Engineering Design Process

Answers will vary but might include my internet is slow, my phone doesn’t hold a charge for very long, or the microphone on my computer has static.

Answers will vary but might include too much traffic on the freeway, too much time spent waiting for the bus, or too much air pollution from cars.

Answers will vary but might include sports equipment is expensive, helmets hurt players’ heads, or running shoes wear out quickly.

Answers will vary but might include shaking a phone to charge it when it is low on battery, using electric flying drones to transport people above traffic, or making helmets out of lightweight carbon fiber.

Using online or print resources, interviewing experts, polling users, and testing products are ways to gather information about these problems.

You can communicate ideas by drawing or sketching them, creating presentations, hosting meetings, developing websites, or writing articles and blog posts.

The engineering design process is a series of steps that engineers use to help come up with a solution to an engineering problem.

You must define the problem, including listing all of the criteria and constraints.

You could brainstorm, research, test materials, sketch, diagram, develop a CAD (computer-aided design), or build a model or prototype.

You can optimize a design solution by testing and analyzing results to come up with new ideas to improve the design that will better meet the criteria and constraints.

Criteria and constraints are used to determine if the design solution is successful and to help decide between competing designs.

Answers will vary but might include mechanical engineers working on engines to make them faster or more fuel efficient, electrical engineers working on how to connect all the motors to an energy source in a robot, or chemical engineers working on how to dissolve or recycle plastic waste.