Resumen de Prototypes as intermediary objects for design coordination in first-year design courses
Daria Kotys-Schwartz, Carlye A. Lauff, Joanna Weidler-Lewis, Mark E. Rentschler
Design has been called one of the defining characteristics of engineering, and it has been long-argued that design is equallysocial and technical in practice. The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has a research tradition of exploring theinterwoven social aspects of technical fields like engineering design. We borrow a concept from STS—the notion ofintermediary objects—to better understand first-year engineering design teams and explain how prototypes mediatetechnical skill development and social relationships. An intermediary object is both a conceptual framework and ananalytic tool that enables researchers and educators to identify critical aspects of design coordination. In this paper, wecompare two differently organized sections of a first-year engineering design course as a way to highlight the importance ofprototypes in mediating these technical and social relations. It is not until these two courses are compared side-by-side thatwe uncoverthe critical importance of prototypes as intermediaryobjects.Based on this comparative caseanalysis, we arguethat prototypes are pivotal intermediary objects that aid in students’ development of their engineering skills and pathwaystoward becoming an engineer. This paper contributes to the field of engineering education by connecting traditions fromSTS and exploring how the creation of prototypes impacts design education. In doing so, we provide some immediaterecommendations for organizing engineering design courses, and we indicate future research on understanding the role ofprototypes in design education and practice.
