scholarly journals EXAMINING THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN STUDENT AND INSTRUCTOR TASK PERCEPTIONS IN A COMPLEX ENGINEERING DESIGN TASK

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
A F Hadwin ◽  
M Oshige ◽  
M Miller ◽  
P M Wild
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Design Task ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Task Understanding

Understanding assigned tasks is an important skill for academic success. However, few studies have explored the accuracy of task understanding as it develops over the duration of a complex assignment. This study examined explicit, implicit, and socio-cultural aspects of task understanding in the context of an design project assigned to a third year class of Mechanical Engineering students. Specifically, this study examined: (1) the agreement between student and instructors task perceptions for the same complex engineering design task, and (2) changes in both instructor's and students' task perceptions from the beginning to the end of the task. Findings indicate that: (1) students' and instructor task-perceptions generally became more attuned over time, (2) instructor task-understanding evolved over time, and (3) socio-contextual aspects of task-understanding were highly correlated with task and course academic achievement.

scholarly journals Scheduling of Changes in Complex Engineering Design Process via Genetic Algorithm and Elementary Effects Method

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 169097
Author(s):  
Yuliang Li ◽  
Wei Zhao ◽  
Yongsheng Ma ◽  
Lichen Hu
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Propagation Path ◽  
Change Propagation ◽  
Engineering Design Process ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
Encoding Method

Engineering design changes constantly occur in a complex engineering design process. Designers have to put an appropriate procedure in place to handle these changes in order to realize successful product development in a timely and cost-effective manner. When many change propagation paths are present, selection of the best change evolution paths and distribution of change results to downstream tasks become critical to the progress management of the project. In this paper, based on the available change propagation simulation algorithm, a global sensitivity analysis method known as elementary effects (EE) is employed to rank the importance of each potential propagation path with those involved design dependencies in the process. Further, an EE-based heuristic design dependency encoding method is applied to the genetic algorithm which is then adopted to schedule the change updating process. Finally, the optimal results obtained by the complete search and the heuristic dependency encoding methods are compared to illustrate the improvements and effectiveness of the latter method.

Concept-Based Interactive Brainstorming in Engineering Design

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 454-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gideon Avigad ◽  
◽  
Amiram Moshaiov ◽  
Neima Brauner
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Human Machine Interface ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Design Problems ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
Evolutionary Method ◽  
Machine Interface ◽  
Team Design ◽  
The Way

In this paper we present a concept-based evolutionary method, which strengthens symbiosis between computers and humans in exploring engineering solutions to multi-objective design problems. The use of concepts improves the human-machine interface. Moreover, it serves not only as a communication means but also enables evaluating concepts rather then just specific solutions while taking into account teammates’ perceptions and preferences. A scenario-based example is given to demonstrate the way our concept-based method can be used for computer-assisted iterative team design.

scholarly journals Holistic Engineering Design: A Combined Synchronous and Asynchronous Approach

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Conway ◽  
M. D. Giess ◽  
A. Lynn ◽  
L. Ding ◽  
Y. M. Goh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Life Support ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Positive Direction ◽  
Design Activities ◽  
Previous Design ◽  
Complex Engineering ◽  
Level Of Understanding

To aid the creation and through-life support of large, complex engineering products, organizations are placing a greater emphasis on constructing complete and accurate records of design activities. Current documentary approaches are not sufficient to capture activities and decisions in their entirety and can lead to organizations revisiting and in some cases reworking design decisions in order to understand previous design episodes. Design activities are undertaken in a variety of modes; many of which are dichotomous, and thus each require separate documentary mechanisms to capture information in an efficient manner. It is possible to identify the modes of learning and transaction to describe whether an activity is aimed at increasing a level of understanding or whether it involves manipulating information to achieve a tangible task. The dichotomy of interest in this paper is that of synchronous and asynchronous working, where engineers may work alternately as part of a group or as individuals and where different forms of record are necessary to adequately capture the processes and rationale employed in each mode. This paper introduces complimentary approaches to achieving richer representations of design activities performed synchronously and asynchronously, and through the undertaking of a design based case study, highlights the benefit of each approach. The resulting records serve to provide a more complete depiction of activities undertaken, and provide positive direction for future co-development of the approaches.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document