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Welcome to the Basic Engineering Design Cycle!

"One man's magic is another man's engineering" - Robert A. Heinlein

The bridge from one man's magic to another man's engineering can be found in the Engineering Design Cycle:

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From
Identifying the Problem
To
Redesigning and Iterating

Engineering Design is a formal process structured to give the best possible outcome for all kinds of design teams.

This suite of educational tools supports the Engineering Design Cycle, from beginning to end, in a way that allows the student to pursue open-ended engineering design from idea to prototype. These tools can be used in a capstone design experience, other design classes, or in an extracurricular activity that involves design.

Open-ended means that at some level, the parameters of the design ranging from the problem to be solved to how to solve it are not clearly defined at the outset. Open-ended design is different from many other engineering activities at the undergraduate level because it puts the responsibility (and creative possibilities) on the student or team of students to identify a problem and solution that can be clearly justified within the constraints of any design effort. While open-ended design is exciting because it offers new freedom in applying engineering skills, it can also be challenging because the design must be chosen carefully and strategically, considering alternatives, and selecting the best among those alternatives for building, testing, and ultimately proving the success of the design.

Join us here as we journey around the engineering design cycle... exploring what happens at each step and learning how to get through the design process in a way that is not random or lucky, but instead replaces magic with the fun and excitement of successful engineering!

Learn more in an Overview
of the Engineering Design Cycle:

Presentation (.pdf)
Audio Recording (Youtube)
Assignment in MS Word (.docx) or Portable Document Format (.pdf)
Quiz in MS Word (.docx) or Portable Document Format (.pdf)

Choose your journey... and enjoy!

This suite of educational tools supports the Engineering Design Cycle, from beginning to end, in a way that allows the student to pursue open-ended engineering design from idea to prototype to redesign. These tools can be useful, for both teaching and learning, in a capstone design experience, other design classes, as well as in extracurricular or any other activities that involve formal design.

Explore More:
Identify the Problem
Research the Need
Design Solutions
Select the Best Solution
Construct a Prototype
Test and Evaluate
Present the Solution
Redesign and Iterate

Acknowledgements:
This work was funded in part by the National Science Foundation (DUE-1245464). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.