scholarly journals Interdisciplinary Design Teams Lessons Learned From Experience

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Leiffer ◽  
Roger Gonzalez ◽  
Thomas Hellmuth
Keyword(s):  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design

Reducing Barriers to Interdisciplinary Design Teams

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Hight ◽  
Chris Kitts
Keyword(s):  
Team Building ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Team Members ◽  
The Past ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design ◽  
History Of ◽  
Building Activities

The proportion of Santa Clara University School of Engineering interdisciplinary senior design teams has been rising over the last five years. While many of those teams have been very successful, there has been a significant overhead price paid by the team members who chose to tackle these projects. Since the spring of 2004, an interdisciplinary team of faculty at SCU has been working to reduce the obstacles that have hindered interdisciplinary design teams in the past. Each department had independently developed its own processes and time schedule over the years, and the variations inherent in these separate programs had created some significant difficulties for the students trying to satisfy incongruent requirements. Recent advances have focused primarily on three departments: Mechanical, Electrical, and Computer Engineering. Curricular changes across departments include a number of innovations ranging from aligning schedules and deliverables to introducing joint team-building activities. A short history of the development of each department’s approach will be presented, followed by the current, more integral, plan and the issues that have arisen in its implementation. Many of the changes that have been made are closely tied to ABET-related continuous improvement efforts. A strong commitment to enhancing interdisciplinary design team experiences has been a core tenet of the involved departments. Lessons learned and successes will be discussed as well.

Informing sustainable building design

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathilde Landgren ◽  
Signe Skovmand Jakobsen ◽  
Birthe Wohlenberg ◽  
Lotte Bjerregaard Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Integrated Design ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design

Purpose In recent decades there has been a focus on reducing the overall emissions from the built environment, which increases the complexity of the building design process. More specialized knowledge, a greater common understanding and more cooperation between the stakeholders are required. Interdisciplinary design teams need simple and intuitive means of communication. Architects and engineers are starting to increase their focus on improving interdisciplinary communication, but it is often unclear how to do so. The purpose of this paper is to define the impact of visually communicating engineering knowledge to architects in an interdisciplinary design team and to define how quantifying architectural design decisions have an impact during the early phases of sustainable building design. Design/methodology/approach This work is based on a study of extensive project materials consisting of presentations, reports, simulation results and case studies. The material is made available by one of the largest European Engineering Consultancies and by a large architectural office in the field of sustainable architecture in Denmark. The project material is used for mapping communication concepts from practice. Findings It is demonstrated that visual communication by engineers increases the level of technical knowledge in the design decisions made by architects. This is essential in order to reach the goal of designing buildings with low environmental impact. Conversely, quantification of architectural quality improved the engineer’s acceptance of the architects’ proposals. Originality/value This paper produces new knowledge through the case study processes performed. The main points are presented as clearly as possible; however, it should be stressed that it is only the top of the iceberg. In all, 17 extensive case studies design processes were performed with various design teams by the 3 authors of the paper Mathilde, Birthe and Signe. The companies that provided the framework for the cases are leading in Europe within sustainability in the built environment, and in the case of Sweco also in regards to size (number of employees). Data are thus first hand and developed by the researchers and authors of this paper, with explicit consent from the industry partners involved as well as assoc. Professor Lotte B. Jensen Technical University of Denmark (DTU). This material is in the DTU servers and is in the PhD dissertation by Mathilde Landgren (successful defence was in January 2019). The observations and reflection is presented in selected significant case examples. The methods are descriped in detail, and if further information on method is required a more in depth description is found in Mathilde Landgrens PhD Dissertation. There is a lack in existing literature of the effect of visualisation in interdisciplinary design teams and though the literature (e.g. guidelines) of integrated design is extensive, there is not much published on this essential part of an integrated design process.

Exploration of Entrepreneurial Student Teams Performance and Student Team Members’ Personality via the Big Five Test

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
José E. Lugo ◽  
Mari Luz Zapata-Ramos ◽  
Carla P. Puig
Keyword(s):  
Big Five ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design ◽  
Student Teams ◽  
Behavior Theories ◽  
Group Compositions ◽  
Start Ups

