Engineering Design Teams Research Articles

Evaluation of Water Treatment Systems for Medical Clinics

A Seattle University senior engineering design team evaluated the treatment performance of a point-of-use microfiltration-ultraviolet light (MF-UV) drinking water treatment system and of an ultrafiltration (UF) unit. The MF-UV system reduced turbidity by 70 percent and inactivated 100 percent of E.coli from model water. The UF system removed 100 percent of all turbidity and bacteria. The combined MF-UF-UV treatment system can provide up to 33,120 liters of water per day and meet basic human water needs at an annual cost of approximately US$0.80 per capita. To maintain safe water quality during transport and storage, on-site generated chlorine can be added to the MF-UF-UV treated water. The team evaluated the performance of a chlorine generator and confirmed that chlorine testing strips were excellent surrogates for the N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DPD) colorimetric method. Public-private partnerships may be required to ensure long-term sustainability of these drinking water treatment systems in the developing world.

Effects of 2D Online and 3D Virtual World Meeting Spaces on the Performance of a Concept Selection Task by Engineering Design Teams

This research investigates engineering design teams’ performance of a concept selection task in three meeting spaces: face-to-face, 2D online and 3D virtual world. Cisco Systems’ WebEx and Sun Microsystems’ Wonderland were used as the 2D online meeting space and the 3D virtual world, respectively. Twenty-four two-person design teams were formed and randomly assigned to one of the three meeting spaces. The teams performed a cell-phone concept selection task in the meeting space to which they were assigned. Four dependent variables were measured: task completion time, team satisfaction, self-evaluated process quality and expert-evaluated process quality. Following data collection, one-way ANOVA was used to analyze each variable to determine the differences, if any, among the meeting spaces. ANOVA results did not support rejection of the null hypothesis for any variable. These results suggest that 3D virtual worlds support design concept selection as well as 2D online meeting spaces and that both of these te...

EVALUATION OF DESIGN COLLABORATION TOOLS FOR THE SUNSTANG ELECTRIC CAR PROJECT

Engineering design teams require a variety of collaboration tools to work effectively. The SunStang Electric Car student team at the University of Western Ontario has identified specific collaboration needs, and has surveyed and evaluated a variety of available tools including Yahoo! Groups, Microsoft Sharepoint, Google Apps, Microsoft Groove, Microsoft OneNote, and Solidworks PDMWorks. They have concluded that no single tool satisfies all of the requirements, and that a combination of tools is required. They have adopted Google Apps, Microsoft Groove and PDMWorks as their main tools.

Evaluating Wikis as a Communicative Medium for Collaboration Within Colocated and Distributed Engineering Design Teams

Wikis, freely editable collections of web pages, exhibit potential for a flexible documentation and communication tool for collaborative design tasks as well as support for team design thinking early in the design process. The purpose of this work is to analyze dimensions of wiki technologies from a communication perspective as applicable to design. A wiki was introduced in a globally distributed product development course, and the experiences and performance of colocated and distributed teams in the course were assessed through observations, surveys, and site usage analytics. With a focus on communication in design, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of using wikis in student engineering design teams. Our goal is to use wiki technologies to enhance support for design processes while exploiting the potential for increasing shared understanding among teams. Distributed teams used the wiki more as a design tool and were more supportive of its use in the course whereas colocated teams used it for documentation. The usage patterns, the number and type of files uploaded, and the wiki structure provided indicators of better performing teams. The findings also suggest ways to improve and inform students about best practices using the wiki for design and to transform the wiki as a support tool for communication during early design collaboration.

Challenges of Fire Fighting in Fire Engineered Built Environment

Performance based fire engineering design, as opposed to the traditional approach of satisfying highly prescriptive rules, is increasingly being taken up by clients and their professional advisers, including architects and engineers, because the performance based design approach can be used to offer a more attractive design through cost saving and greater design flexibility. However, fire engineering solutions make different assumptions on fire services intervention and are based on a number of engineering and management assumptions. These assumptions have implications on activities of the fire authority, in particular, fire fighting activities and these should, at the design stage, be addressed by the fire engineering design team. It is also important that the fire authority works closely with the fire engineering design team so that the fire engineering assumptions are not invalidated by fire service intervention. This paper identifies a number of challenges facing both the fire engineering design team and the fire authority and discusses how some of the challenges may be tackled.

