Evolutionary Design Paradigm As A Retention Tool

This paper shows that an evolutionary design paradigm in engineering design education will contribute to freshman engineering design education and consequently to student retention. Evolutionary design represents a tool to contribute to student retention because it addresses student interest, it involves teamwork, it demystifies the design process, and additionally it acknowledges the demands of industry. Evolutionary product design, instead of designing a product from scratch, is often used to improve the product and better fulfill the customers’ expectations, while reducing the development time and cost. On the freshman level, it is advisable to focus on the first area, information recovery. As one phase of evolutionary design, reverse engineering lends itself to this end. In this paper, the example of a two-cycle gas weed trimmer subjected to reverse engineering is used to demonstrate how a freshman engineering design program can benefit from evolutionary design. Evolutionary design can serve as a retention tool in freshman engineering by appealing to student interest, incorporating teamwork, recognizing the demands of industry, and demystifying the design process.