The premise here is that the first solution thought of is seldom the best and that two heads are better than one. Just holding design reviews does not insure that the best solution is chosen. It is the formal analysis and comparison of the ideas generated during the design reviews based on a prioritized set of attributes that provides the best solution. This helps the students understand the complex relationships between customer requirements and technical requirements. A critical point that must be understood is that optimization of one part of the problem solution may adversely affect other parts of the solution.
Good design requires good judgment and no analytic tool can replace that.
Providing the class with samples of industrial design checklists also helps to reinforce the necessity to evaluate designs from many points of view. The first aspect of this is how to keep the students, faculty coordinator, the project customer, and other support personnel up to date as the project progresses. These meetings should be scheduled at an agreed upon time at the beginning of the project so that everyone can have them on their calendar and schedule other events around them. All members of the team, including the customer, should attend. These are status meetings.