Design Team Convergence: The Influence of Example Solution Quality

This study examines how engineering design teams converge upon a solution to a design problem and how their solution is influenced by information given to them prior to problem solving. Specifically, the study considers the influence of the type of information received prior to problem solving on team convergence over time, as well as on the quality of produced solutions. To understand convergence, a model of the team members’ solution approach was developed through a cognitive engineering design study, specifically examining the effect of the introduction of a poor example solution or a good example solution prior to problem solving on the quality of the produced solutions. Latent semantic analysis was used to track the teams’ convergence, and the quality of design solutions was systematically assessed using pre-established criteria and multiple evaluators. Introducing a poor example solution was shown to decrease teams’ convergence over time, as well as the quality of their design solution; introducing a good example solution did not produce a statistically significant different effect on convergence compared with the control (with no prior example solution provided) but did lead to higher quality solutions.

Liability Issues with Assistive Technology Projects [Senior Design

There are many people with disabilities whose needs are not met by existing medical products and whose problems are not being addressed by medical device companies. They often need a custom device to address their specific set of disabilities. Capstone biomedical engineering design teams are well qualified to develop devices that meet the needs of individual clients with disabilities.

Learning to THRIVE ON CHANGE: Decentralized Management, Concurrent Engineering Design Teams, Total Quality Management, and Beyond

Design Management Journal (Former Series)Volume 3, Issue 2 p. 10-19 Learning to THRIVE ON CHANGE: Decentralized Management, Concurrent Engineering Design Teams, Total Quality Management, and Beyond H. Barry Bebb, Dr. H. Barry Bebb retired in mid-1990 after 16 years with Xerox to establish a consulting firm, Barry Bebb & Associates, which Specializes in Concurrent Engineering, Design Excellence, Total Quality Management, and Implementation of Change.Search for more papers by this author H. Barry Bebb, Dr. H. Barry Bebb retired in mid-1990 after 16 years with Xerox to establish a consulting firm, Barry Bebb & Associates, which Specializes in Concurrent Engineering, Design Excellence, Total Quality Management, and Implementation of Change.Search for more papers by this author First published: Spring 1992 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1948-7169.1992.tb00096.xCitations: 1 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume3, Issue2Spring 1992Pages 10-19 RelatedInformation

The social network among engineering design teams and their creativity: A case study among teams in two product development programs

Abstract Since the creative product development task requires the teams to combine and integrate input from multiple other teams, the team’s structure of interaction is an important determinant of their creativity. In this study we investigate different structural aspects of social networks of such team’s and their creativity within two multinational product development programs (PDPs). There are two main results. First, teams with a wider range of informational links are better to realize creative novel and feasible output. Second, in contrast to prior findings our results indicate that network efficiency and the creativity of teams relate negatively. This suggests that direct contacts contribute much more to creativity than open network structures. In managerial terms our investigation indicates that the network structure of teams in PDPs is an important issue to consider when designing such programs and that tools should be available to assist their direct interaction.

The social structure of leadership and creativity in engineering design teams: An empirical analysis

Creativity is essential for research and development efforts. Unfortunately, little is known about how the role of team leaders determines the team's creativity. Based on a sample of 39 engineering design teams in the space industry, this study examines the effects of leader position within different flows of communication on team creativity. The results indicate that the balance between holding a central or a peripheral position indeed determines the creativity of such teams. Specifically, very central and very peripheral positions of team leaders within the work-flow and awareness network hamper team creativity, whereas peripheral situated team leaders within the information network propel the creativity. In addition, team leaders stimulate creativity when they stay central in the external information network. In managerial terms, the analyses implicate that stimulating engineering design team creativity requires team leaders to smartly limit their involvement in communication and mainly act as gatekeepers to external sources of information.

