What is design

Design is both a verb (the design process) and a noun (the design document - the specification). In this class, the engineering design process will be taught and followed by students in teams. Each team will create a design document and produce an engineering artifact that meets customer requirements. Each team will produce a final report including presentation, poster, and press release.

There are multiple definitions of engineering design including a legal definition from the State of Florida.

The State of Florida Administrative Code 61G15 section 18.011 defines engineering design as follows.

"Engineering Design" shall mean that the process of devising a system, component, or process to meet desired needs. It is a decision-making process (often iterative), in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective. Among the fundamental elements of the design process are the establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing and evaluation. Central to the process are the essential and complementary roles of synthesis and analysis. This definition is intended to be interpreted in its broadest sense. In particular the words "system, component, or process" and "convert resources optimally" operate to indicate that sociological, economic, aesthetic, legal, ethical, etc., considerations can be included.

Engineering design is a process of devising a system, component, or process to meet desired needs and specifications within constraints. It is an iterative, creative, decision-making process in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources into solutions. Engineering design involves identifying opportunities, developing requirements, performing analysis and synthesis, generating multiple solutions, evaluating solutions against requirements, considering risks, and making trade- offs, for the purpose of obtaining a high-quality solution under the given circumstances. For illustrative purposes only, examples of possible constraints include accessibility, aesthetics, codes, constructability, cost, ergonomics, extensibility, functionality, interoperability, legal considerations, maintainability, manufacturability, marketability, policy, regulations, schedule, standards, sustainability, or usability.

Engineering design is the systematic, intelligent generation of specifications for artifacts whose form and function achieve stated objectives and satisfy specified constraints
1. Artifacts: human-made objects
2. Form: the shape of the artifact
3. Function: those things the artifact is supposed to do
4. Specifications: descriptions of properties of the object being designed
5. Objectives: attributes of the designed artifact that make it "good"
6. Constraints: specifications which the artifact must meet to be acceptable