Entrepreneurial teams are generally interdisciplinary in nature; they tend to combine business, design, and engineering disciplines/expertise. The effectiveness of interdisciplinary design teams has become more important for both start-ups and companies that want to innovate; however, it is often troublesome to determine the group composition that delivers a good product/business idea. The purpose of this study is to investigate the traits in personalities that are needed in a successful entrepreneurial student design team. A study was conducted in which 40 students were divided into seven groups to deliver a technology-based product using design thinking techniques, and consumer behavior theories and research. The personality for each team member was evaluated utilizing the Big Five Test and analyzed jointly as a team, denoted as Team’s Overall Personality (TOP); and by the variability of their personalities in the group, referred as Team Personality Distribution (TPD). The teams’ performances were accounted, ranking them in Best of Best (BOB) and Worst of Worst (WOW) by taking into consideration their performance in: interview collection, idea generation, prototyping, and final presentation. The results demonstrated that the teams with best performance had high variability in Neuroticism and Extraversion when analyzed by TPD and average personality traits in Extraversion and Agreeableness when analyzed with TOP. Therefore, analysis supported that each member’s personality affects his or her team’s performance. It is recommended that the relationship is further investigated for a better representation of efficient group compositions. Recommendations on how to compose entrepreneurial design teams are provided.

Interdisciplinary design checklists for mechanical, electrical and plumbing coordination in building projects

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43
Author(s):  
Mohammad A. Hassanain ◽  
Mohammad Aljuhani ◽  
Muizz O. Sanni-Anibire ◽  
Abdullatif Abdallah
Keyword(s):  
Architectural Design ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design ◽  
Importance Index ◽  
Plumbing Systems ◽  
Electrical Engineers ◽  
Coordination Process

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop and assess interdisciplinary design checklists for mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems’ coordination, for building projects, in Saudi Arabia.Design/methodology/approachRelevant documents were acquired including: heating, ventilation and air conditioning schedules; ductwork and chilled water pipes layout; and technical queries, among others, from residential and school projects. Next, factors influencing MEP systems’ coordination were extracted, and verified to ensure clarity and validity. They were formulated into design checklist items for MEP systems. Finally, the checklist items were assessed through a questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale of importance. Respondents were comprised of mechanical, architectural, construction, electrical engineers, design coordinators and quality assurance managers. Data were then analyzed using the relative importance index.FindingsThis study presents 63 design checklist items. The items for each discipline were grouped under four categories, highlighting specific considerations. The findings revealed that careful consideration and communication between the mechanical, structural and architectural design teams was paramount in achieving proper mechanical coordination. Furthermore, it was found that constant communication between the electrical and the other design teams was necessary, to avoid electrical design conflicts. Finally, fire safety consideration was found to be most important in plumbing systems’ coordination.Originality/valueThe checklists for facilitating the MEP coordination process in building projects aim at minimizing waste in resources and enhancing the overall quality and productivity. In the absence of existing checklists, this paper provides a practical benefit to design professionals to alert them to devote more effort to the dominant category of checklist items.

Identifying Regional Environmental and Sustainability Issues: Adoption of an Interdisciplinary Design Charrette Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 0739456X2110200
Author(s):  
Frank J. Dirrigl ◽  
Anita M. Chavez ◽  
Hudson R. DeYoe
Keyword(s):  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design ◽  
End Products ◽  
Initial Action

Charrettes are a useful tool to facilitate stakeholder discussion and generate useful end products to address regional issues. To identify regional environmental and sustainability issues, we held a series of interdisciplinary charrettes with stakeholders that shared a similar concern toward protecting the region. Outcomes included distinguishing exemplary sites representative of the issues on a base map and developing initial action items to address them. We present our lessons learned and provide recommendations to assist others in planning and implementing interdisciplinary charrettes.

Challenges, Issues, and Lessons Learned Implementing Prognostics for Propulsion Systems

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hess ◽  
Peter Frith ◽  
Eva Suarez
Keyword(s):  
Health Management ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Electronic Systems ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Propulsion Systems ◽  
Management Capability ◽  
Potential Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Useful Life ◽  
New Applications

The desire and need for real predictive prognostics capabilities have been around for as long as man has operated complex and expensive machinery. There has been a long history of developing and implementing various degrees of prognostic and predictive useful life remaining capabilities. Stringent Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Health Management capability requirements are being placed on many of the new platform applications. While life usage accounting and fault detection / isolation effectiveness, with low false alarm rates, continue to improve on these new applications; prognostics requirements are even more ambitious and present very significant challenges to the system design teams. Though advanced life prediction and prognostic capabilities are being addressed for many mechanical and electronic systems; there are some unique challenges and issues associated with modern propulsion system applications. This paper will explore some of these design challenges and issues; discuss the various degrees of prognostic capabilities; address potential development methodologies; and draw heavily on lessons learned from previous prognostic development efforts.

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