Creativity and the Use of CAD Tools: Lessons for Engineering Design Education From Industry

2007 ◽  
Vol 129 (7) ◽  
pp. 753-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett F. Robertson ◽  
Joachim Walther ◽  
David F. Radcliffe
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Cad Tools ◽  
Targeted Instruction ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
The One

This paper presents an exploratory study that transfers lessons on creativity and the use of CAD tools from an industry case study to engineering design education. The participant-observation case study found four influences of the use of CAD on creativity of designers. The one positive and three negative effects were confirmed by a theoretical investigation of creative problem solving in engineering design. Similar effects were also seen in the context of engineering education in a study that examined the broad, holistic aspects of student learning outside the paradigm of targeted instruction. The paper is based on the notion that students' creative design capabilities are formed through the interaction of CAD instruction and other factors from the wider educational environment. A competence formation matrix based on the concept of Accidental Competence formation was developed to analyze this combination of the effects of CAD usage with other educational factors. The analysis shows that these combinations have long-term positive and negative effects on the development of creative abilities in engineering students.

scholarly journals The Analysis of three Case Studies as a guide to the Development of Pedagogy in Engineering Design Education

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Burns
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Engineering Product ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Dynamic Formulation

The Case Study has become a pedagogical vehicle ofchoice in helping engineering students to gain perspective on the multidisciplinary realities of design. What once were termed ‘war stories’ have evolved to a level where case studies are available and downloadable on all manner of topics. For the fundamental knowledge-based issues of engineering, example questions have commonly been created to help the student manoeuvre through all manner of possible combinations of application. The case study is not however fabricated, and relies on the reporting and documentation of a real design or engineering product development. In recent years many of these case studies have been related to ethics and communication, but very few have been related to ongoing product development and issues of Industrial Design. This is not surprising since the creation of such case studies is time consuming, and design is often a ‘messy’ process in which few companies would be keen to expose their failures along the way. Nevertheless case studies are a vital part of Engineering Design education and offer excellent potential for the development of the pedagogy vital to the dynamic formulation of Engineering Design Education. This paper references three design projects undertaken professionally by the author as an Industrial Designer working with predominantly engineering based companies. The aim is to identify critical aspects of these projects that could be used as lessons, perhaps, but not necessarily, as case studies, but to be incorporated into engineering design education.

A Pillar of Mechanical Engineering Design Education in Australia: 25 Years of the Warman Design and Build Competition

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren F. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Mechanical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
National Committee ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Institutional Learning ◽  
History Of

The “Warman Design and Build Competition”, running across Australasian Universities, is now in its 26th year in 2013. Presented in this paper is a brief history of the competition, documenting the objectives, yearly scenarios, key contributors and champion Universities since its beginning in 1988. Assuming the competition has reached the majority of mechanical and related discipline engineering students in that time, it is fair to say that this competition, as a vehicle of the National Committee on Engineering Design, has served to shape Australasian engineering education in an enduring way. The philosophy of the Warman Design and Build Competition and some of the challenges of running it are described in this perspective by its coordinator since 2003. In particular, the need is for the competition to work effectively across a wide range of student group ability. Not every group engaging with the competition will be competitive nationally, yet all should learn positively from the experience. Reported also in this paper is the collective feedback from the campus organizers in respect to their use of the competition as an educational experience in their classrooms. Each University participating uses the competition differently with respect to student assessment and the support students receive. However, all academic campus organizer responses suggest that the competition supports their own and their institutional learning objectives very well. While the project scenarios have varied widely over the years, the intent to challenge 2nd year university (predominantly mechanical) engineering students with an open-ended statement of requirements in a practical and experiential exercise has been a constant. Students are faced with understanding their opportunity and their client’s value system as expressed in a scoring algorithm. They are required to conceive, construct and demonstrate their device with limited prior knowledge and experience, and the learning outcomes clearly impact their appreciation for teamwork, leadership and product realization.

scholarly journals CHALLENGES IN ENGINEERING DESIGN EDUCATION: VERTICAL AND LATERAL LEARNING

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksander Czekanski ◽  
Maher Al-Dojayli ◽  
Tom Lee
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Engineering Practice ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Advanced Analysis ◽  
Capstone Projects ◽  
Team Design

