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Engineering Design Processes: A Comparison of Students and Expert Practitioners
Author(s) -
Atman Cynthia J.,
Adams Robin S.,
Cardella Monica E.,
Turns Jennifer,
Mosborg Susan,
Saleem Jason
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.2007.tb00945.x
Subject(s) - timeline , engineering design process , task (project management) , variety (cybernetics) , engineering education , argument (complex analysis) , quality (philosophy) , engineering , computer science , mathematics education , engineering management , psychology , systems engineering , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy , epistemology , archaeology , history
In this paper we report on an in‐depth study of engineering design processes. Specifically, we extend our previous research on engineering student design processes to compare the design behavior of students and expert engineers. Nineteen experts from a variety of engineering disciplines and industries each designed a playground in a lab setting, and gave verbal reports of their thoughts during the design task. Measures of their design processes and solution quality were compared to pre‐existing data from 26 freshmen and 24 seniors. The experts spent significantly more time on the task overall and in each stage of engineering design, including significantly more time problem scoping. The experts also gathered significantly more information covering more categories. Results support the argument that problem scoping and information gathering are major differences between advanced engineers and students, and important competencies for engineering students to develop. Timeline representations of the expert designers' processes illustrate characteristic distinctions we found and may help students gain insights into their own design processes.