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Activity 3: Summary and next steps

In this activity you studied the engineering design process with particular emphasis on conceptual design, which is the most critical and creative stage in the design process. Conceptual design is …

Embodiment and detail design

In the final video of this week, Ammar briefly examines the embodiment and detail design stages of design. He also discusses safety factors which must be accounted for when calculating …

Types of engineering design

In this video, we classify engineering design into different types according to the novelty and level of challenge of the design problem. There are five different types of design problems, …

Evaluating designs

In this video Ammar introduces the Pugh matrix, which can be used to compare alternative concepts against various technical and economic evaluation criteria and compute an overall score for each. …

Activity 2: Summary and next steps

In this activity you explored the phases of the product’s life cycle. You learned that every product will go through five phases: The design phase In this phase the product …

Exercise: Concept generation

In the previous videos, you explored three different concepts for the wave-powered pump. However, it was shown that for the solutions matrix shown below, the number of possible solutions’ combinations, …

Exercise: Complexity and engineering design

Complexity in engineering products Engineering products can be quite simple, such as an office chair, or very complex, such as a smartphone. One way of measuring the complexity of engineering …

Design for usage: Economic operation

In this final ‘usage’ step, you will look at two important features that determine the product’s usability: running cost and ease of repair. Running costs and ease of repair It …

Finding solutions

In this video Ammar explains that in the second step of the conceptual design process, designers must find solutions for implementing each of the functions of the product. To find …

Conceptual design steps

In this video Ammar looks at the second stage of the design process, which is the conceptual design stage. He explains that the conceptual design stage itself can be divided …

Design for usage: Ease of use

The second element in the ‘design for usage’ stage of the product lifecycle is ease of use. Users expect all kinds of products to be as easy to use as …

Design for usage: Safety and reliability

Safety Perhaps the most critical feature of any product is safety. If a product causes harm to people, animals or the environment, it will be deemed a failure and it …

Activity 1: Overview

This activity will explain what ‘engineering design’ means: You will explore the various fields of engineering in which design is practised, such as mechanical engineering. You will explain that engineering …

Introduction to design

In this video, we have seen that the word design means different things to different people. In this course, we concentrate on engineering design. The fields of engineering design are …

Exercise: Elaborating the design requirements

In the last step you started to define your approach to the design brief. Now you will start elaborating the design requirements.  Elaborate List all the design requirements for the …