1.3 Learning and doing engineering design

Question 1

What causes Engineering Design problems to be so challenging and ill-structured?

Answer 1

Design problems are challenging and ill-structured, because:

• Their solutions cannot normally be found by applying mathematical formulas or algorithms in a routine or structured way.
• It is not possible to apply formulas to engineering design problems that are well-bounded or even defined.
• Design problems are open-ended because they typically have several acceptable solutions.

Question 2

What makes design problems open-ended?

Answer 2

Design problems are open-ended because they typically have several acceptable solutions.

Question 3

How is engineering design typically learned?

Answer 3

• Teaching someone how to do design is not that simple.
• There is an element of learning by doing, which we call a studio aspect, in trying to teach any of these activities.

Question 4

What is the studio aspect of learning engineering design?

Answer 4

The studio aspect of learning engineering design is the element of learning by doing.