SYDE 361 Introduction to Design
SYDE 361 - INTRODUCTION TO DESIGN
Spring Term
MISSION STATEMENT: The primary objective of SYDE 361, Introduction to Design, is to encourage students to learn the design process through hands-on experience working on a design team whose members must cooperatively create imaginative solutions to challenging research problems that must be thoroughly analyzed and compared using both quantitative and non-quantitative criteria to ascertain the overall most effective and robust design. Students have a unique opportunity to employ their creative talents to synthesize potential designs to satisfy the objective of the problems they are systematically solving and to utilize their analytical abilities learned in other courses to subject their tentative designs to rigorous analysis using appropriate tools from engineering, science, mathematics, economics and the social sciences to ensure that their designs are physically sound, environmentally sustainable, economically viable, socially responsible and ethically correct. While working on actual design projects students actively experience many important phases of a comprehensive design process that ranges from concept development, to design selection and prototyping, to implementation and marketing.
A secondary goal is to afford students the opportunity to learn, first hand, valuable oral and written communication skills by having them negotiate with design team members when allocating tasks and deciding upon schedules; orally present the final results of their design project and the lessons they learned through their exposure to creative problem solving; deliver a seminar about various stages of the design process as described in a course text and elsewhere; keep a journal of the activities and accomplishments of their design team; and also submit a professionally written final design report as well as an earlier problem definition and interim report. Invited lecturers from the social sciences will deliver stimulating seminars on how to work effectively in teams, how to bring about win/win resolutions when bargaining, and how to enhance presentation and writing skills.
A third objective is to permit students to learn about design in a rainbow of engineering fields by having Professional Engineers from industry and government discuss creative design and problem solving in their specific fields of interest, such as environmental engineering, software design, structural engineering, manufacturing, computer engineering and transportation. Students would write brief reports on what they learned about the design process from the guest speakers and how this knowledge would be useful in their future careers.
In summary, SYDE 361 is a challenging course in learning by doing, improving communication skills by sharing knowledge with others through speaking and writing, and learning through listening when interacting with team members and hearing what the experts have to say about their real world experiences in actually doing design and creative problem solving. Therefore, SYDE 361 is a "doing" course in which students both individually and cooperatively, take the initiative to proactively create thoughtful solutions to challenging problems that often lay at the intersection of engineering, society and the environment.
GRADING: Workshop project (64%), Design Topic Presentation (20%), Seminar Summaries (12%), Attendance (4%). No midterm or final examination.
CLASS TIMES: Mondays - Workshop Laboratories: teaching assistants will hold separate meetings with each group.
Wednesdays - Design Topic Presentations: each group will present an assigned topic.
Fridays - Professional Seminars: Professional Engineers from different types of companies will explain how they use design.
INFORMATION: If you have any questions, please contact the class instructor, Professor Keith W. Hipel, in the Department of Systems Design Engineering (Room E2 1307D; extension 32830; kwhipel@uwaterloo.ca)