At the end of January, I had the opportunity to be a special awards judge for an Engineering Society of Detroit event where student teams of three designed sustainable cities.
I was so impressed by the knowledge and ideas these young students presented.
One thing all presentations addressed was how they used the engineering design process.
This is an iterative process that gets to the core of a problem, brainstorms ideas, creates and tests prototypes, and then improves the design as shown in the chart below.
In many cases teams discussed a problem with a system in the city where the process helped them through a challenge they were having.
However, there was one group with a different type of response that caught my attention.
This group described how they used the process to shorten their presentation to fit the time limit.
The problem was straightforward.
The ideas they generated and finally implemented were very creative and effective.
My Perspective
This small example by a group of students has brough this process back to the forefront for me.
There are so many times when there are problems to be solved.
Taking a moment to think about the root cause of the problem and brainstorming alternative solutions could produce an idea you’ve never considered.
Testing and iterating the solution you choose could make it even better over time.
Your Turn
What is a problem you are currently facing?
Could you use the engineering design process to find solutions?
How could you see team members applying this approach to the work you do?