Thursday, May 2, 2024

Design Step 1: Identify the Need Activity

engineering design process examples

Customers are stakeholders; other stakeholders may include government agencies, companies, and individuals. After we understand our project need and our target population, we will identify our project's requirements and constraints. A requirement is a need or a necessity; it's what a particular product or service should do.

Summary of Step A – Analyze a Need

Engineers use the engineering design process when brainstorming solutions to real-life problems; they develop these solutions by testing and redesigning prototypes that work within given constraints. Students are introduced to the concept and steps of the engineering design process and taught how to apply it. In small groups, students learn of their design challenge (improve a cast for a broken arm), brainstorm solutions, are given materials and create prototypes. The aluminum watercraft prototype problem is a very low-budget engineering design process example and an easy way to introduce EDP. It can also be a commitment to a long-term stem project if you decide to go deep into the subsets of the engineering design process! Whether you’re looking for engineering design challenges for elementary or middle school students, there are many resources in this post to help your students leverage STEM for meaningful learning.

engineering design process examples

Summary of Step D – Test and Evaluate

Your documentation will be used to share the product's value with stakeholders and enable the finished product to be manufactured to the required standards. You may need to participate in meetings and presentations to share the results of the engineering design process with managers, engineers, board directors, shareholders, and even potential customers. The engineering design process turns ideas into practical solutions.

Understanding the engineering design process

Students pretend they are agricultural engineers during the colonial period and design a miniature plow that cuts through a "field" of soil. They are introduced to the engineering design process and learn of several famous historical figures who contributed to plow design. Whether on Earth or in space, life-threatening illnesses may occur if the water we drink is of poor quality. It’s up to your students to design and build a filtration system for the International Space Station so they can guarantee astronauts get the safe and clean water they need.

engineering design process examples

Also, doing an engineering design project doesn't always mean inventing something brand new—it often involves bettering the projects of those before you. Engineering design utilizes numerous tools like CAD, CAE, FEM, machine learning, life cycle analysis, etc. The exact choice of engineering tools depends on the engineering design process step and the nature of the project. The engineering design process was fully explained in the previous sections. As we saw, it has numerous engineering design process steps and clearly defined roles for design engineers at each step.

Make improvements

Students use servos and flex sensors to make simple, one-jointed, finger robots. They use Arduino microcontrollers, create circuits and write code to read finger flexes and send angle info to servos. Student pairs design, build, and test model vehicles capable of rolling down a ramp and then coasting freely as far as possible. The challenge is to make the vehicles entirely out of dry pasta using only adhesive (such as hot glue) to hold the components together. Students learn about the process of reverse engineering and how this technique is used to improve upon technology.

AI-Powered Engineering, Beyond Simulation - ENGINEERING.com

AI-Powered Engineering, Beyond Simulation.

Posted: Mon, 23 Jan 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Choosing a Project

Retracing steps and going back to a previous decision is a common occurrence in the engineering design process. As new information is gathered or unforeseen challenges arise, engineers may realize that an earlier decision was not the best one. In such cases, it is important to reevaluate the decision, consider alternative options, and make a new decision based on the updated information. This process of reiteration and adjustment is a fundamental part of the design process, as it allows engineers to continually improve and refine their designs until they meet the desired specifications. Accepting that retracing steps is sometimes necessary can be challenging, but it is essential to maintain a flexible mindset and be willing to adapt as new information comes to light.

Choose the Best Solution

Students first identify a need—a problem to solve—through the GRASPS scenario model. They also get to know the beneficiaries of the solution to the problem through open-ended questions and discussion. Investigation and research build expertise to solve the problem.

Make A Model Or Prototype

This often means balancing your resources, such as time and cost. These parameters narrow the scope of what you can address in your solution and ask you to make decisions about your project’s development path going forward. The parameters can change over time and these decisions can be reevaluated as your project continues. Still, considering your available resources will help you to narrow your options to the most feasible ones for your current set-up.

They choose a problem as a group, and then follow the engineering design process to come up with and test their design solution. Student pairs experience the iterative engineering design process as they design, build, test and improve catching devices to prevent a "naked" egg from breaking when dropped from increasing heights. To support their design work, they learn about materials properties, energy types and conservation o... Students engage in the second design challenge of the unit, which is an extension of the maze challenge they solved in the first lesson/activity of this unit. Students extend the ideas learned in the maze challenge with a focus more on the robot design.

A discussion about the hypotheses versus the test results can bring more life to the evaluation as well. I would encourage reasonable change that keeps the problem to be solved in mind. Students’ ideas develop all the time throughout the design cycle–even during the actual build. Therefore, in addition to a specific building plan, photos need to be taken.

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