Format: On Campus
Number of Students: Maximum 30 students (total)
Duration of Project: 3 days / 29-30-31 of July 2026 (3 hours a day—total 9 hours)
Application Deadline: June 5, 2026
Project Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Derya Yorgancıoğlu, Ass. Prof. Selin Üst, Seda Dönmez
Research Areas: Design cognition, design thinking, active learning, human-computer interaction, design communication
Daily Supervisor: Seda Dönmez
About the Project
This project consists of a three-day workshop series aimed at exploring design cognition with high school students. Within an active learning framework, students will be encouraged to engage with spatial design problems. The series prioritizes the design experience itself rather than the final product; in its concluding phase, an AIsupported framework will be introduced to examine how the design thinking process may evolve under such conditions, and the outcomes will be critically discussed.
Project Objectives
The primary objective of this program is to establish a workshop environment where high school students can engage with design cognition and design thinking, enabling them to develop independent modes of thinking and design practice regardless of the academic field they choose to pursue at the university level. The second objective of the program is to investigate, concurrently with the students, whether design cognition processes can be supported through AI-assisted tools. In this context, students are encouraged to compare their own design ideas with AI-generated outputs and to reflect on these outputs both verbally and in writing, thereby collaboratively exploring how artificial intelligence may be positioned as a learning tool that supports and enhances design thinking.
Project Tasks
DAY 1
Students attempt to solve a volumetric design problem through a predefined exercise. To enable discussion of the methods employed during the process, their work is documented throughout the exercise. At the end of the exercise, the process itself is reviewed and discussed with the students. Students verbally describe their problemsolving strategies to the AI. They then ask the AI to propose alternative strategies, provide descriptions of possible solution approaches, and offer interpretations or commentary on their solutions.
DAY 2
The volumetric exercise conducted on the first day is transformed, through a conceptual mental framework, into a more explicitly spatial configuration. This time, students use the same components for a different purpose. The process is documented and subsequently evaluated together with the students. Students verbally describe their problem-solving strategies to the AI. They then ask the AI to propose alternative strategies, provide descriptions of possible solution approaches, and offer interpretations or commentary on their solutions.
DAY 3
Students conduct a peer jury session among themselves.
Deliverables
As an outcome of this project, students who have not yet begun their undergraduate education will become more aware of their cognitive learning tendencies throughout the spatial design process and will also have the opportunity to experience the diverse ways of thinking adopted by their peers. This may introduce them not only to their potential professional fields but also to the fundamental principles of design itself. Furthermore, since the project involves observing how and at which stages artificial intelligence can be integrated into this process, students’ awareness and critical understanding of AI use in design practices are expected to become more clearly articulated.
Benefits for the Student
One of the primary benefits of the project may be to make students’ internal design processes more visible and to share methodological diversity with them. In this way, the design thinking experience can become more transparent and be understood as a multi-method approach. Additionally, by the end of the three-day workshop, students will have experienced spatial design by establishing relationships between space, scenario, and scale, while also observing how this experience may evolve when supported by artificial intelligence.
Requirements
For students: Glue, scissors, pencil, eraser, sketchbook, colored pencils.
For supervisors: A classroom equipped with a projector
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