Transition to the non-academic workforce

in Kent, Julia; Remington, J (Eds.) Graduate Education for Global Career Pathways (2013)

Doctoral education is about knowledge creation as much as producing a highly qualified workforce on an increasingly global market. Career development, other than for an academic career, has thus far ... [more ▼]

Doctoral education is about knowledge creation as much as producing a highly qualified workforce on an increasingly global market. Career development, other than for an academic career, has thus far received little attention. With an increasingly global competition and workforce, and an increasing number of doctoral candidates, the question is whether and how we should prepare doctoral candidates to move successfully to the workforce, taking into account the wide variety of careers. [less ▲]

A Shared Basis for Functional Modelling

in Proceedings of Norddesign 2012 (2012)

The presented research aims at contributing to a better understanding of the diverse functional modelling approaches proposed across disciplines, often involving more than one function model. The paper ... [more ▼]

The presented research aims at contributing to a better understanding of the diverse functional modelling approaches proposed across disciplines, often involving more than one function model. The paper presents a review of 41 systematic design approaches from different disciplines, analysing what is addressed by functional modelling at which point in the proposed development process, i.e. in which sequence, if any. The analysis aims at deriving potential commonalities across disciplines, which could support the development of an integrative functional modelling approach. Finally, the results of the analysis are discussed, concluding that while there seems to be no shared sequence in functional modelling across disciplines, a common base can be derived, with regard to what is prominently addressed by functional modelling in the different disciplines. [less ▲]

Application of Design Models in Mechatronic Product Development and Building Design Reflection of Researchers and Practitioners

in Krause, Dieter, Paetzold, Kristin (Ed.) Beiträge zum 22. DfX-Symposium (2011)

Design models are an essential means for abstract representation and visualisation of information in the design process. Comprehension of design models in interdisciplinary engineering design teams is ... [more ▼]

Design models are an essential means for abstract representation and visualisation of information in the design process. Comprehension of design models in interdisciplinary engineering design teams is often hindered by different terminology and different discipline-specific modelling approaches. This paper presents the results of an interview study conducted with practitioners and researchers from engineering design and building design. The study elaborates the different ways of collaboration and use of design models in building design as compared to engineering design, in order to derive the potentials for cross-fertilisation between both areas of product development. [less ▲]

A Framework for Comparing Design Modelling Approaches Across Disciplines

in Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (2011)

Design models are an important means for the representation of design information in product development processes. Designers use design models to visualise and communicate their ideas to other members of ... [more ▼]

Design models are an important means for the representation of design information in product development processes. Designers use design models to visualise and communicate their ideas to other members of a design team, the project manager or a costumer. Communication between experts from different disciplines using design models is often hindered by different terminology and different ways of modelling. Potential consequences are design flaws, which may lead to time-consuming iterations and – if undetected – to problems during production or use. In order to enhance the communication through design models across disciplines, and to address the mentioned problems, an understanding of similarities as well as differences between modelling approaches needs to be established. For that purpose, this paper discusses different design states which represent a distinct level of available information in the development process. They are derived through comparing different design models proposed in literature and provide the basis of a framework for a detailed comparison of modelling approaches across disciplines. Further, first insights into different ways of modelling are discussed. [less ▲]

Cognitive estimation in the ideation phase of engineering design

Poster (2010)

Estimation in its diverse forms is assumed to be relevant for problem solving in engineering design due to the inherent deficiencies in information availability and reliability. Nevertheless aside from ... [more ▼]

Estimation in its diverse forms is assumed to be relevant for problem solving in engineering design due to the inherent deficiencies in information availability and reliability. Nevertheless aside from some exception estimation as a method is hardly mentioned in standard literature on systematic approaches to engineering design like Pahl and Beitz. As well it is rarely deliberate addressed in engineering education. Engineering designers are expected to gain estimation competence by experience. Good performance in estimation and the development of estimation competence by hat is left to chance. Estimation as a problem solving strategy covers a wide range of activities on a continuous spectrum between the extremes of random guesses and highly mathematical statistics based approaches. Our research addresses estimation activities which are solely based on cognitive performance, without using specific mathematical procedures or technological support. Our current study is an explorative, qualitative protocol analysis of two idea creation meetings addressing different problems in the early phases of a technology-driven innovation project recorded by the DTRS7 organisation. The addressed research questions are: Where, how, why and what for is estimation used in engineering design? This analysis should give further insight in the not widely delineated topic of estimation in engineering design. [less ▲]

