Interdisciplinary collaboration between HASS/STEM departments is fundamental to finding solutions to global problems. MIT Professor, Neri Oxman’s Krebs Cycle of Creativity diagram illustrates ‘… Science produces knowledge that is used by engineers. Engineering produces utility that is used by designers. Designers produce changes in behaviour that are perceived by artists. Art produces new perceptions of the world, thereby granting access to new information in and about it, and inspiring new scientific inquiry’ (Oxman, 2015, 2016). I am lucky to have a background that has spanned disciplines.  I started my higher education journey in art, sculpture, design and making, before moving into engineering. Further endeavours in medical engineering, forensic injury biomechanics, counter terrorism, entrepreneurship and curriculum design for 21st century skills development have frequently required crossing and combining disciplines.  

Attending the Stanford d.school ‘Teaching and Learning Studio’ allowed me to further develop design thinking skills for addressing complex educational challenges. I previously published a pilot study for 21st Century skills development through a methodology combining Project Based Learning (PBL) and EntreComp (Cory et al, 2019a, 2019b). This methodology has been fully implemented in our BEng/MEng engineering programmes at the University of Exeter and a newly developed Engineering Maker Space with EDI at the heart of its culture (Cory, 2025).

Industry 5.0 has arrived and ‘the potential for progress is based on collaboration among the humans and machines’ with rapid advances in big data analytics, Internet of Things, collaborative robots (cobots), Blockchain, digital twins and future 6G systems (Adel, 2022). Education requires a further shift in 21st Century Skills to higher levels of creativity, emotional intelligence quotient, empathy, flexibility, and collaboration (Ikenga and van der Sijde, 2024, WEF, 2025). There is a need to ‘create a culture that will encourage innovation, exploration, and inventiveness in the place of work’ (Ikenga and van der Sijde, 2024).

This global change requires an interdisciplinary approach with collaborators with complimentary experience in technology, human-centric 21st century skills development, creativity, EDI and social justice. I am working with a HASS/STEM team on a project ‘EXCITE AI - EXeter Collaboration in Industry, Training, and Education with AI’ to investigate collaborative projects in this area. We are currently exploring the current application of AI by individuals and teams in our University and partners to advance processes and productivity; immersive VR global classrooms incorporating AI; healthcare digital twins and machine learning models; how AI use impacts on EDI, ethics and well-being as we adapt to highly advanced AI technology; how human-centric 21st Century skills can be developed for productive Human/AI collaboration and how might we ensure Human/AI collaboration includes the experiential human benefit of process and specialist ‘sense checking’ of AI output (EXCITE AI, 2026).  

With the rapid and complex leaps in technology (Musk, 2026), the scale of the computational capacity (Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, 2025) required to match it and the environmental and human impact we are facing, there has never been a more important time for collaboration between disciplines to advance understanding of global problems and co-create holistic solutions.

References

Adel, H. (2022) ‘Human-machine collaboration for Industry 5.0: Challenges and opportunities’, Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 28, p. 100320.

Cory, C.Z., Sucala, V.I. and Carroll, S. (2019a) ‘The development of a Gold Standard Project Based Learning (GSPBL) engineering curriculum to improve Entrepreneurial Competence for success in the 4th industrial revolution’, in Complexity is the new Normality: proceedings of the 47th SEFI Annual Conference. Budapest, 16–20 September. Brussels: European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), pp. 280–291.

Cory, C.Z., Carroll, S. and Sucala, V.I. (2019b) ‘Embedding project-based learning and entrepreneurship in engineering education’, in New Approaches to Engineering Higher Education in Practice. Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) and Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) joint conference, IET London, 14 November.

Cory, C.Z. (2025) ‘Engineering changemakers: maker space EDI community and culture to enhance creativity, collaboration and exploration for success during Industry 5.0’, in Proceedings of the 12th EESD Conference (EESD2025). London, United Kingdom, 15–18 June.

EXCITE-AI Team (2026) EXCITE-AI: EXeter Collaboration in Industry, Training, and Education with AI, Unpublished internal funding application and workshop, University of Exeter.

Ikenga, G. U. and van der Sijde, P. (2024) ‘Twenty-first century competencies; about competencies for Industry 5.0 and the opportunities for emerging economies’, Sustainability, 16(16), p. 7166.
Oxman, N. (2016) ‘Age of Entanglement’, Journal of Design and Science, (1). Available at: mit.edu (Accessed: 18 June 2026)

Oxman, N. (2015) Design at the intersection of technology and biology. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/neri_oxman_design_at_the_intersection_of_technology_and_biology (Accessed: 2 December 2024).

World Economic Forum (2025) The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Geneva: World Economic Forum. Available at: https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_Report_2025.pdf (Accessed: 20 April 2025).

Department for Business and Trade and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2025) The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy: Digital and Technologies Sector Plan. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6892104df15b237bf6610996/industrial_strategy_digital_and_technologies_sector_plan_accessible.pdf (Accessed: 18 June 2026) (Accessed: 18 June 2026))