The Forgotten Steps of Engineering Design: Design-Build Experiences and their Downstream Effect on Capstone Design Projects

摘要

Various stages are ascribed to the engineering design process, but they typically include (1) problem identification, (2) research and conceptualization, (3) prototyping, (4) testing, and finally (5) iteration of some or all of steps 1 -4. Design courses are often tasked with teaching all of these in the span of a single semester. The coverage is often biased; problem identification, research, and brainstorming are easily taught in a traditional classroom. Fabrication, testing, and iteration, in contrast, are often emphasized less. This is presumably due to the facilities, time, and material costs needed to execute these steps.