Prototyping and the engineer of 2020

• Autores: Reid Bailey, Matthew E. McFarland
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 34, no. Extra 2 (Parte B), 2018, págs. 567-573
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The central thesis of this paper is that prototyping abilities are important for engineers in 2020 even though prototyping isnot prominent in the Engineer of 2020 reports. While design itself is not cited as a separate attribute in the Engineer of 2020,its role is clear through several attributes such as ‘‘practical ingenuity’’ and ‘‘creativity.’’ Prototyping and making skills, onthe other hand, are not even hinted at as an important skill of the engineer of 2020. We assert that one reason for the lack offocus on prototyping is the context and timing of the report, which was published in 2004. Not only was the report writtenas engineering education continued its movement away from the hands-on and towards the mathematical and theory-based, it was also written when a technological revolution that made prototyping quicker and more accessible was only inits infancy. In this paper, we present results from a study of how engineering students design. Thirty-six undergraduateengineering seniors worked on teams of four for three hours to design a product while being video recorded. The studentswere provided with a space to work, a whiteboard, and prototyping supplies ranging from office supplies to moretechnological items such as sensors. One of the most surprising results was that teams spent over half (56%) of their timeeither building or testing prototypes. Working to better understand the problem and doing conceptual design work onlyaccounted for 44% of their time. While prototyping can be used for many reasons, teams in this study used prototyping as aprimary means of evaluating performance of designs. This activity—evaluating performance—is linked only to analyticalskills in the Engineer of 2020 report. As we look to the engineer of 2040, we should embrace the idea that hands-onprototyping also plays a critical role.