Creativity is usually only associated with good things – music, art, literature – and good outcomes, like solving problems. But is creativity restricted to these, or can creativity be used by criminals and terrorists to their advantage? 9/11 was an excellent, albeit unfortunate, example of terrorist creativity. The hijackers on 9/11 devised a highly original, and effective, solution to their problem of spreading terror – and in doing so demonstrated that creativity is not limited to good people doing good things.

In this talk I will explore the core concepts or creativity, and show how these can be used in both benevolent (e.g. business) and malevolent (e.g. criminal) contexts as a way of increasing the effectiveness of problem solving processes. How do we stop criminals and terrorists from deriving benefits from creativity?

BIO

Dr David Cropley is the Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia. 

Dr Cropley joined the School of Engineering at the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT) in 1990, after serving for four years in the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy, including a deployment to the Arabian Gulf in 1988. His research interests lie in the measurement of product creativity; measuring innovation capacity in organisations, creativity in schools and education, creativity and innovation in terrorism and crime, and the nexus of creative problem-solving and engineering.

Dr Cropley is author of four books including Creativity in Engineering: Novel Solutions to Complex Problems (Academic Press, 2015); The Psychology of Innovation in Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2015); Creativity and Crime: A Psychological Analysis (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

6:30 PM @The Alma - 66 Magill Rd, NORWOOD