Creating and Validating a Model to Support Aerospace Engineering Students' Coordination of Knowledge about a Design

摘要

As a general field, design symbolizes the "conception and realisation of new things".1 However, engineering design differs from other design areas (e.g. graphic, industrial, and software design) in the enhanced complexity involved with clarifying and defining engineering products. Engineering design can also be defined as a structured approach to developing, validating, and implementing complex systems. These complex systems entail multiple points of interaction characterized through overlapping, interdependent, and often conflicting interdisciplinary design parameters, preferences, and constraints. Thus, the engineering design process is a complex, iterative process through which individuals and teams solve ill-defined, multidisciplinary problems by integrating domain-based technical knowledge. Aerospace engineering, specifically, integrates technical components from many different disciplines, such as aerodynamics, combustion, avionics, materials science, structural analysis, flight mechanics, optimization, and manufacturing. Thus, successful aerospace engineering design requires multidisciplinary communication, collaboration, and coordination among all stakeholders to balance technical developments within disciplines with design integration across disciplines.