Analysis and Visualisation of Project Structure using Linkography: Focussing Project Risk Management

in Proceedings of the ASME 2009 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & 21st International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology IDETC/DTM 2009 (2009)

Product development projects are difficult to plan due to complexity, dynamics, lack of transparency and polytely. Risk Management is often used to cope with this situation. Linkography is adapted with ... [more ▼]

Product development projects are difficult to plan due to complexity, dynamics, lack of transparency and polytely. Risk Management is often used to cope with this situation. Linkography is adapted with the aim to ease the effort of the Risk Management process. Linkography is used to focus all Risk Management activities on those work packages which might affect the project the most in the case of failing the expected outcome. The criticality of a work package is defined by the number of links to other work packages, its duration and its costs. By applying Linkography as a Risk Management method, a prioritized list of work packages can be generated which pass consecutively through the usual Risk Management process. Unlike other methods, Linkography supports the user in a visual manner. Hence, Linkography can easily be used for communication with unskilled stakeholders. [less ▲]

Estimation and its Role in Engineering Design - An Introduction

in Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Engineering Design (2009)

Estimation is assumed to be a relevant method for problem solving in product development due to the deficiencies in information availability and certainty, as well because of short resources. Nevertheless ... [more ▼]

Estimation is assumed to be a relevant method for problem solving in product development due to the deficiencies in information availability and certainty, as well because of short resources. Nevertheless estimation as a method is hardly mentioned in literature on product development nor is it part of engineering education. As a consequence good performance in estimation and the development of estimation competence is left to chance, i.e. expected to be built up through experience. We believe that estimation can be supported and taught. Hence estimation competence can be developed purposive and more quickly. The aims of the research introduced in this paper are to understand relevance and functioning of estimation in engineering design, and to develop support for engineering practice and education based on this understanding. This paper focuses on demonstrating the topics’ relevance by addressing the following questions: •Why is estimation important for engineering design? •What is the state of the art in understanding estimation in general? •What is the state of the art of estimation as a method in engineering design? On the basis of this initial investigation we propose our research framework. After goal, approach and scope of our research, the main research questions on estimation in engineering design we wish to answer are formulated, and the research methods we are using. Furthermore first results on characteristics of estimation in engineering design identified by tests, as well as video and protocol analysis are summarized. At least an outlook on the prospect research is given. [less ▲]

A framework to understand Project Robustness

in Proceedings of the 10th International Design Conference - DESIGN 2008 (2008)

A FRAMEWORK TO UNDERSTAND PROJECT ROBUSTNESS

Poster (2008)

Managing requirements or be managed by requirements - results of an empirical study

in Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Engineering Design (2007)

In order to remain competitive, e.g. in the face of globalisation, many small and medium-sized product development manufacturers feel the need to change or refine their development processes. One of the ... [more ▼]

In order to remain competitive, e.g. in the face of globalisation, many small and medium-sized product development manufacturers feel the need to change or refine their development processes. One of the key activities is to systematically translate the needs of customers into development requirements. Little is known about how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) deal with the complex topic requirements management and studies of large numbers of cases are still the exception. Many SMEs have problems in managing requirements. They often have the capabilities for requirements management but the processes are not well defined, e.g. insufficient monitoring of specifications and poorly organised customer contacts. How to work with frozen specifications and how to handle the wishes of the customers seem not to be fully understood. This paper presents selected results of an empirical study into product development of SMEs in the UK. The predominantly qualitative data was collected using a questionnaire which was designed as a self-help package. [less ▲]