconsider their notion of “difference” as it might apply to their semester-long design project. We present several themes of instructional strategies that emerged from instructors and students, and contextualize these strategies in relation to the students’ development of empathic ability. The students in this course struggled to develop empathy that had practical implications for their design activity, suggesting the need for a larger shift in the ability of students to create empathically-driven action. We found that a substantial change in empathic ability also requires a certain amount of vulnerability and ability to position-take (i.e., taking the position of another), indicating the need for “safe spaces” that challenge student perspectives while also encouraging trust and honesty.},

keywords = {Design Education, Empathy, Ethics and Values, Transdisciplinarity, Transdisciplinary Education},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}