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Closing Remarks on the Important Role of Design Projects
CHAPTER
Closing Remarks on the Important Role of Design Projects
27
Source: © iStockphoto.com/Malcolm Romain
If you ask professors or students why they do design projects in engineering courses, you can expect to hear responses like this: n n n n
“They “They “They “They
are motivational tools.” apply the analytical methods taught in courses.” help develop written and oral communication skills.” teach teaming.”
Indeed, these are all valuable outcomes of a design project, but each one can be achieved by some other means. The answer must lie elsewhere. Part of the answer is found in the view that every engineering endeavor is ultimately about finding or designing a solution to an expressed need. The analytical methods, the teaming skills, and the rest are tools for achieving that goal; that is, they are the means to the end, not the end itself. Each design project offers a rare opportunity for students who spend most of their time deeply immersed in learning analytical methods to see the big picture. The rest of the answer has to do with the real purpose behind these design chapters. Engineering design is at its core an unbiased and structured methodology for dissecting and solving complex problems. It is the way engineers should and must think. In contrast to analytical methods that are each limited to their own special class of problems, design methodology has universal applicability—to design, to research, to all fields of study. Design projects are the best way we know to exercise and develop this most fundamental of all engineering methods. Hands-on design projects come closest to fully realizing these goals. They complete the design process, for as we have seen, it does not end with the detailed design; there will be design modifications to be made during manufacturing, testing, and the final performance evaluation. Students learn the importance of design for manufacture principles by experiencing the results of having failed to heed them. They also gain a sense of accountability by learning that it is not enough for a design to look good on paper—it has to work.
Exploring Engineering, Third Edition Copyright © 2013, 2010, 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
449
Closing Remarks on the Important Role of Design Projects
27
Source: © iStockphoto.com/Malcolm Romain
If you ask professors or students why they do design projects in engineering courses, you can expect to hear responses like this: n n n n
“They “They “They “They
are motivational tools.” apply the analytical methods taught in courses.” help develop written and oral communication skills.” teach teaming.”
Indeed, these are all valuable outcomes of a design project, but each one can be achieved by some other means. The answer must lie elsewhere. Part of the answer is found in the view that every engineering endeavor is ultimately about finding or designing a solution to an expressed need. The analytical methods, the teaming skills, and the rest are tools for achieving that goal; that is, they are the means to the end, not the end itself. Each design project offers a rare opportunity for students who spend most of their time deeply immersed in learning analytical methods to see the big picture. The rest of the answer has to do with the real purpose behind these design chapters. Engineering design is at its core an unbiased and structured methodology for dissecting and solving complex problems. It is the way engineers should and must think. In contrast to analytical methods that are each limited to their own special class of problems, design methodology has universal applicability—to design, to research, to all fields of study. Design projects are the best way we know to exercise and develop this most fundamental of all engineering methods. Hands-on design projects come closest to fully realizing these goals. They complete the design process, for as we have seen, it does not end with the detailed design; there will be design modifications to be made during manufacturing, testing, and the final performance evaluation. Students learn the importance of design for manufacture principles by experiencing the results of having failed to heed them. They also gain a sense of accountability by learning that it is not enough for a design to look good on paper—it has to work.
Exploring Engineering, Third Edition Copyright © 2013, 2010, 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
449