Engineering Design Process
* school tech0.1. Design Process
0.1.1. Design Process: Requirements/Define
- Identify the problem and create requirements for what you need to do
0.1.2. Design Process: Research/Constraints
- Identify constraints(time, money, …) and research on the problem
0.1.3. Design Process: Brainstorm
- Come up with many solutions to the problem
- Quantity over quality
0.1.4. Design Process: Choose the best solution
- Go over your solutions and choose the one you thing will do the job best
0.1.5. Design Process: Prototype/Model
- Build a prototype of your solution
0.1.6. Design Process : Test
- Test your design
- Make reports and identify what went wrong
- If it fails, go back a step or two and examine where you left off
0.2. Idea
The engineering process is a structured way to solve problems. It’s often shown as a cycle of steps: define → imagine → plan → create → test → improve.
0.3. Taco Party Analogy
Imagine you’re hosting a taco party:
- Define: You want to feed 10 friends tacos.
- Imagine: Think of possible taco fillings (beef, beans, veggies).
- Plan: Decide on recipes, make a grocery list.
- Create: Cook the tacos.
- Test: Serve them—do people like them? Enough food?
- Improve: Add more salsa, try a new topping, fix what didn’t work.
→ Repeat until you’ve got a successful taco party.
0.4. Key Point
Engineering is iterative: you don’t just solve once—you test, learn, and improve.