Chapter 1: Introduction to the Design Process | Top Hat

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• engineering design problems are open-ended.

• In an open-ended problem, no one provides the data and methods you need to solve the problem; their determination is part of the process.

• The engineering design cycle. It can be depicted in different ways, but all are based on repeatedly specifying our problem, deciding a way to solve the problem, and then testing where the solution succeeds and where it can be improved during the next iteration through the cycle.

• With each iteration, we learn more about the problem we are trying to solve and the methods we've been using to solve the problem.

• The six steps are: Finding the Problem Defining the Problem  Generating Solution Ideas  Deciding which Solution Idea to Use  Implementing the Chosen Solution Evaluating the Result

• Without saying how we will solve the problem, we clearly spell out exactly how we will measure the solution's success. We consider what a solution must do, what a solution should be like, and what our limits are.

• In this step, we are as specific as possible in describing and defining the problem, but we are as general as possible in prescribing how we will solve the problem.

• In any engineering design problem, at least three roles are involved: the engineer, the client, and the user.

• The engineers are the people who design the solution. The clients are the people who are recruiting engineers to solve the problem. The users are the people (or, in some cases, non-humans like animals or ecosystems) who will actually use the solution created. An engineer's job is to solve a problem for a user because a client asked them to do so.