The NSF supported summer workshop on Enhancement of Faculty Design Capabilities was a response to the engineering design deficiencies in this last area, the engineering science courses. There were three goals for this project. The second goal was to develop methods for disseminating design materials, design methodologies, and design philosophies developed by participants to as many faculty as possible at other institutions. The third goal was to create a network of engineering faculty who can communicate and interact on engineering design issues across disciplinary and institutional lines. The overall curriculum must provide an integrated educational experience directed toward the development of ability to apply pertinent knowledge to the identification and solution of practical problems in the designated area of engineering specialization.
Engineering design is the process of devising a system , component or process to meet desired needs.
Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria , synthesis , analysis , construction , testing , and evaluation . Further, it is essential to include a variety of realistic constraints , such as economic factors , safety , reliability , aesthetics , ethics , and social impact . Each educational program must include a meaningful, major design experience that builds of the fundamental concepts of mathematics, basic sciences, the humanities and social sciences, engineering topics, and communication skills. The scope of the design experience within a program should match the requirements of practice within that discipline. The major design experience should be taught in section sizes that are small enough to allow interaction between teacher and student.