A methodology to evaluate the usability of digital socialization in ‘‘virtual’’ engineering design

We develop a methodology to evaluate the usability of prototypes for supporting digital socialization within geographically dispersed, or “virtual”, engineering design teams. Socialization converts individual into group tacit knowledge to enhance collaborative work. Extant theory in computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) underpins IDRAK, a proof-of-concept prototype of a rich Internet application to promote socialization. Our methodology employs an engineering design exercise (Delta design, as in Bucciarelli (Delta design game, MIT, Cambridge, 1994) to simulate, in a computer lab, a virtual team undertaking a project feasibility stage. We apply this methodology to evaluate the usability of IDRAK to support “virtual” four-people teams (architect, project manager, thermal and structural engineers). Our findings yield few statistically significant differences between the performance of virtual and co-located teams. The experiments suggest that IDRAK encourages individuals to work collaboratively. It allows for a leveling of status and eases communication since individuals’ accents are not an issue. However, IDRAK makes it difficult for the project manager to exercise authority and it cannot capture nuances in speech such as tone and expression. The experiments suggest that more research is needed to explore the ways to enhance the performance of virtual teams by: first, alternating between voice/video and text-based chat; second, documenting chat-based conversations; and third, enforcing communication and design process protocols.

Using personality type differences to form engineering design teams

This paper argues for the greater use of personality type instruments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II (KTS II), when forming engineering design teams. Considering the importance of teamwork in all aspects of education and industry, it is surprising that few universities in the UK use personality type information when forming design teams. This has led to many courses not getting the best out of their students, and more importantly the students not getting the most out of the teamworking experience. Various team formation methods are discussed and their relative strengths and weaknesses outlined. Normal personality type distributions in base populations are presented and compared with data from recent studies of engineering students, and the link between engineering, design and creativity is discussed. The results of this study have shown that the most important of the type preferences is the Sensing-iNtuitive (S-N) scale, with its proven link to creativity and learning styles. It is concluded that both engineers and designers have much in common, and a methodology of using personality type choice sets to select and form engineering design teams is proposed.

Banking on social capital: towards social connectedness in distributed engineering design teams

The idea of an engineering design team as a closely knit, physically co-located community is dissolving as companies become increasingly geographically dispersed. Engineers work together with more people than ever before, but often with very limited knowledge of who they are actually working with, what their collaborators know, and to what extent they can be trusted. Engineering design is a domain where good decision-making is absolutely critical, and building social capital is particularly significant since engineers deal with inherently ambiguous requirements and problems. The fieldwork presented below suggests that ‘Know-Who’ is a key dimension of expertise sharing in distributed collaborative engineering.

A manufacturing system engineering ontology model on the semantic web for inter-enterprise collaboration

This paper investigates ontology-based approaches for representing information semantics and in particular the World Wide Web. A general manufacturing system engineering (MSE) knowledge representation scheme, called an MSE ontology model, to facilitate communication and information exchange in inter-enterprise, multi-disciplinary engineering design teams has been developed and encoded in the standard semantic web language. The proposed approach focuses on how to support information autonomy that allows the individual team members to keep their own preferred languages or information models rather than requiring them all to adopt standardized terminology. The MSE ontology model provides efficient access by common mediated meta-models across all engineering design teams through semantic matching. This paper also shows how the primitives of Web Ontology Language (OWL) can be used for expressing simple mappings between the mediated MSE ontology model and individual ontologies.

A knowledge-based parameter consistency management system for concurrent and collaborative design

This paper discusses rule-based reasoning parameter consistency management system based on knowledge in concurrent and corroborative product design using a combination of both mathematical methods and knowledge-based Engineering (KBE) techniques. First, the framework of the parameter consistency management system is developed. Second, a data-mining algorithm known as the fuzzy-rough algorithm is presented for modelling of knowledge-level constraints from numerical simulation. Then, the method of integrated case-based reasoning (CBR) and rule-based reasoning (RBR) with an interval consistency algorithm is adopted to predict the potential conflicts and specify the interval of design parameters. Finally, ontology is used as a communication language between cooperating engineering design teams. The system is demonstrated by the design of a crank connecting link in a V6 engine.