Engineering practice and design in particular have gone through several changes during the last two decades whether due to scientific achievements including the evolution in novel engineering materials, computational advancements, globalization and economic constraints as well as the strategic needs which are the drive for innovative engineering. All these factors have impacted and shaped to certain extent the educational system in North America and Canada in particular. Currently, high percentage of the engineering graduates would require extensive training in industry to be able to conduct reliable complex engineering designs supported by scientific verification and validation, understand the complete design stages and phases, and identify the economic and cultural impact on such designs. This task, however, faces great challenges without educational support in such vastly changing economy.Lots of attention has been devoted to engineering design education in the recent years to incorporate engineering design courses supported by team design projects and capstone projects. Nevertheless, the lack of integrated education system towards engineering design programs can undermine the benefits of such efforts. In this paper, observations and analysis of the challenges in engineering design are presented from both academic and industrial points of view. Furthermore, a proposed vertical and lateral engineering education program is discussed. This program is structured to cover every year of the engineering education curricula, which emphasizes on innovative thinking, design strategies, support from and integration with other technical engineering courses, the use of advanced analysis tools, team collaboration, management and leadership, multidisciplinary education and industrial involvement. Its courses have just commenced for freshmen engineering students at the newly launched Mechanical Engineering Department at the Lassonde School of Engineering, York University.

Biomedical Engineering Design Education at King Saud University: A First of Its Kind Approach

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harcharan Singh Ranu ◽  
Aman Sweet Bhullar
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
King Saud University ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Medical Centers ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Established Firms ◽  
First Time

Biomedical Engineering in the Millennium is building the future of biology and medicine. New products, from biotechnology and novel devices for diagnosis and treatment, are marketed through interactions between universities, medical centers, small start-up companies, and large, more established firms. The role of biomedical engineering in the 21st century has already been highlighted by Ranu as far as research, education and space age technologies are concerned. Therefore, educating the modern biomedical engineering students in design processes is extremely important. This paper highlights how biomedical engineering design is taught for the first time to King Saud University students in Saudi Arabia. The conclusion drawn from this is that for the first time an innovative design course has been developed to teach the biomedical engineering students at King Saud University to meet the needs of tomorrow’s biomedical engineers.

The Impact of Team-Based Product Dissection on Design Novelty

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller ◽  
Gül E. Okudan Kremer
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Current Design ◽  
The Impact

Although design novelty is a critical area of research in engineering design, most research in this space has focused on understanding and developing formal idea generation methods instead of focusing on the impact of current design practices. This is problematic because formal techniques are often not adopted in industry due to the burdensome steps often included in these methods, which limit the practicality and adoption of these methods. This study seeks to understand the impact of product dissection, a design method widely utilized in academia and industry, on design novelty in order to produce recommendations for the use or alterations of this method for supporting novelty in design. To investigate the impact of dissection, a study was conducted with 76 engineering students who completed a team-based dissection of an electric toothbrush and then individually generated ideas. The relationships between involvement in the dissection activity, the product dissected, the novelty and quantity of the ideas developed were investigated. The results reveal that team members who were more involved in the dissection activity generated concepts that were more novel than those who did not. In addition, the type of the dissected product also had an influence on design novelty. Finally, a positive correlation between the number of ideas generated and the novelty of the design concepts was identified. The results from this study are used to provide recommendations for leveraging product dissection for enhancing novelty in engineering design education and practice.

International Trends in Engineering Design Education—A Partial View

1979 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-545
Author(s):  
A. Bar-Cohen
Keyword(s):  
System Design ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Engineering Program ◽  
International Trends ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Partial View ◽  
Developed Nations

Approaches to engineering design education in several developing and developed nations are reviewed and found to suggest widespread recognition of the need for early and frequent student exposure to the pragmatic and often controlling aspects of mechanical system design. In this context, it appears that the undergraduate engineering program at most U.S. Universities may not contribute to the ability of engineering students to pursue successful careers in engineering innovation and design.

Makerspaces in Engineering Education: A Case Study

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasse Skovgaard Jensen ◽  
Ali Gürcan Özkil ◽  
Krestine Mougaard
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Maker Movement ◽  
Development Education ◽  
Engineering Design Education ◽  
Support Engineering ◽  
New Generation

The recent years have witnessed a new generation of Makers working with new ways of knowledge generation for creation and sharing of digital and physical products. While this development has started within collaborative and grass roots organised networks; educational institutions have also embraced it by opening makerspaces and adopting elements of the Maker Movement in their offerings. This paper investigates how university driven makerspaces can affect engineering design and product development education trough a case study. We provide our findings based on interviews and data collected from educators, students the administrative and workshop staff of the makerspace. The findings are used to outline the challenges in incorporating the offerings of makerspaces. By discussing these challenges we identify opportunities for turning university makerspaces into innovation hubs and platforms that can support engineering design education.

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