design studies in software engineering courses
Several years ago, I was visiting the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. At the time of my visit, there was an exhibit spotlighting the architect Csar Pelli, designer of, among other things, the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, the World Financial Center in New York, and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But on this day, much of the exhibit was devoted to a more modest building, a small hutlike abode in a natural setting. There were perhaps a dozen variations, built from wood and standing several inches tall. This was labeled a "design study", and it raised in my mind the question of whether software engineering students could undertake such exercises as part of their training. Since that time, as part of an advanced software engineering course, Software Architecture and Design 1 , I have incorporated design studies as a learn-by-doing project element. By design study I mean a systematic exploration of a theme, including the construction of more than one solution to a problem and a comparison of the results.
design studies software engineering education