Designing Engineers: An Introductory Text

Many colleges of engineering are seeking to give students more exposure to design early in the curriculum. One approach has been to develop project-based, design-centered courses for first-year students, but few texts on design are at the right level for first-year students. Designing Engineers: An Introductory Textbook has been created to meet this need. It has evolved from one of the largest and most successful first-year engineering design programs, taught to over 1,000 students annually at the University of Toronto. Designing Engineers is written in short modules, where each module is built around a specific learning outcome and is cross-referenced to the other modules that should be read as pre-requisites, and could be read in tandem with or following that module. The book begins with a brief orientation to the design process, followed by coverage of the design process in a series of short modules. The rest of the book contains a set of modules organized in several major categories: Communication & Critical Thinking, Teamwork & Project Management, and Design for Specific Factors (e.g. environmental, human factors, intellectual property). A resource section provides brief reference material on economics, failure and risk, probability and statistics, principles & problem solving, and estimation.