Engineering Design Theory in Practice

3 credits · Graduate

What makes a good engineer in today's world? How could I improve my performance as an engineer and a designer? How do I equip myself with the necessary capabilities and mindsets to collaboratively and creatively solve complex problems facing society? This class offers hands-on learning activities to help you answer these questions based on theories and frameworks from decades of research into engineering design and design thinking. The class translates relevant research insights into action for guiding your engineering and design work in practice, focusing on four aspects. First, we will introduce various design processes and methods to help you reflect on your own design process. Then, we will dive into design as a physical activity - understanding prototyping performance improvements. After that, we will focus on design as social activity - practices of effective team behaviors for concept generation, decision-making, conflict-handling and engagement with users. Finally, we will learn design as cognitive activity - gaining actionable insights from cognitive, affective and learning sciences of design. Students engage in multiple projects and a lab component.