David Cropley

Dr David Cropley is the Professor of Engineering Innovation at the University of South Australia. He specialises in helping people and organisations become better, more effective, problem solvers.

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 deployments to the Caribbean and Middle East. Following the establishment of the University in 1991, he completed a PhD in Measurement Systems Engineering in 1997, and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education in 2002.

He has taught a variety of courses on engineering, including digital electronics, linear electronics, systems engineering, and engineering design. He teaches creativity and innovation across programs, from gifted education through to management. Dr Cropley’s research interests span creativity in education, the assessment of creativity and innovation in organisations, the role of creativity and innovation in terrorism and crime, and the nexus of creative problem-solving and engineering. Most recently, he has been researching the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence (AI).

Dr Cropley is author/co-author of 10 books including Creativity in Education: A user’s guide for educators, parents and students (Hawker Brownlow, 2022), Core Capabilities for Industry 4.0 – Foundations of the Cyber-Psychology of Engineering (Wbv Media, 2021) and The Psychology of Innovation in Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

A recognised expert in creative problem solving and innovation, Dr David Cropley was a scientific consultant and on-screen expert for the Australian ABC TV Documentaries Redesign My Brain (2013), Life at 9 (2014) and Redesign My Brain, Series 2 (2015). For more than 25 years, he has helped schools and organisations in Australia, the US, and Europe develop more effective, creative problem solvers.