The Five-Factor Model personality assessment for improved student design team performance

Researchers have long noted the correlation of various personality traits and team performance. Studies relating aggregate team personality traits to team performance are scattered in the literature and may not always be relevant to engineering design teams. This paper synthesizes the results from applicable Five-Factor Model (FFM)-based personality studies related to engineering design team performance, into a form that can be readily used by non-experts—engineering faculty and students. In addition, an approach is presented where aggregate data is visually presented to recognize patterns that correspond to strength and existence of personality traits within the team as measured by the FFM model while maintaining student confidentiality. With this approach, identification of team strengths and weaknesses stemming from the personality trait distribution is simplified. An assessment of the usability of the approach—completed in two first-year engineering courses—is presented to demonstrate its potential.

Supporting collaborative learning in engineering design

In team-based project courses, collaborative learning is the dominant learning mode. Collaborative learning has been shown to increase individual learning through co-construction and personal reflection. Rapid adoption of web-based communication and mobile computing by students provide opportunities to take advantage of computer-supported collaboration for engineering education. We present preliminary findings on a computer environment, the Kiva Web, that supports the activities of group collaboration for interdisciplinary engineering design teams. We have employed methods from human–computer interaction (HCI) to iterate on the design in the context of use. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of the Kiva Web and the implications for both student design teams and professional design teams.

Special gender studies for engineering?

Today we are confronted with a new challenge in product development: “Diversity” needs to be implemented in the engineering design and development teams. Such diversity means to “mirror” within the teams the characteristics of different customer groups: the two genders, the different age groups, and the different cultural background corresponding to the cultural differences represented in today’s society. Thus the products and services developed in this way are expected to serve more specifically the different customer groups within society. This approach has already been proven successful, {\\rm e.g.}, in some areas of car design and consumer goods. Therefore, science and engineering should in this sense become concerned with diversity across society. In particular engineering education needs to focus on different student groups, especially women. Both enterprises and universities have to put emphasis on co-operation in order to achieve such focus on these new and different customers groups. But what sounds so easy in a pragmatic view, becomes more and more difficult under considerations of the traditional patterns in engineering education. It means accepting different motivations and experiences of students, especially women. It means also to accept different ways of teaching and learning and thus, different strategies in both engineering education and research. One way to develop engineering education further as suggested here, shows the new approach of “Gender Studies in Engineering” to be described in this paper.

Distributed Collaborative Design Teams:Media Effects on Design Processes

Collaborative manufacturing, a growing competitive structure for manufacturing companies and government agencies, is based on flexible design and production processes, with multiple companies pooling strengths on a product-by-product basis to create distributed collaborative corporations. This experimental research uses a sociotechnical theory as a framework to explore differences in engineering design team decision making as a function of various media of communication. Results indicate that design teams communicating via an electronic medium perceive an increase in mental workload and interact less frequently, but for a greater total amount of time. No evidence was found to suggest that face-to-face teams spend a greater proportion of their time discussing design issues or alternatives than do their dispersed counterparts. Realizing that critical decisions throughout design have a tremendous effect on cost, time to production, and overall quality, the study's results lead to broad implications and suggestions for the management of distributed design teams.

Speaker-centredness and participatory listening in pre-expert engineering design teams

Participating in collaborative design discussion may impede the very activity it is supposed to facilitate, causing designers to disattend to listeners' perspectives (speaker centredness) and listeners to assume a more prominent (participatory listening) role in managing common ground. We report an investigation of these hypotheses in the speech and representational activity of teams of pre-expert design engineers engaged in authentic design tasks. Compared with gestural and speech-only discourse, design discourse accompanied by freehand sketching was associated with reduced listener monitoring, speaker-centric design arguments, and speaker-initiated turn-taking and closure. Listeners withdrew from direct and potentially distracting involvement during these presentations, but continued to provide unobtrusive evidence of attentiveness and understanding. These patterns of argumentation and closure point to tacit and intuitive ‘good listenership’ practices, in which listeners actively co-direct the grounding process in sketch discourse by making allowances for the cognitive demands it imposes on their colleagues. We explore the implications of these practices for design education and training, as well as for the use of new technologies for promoting effective design teamwork.