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What is Engineering? Problem Solving.
How do Engineers solve problems? With the Engineering Design Process.
This paper is designed to provide a basic understanding of the engineering design process and how to apply it to design of a competition robot. Though the engineering design process can be implemented in a variety of ways, this paper will highlight one particular method. This paper is targeted primarily at beginners but may also be useful for more advanced designers.
Engineering Design Process in Competition Robotics - PAPER.20091204.pdf
04-12-2009 00:45
JVNHi All,
This is a whitepaper I wrote detailing my version of the Engineering Design Process, and how you can apply it to Competition Robotics.
I started this paper over a year ago, but got busy and never finished it. Part of it turned into this presentation:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2250
Earlier this summer I started poking at it again, and very recently got it close enough to publish.
I strongly believe this is some of my best work. This is a topic I am very passionate about. I think that if you can instill a student the essence of "What is Engineering?" then you have succeeded as a mentor.
While this stuff may be intuitive to many people, I believe it is still VERY POWERFUL when taught well. This paper represents a collection of many of the lessons I've been teaching students for many years, and is based on my experiences on 20, 229, & 148, the things I learned during my 4 years at Clarkson, and my time at IFI.
Hopefully this will provide beginners a greater understanding of the process that we all go through subconsciously in one form or another when solving a problem.
-John
PS - Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this paper (knowingly or not) over the years. I am not ashamed to say that my personal take on Engineering Design has been GREATLY influenced by the many great mentors and friends I've had. If you're reading this paper and you see your words on my page... thanks! 
04-12-2009 00:46
JVNThis paper references one I did on Using a Weighted Objectives Table for a Competition Robot Design which can be found here:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2175
-John
04-12-2009 00:58
Andrew SchreiberThanks, I have only had time to skim it right now (work in the AM) but I can't wait to really delve into it and pull the ideas.
In my skimming I do have to ask about one of the quotes, “Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.” What exactly is meant by this? Above it the saying "two heads is better than one" is said. These two sayings seem completely at odds, the Ark did its job whereas the Titanic sank. I swear, I am not picking at it just trying to reconcile these two quotes. Course, I could just be sleepy.
At any rate, thank you, this looks awesome.
04-12-2009 01:14
Akash RastogiThanks for an even greater resource than your presentation from Atlanta, JVN.
Our robotics teacher already incorporated your presentation into our curriculum, he will be really excited about adding this paper now.
Great stuff, I love getting real insight from engineers.
(2753 post
hehe)
04-12-2009 02:26
James Tonthat
I just started reading through the paper, and it's great.
04-12-2009 02:42
Aren_Hill
Finally made it through and feel more competant already
04-12-2009 04:36
wendellsJohn read your paper.
04-12-2009 10:20
IKE|
“Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.” What exactly is meant by this? Above it the saying "two heads is better than one" is said. These two sayings seem completely at odds, the Ark did its job whereas the Titanic sank. I swear, I am not picking at it just trying to reconcile these two quotes. Course, I could just be sleepy.
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j/k 494&70
04-12-2009 11:33
Tom BishopReally nice job John! I will use this paper with some of the projects that I have the students do, like Sumo Bots, as well as with the FRC team.
Thanks for posting
05-12-2009 12:25
Chris is meThis should be required reading for everyone. I just finished reading it and feel 10 times smarter already. I think I'll print out a bunch of copies, bring it to Kickoff, and have everyone on my team (who wants to) read it.
Thanks John!
05-12-2009 21:49
rsiskWe are doing the same thing. This will be presented to the team before kick off.
JVN... you rock!
07-12-2009 10:46
JesseKI read this last week, meditated over the weekend, then read it again before work this morning. I'm highly impressed at the John's ability to communicate these principles in such simple terms. John, seriously, you should write a textbook. It'd be 10 times better than this crap (look at pg 232...) I had to read for my SYST510 class for Systems Engineering.
Now, as for accuracy and completeness as it applies to real world complex integrated systems... well who cares that it's not 100% perfect for that yet. This is perfect for high school and college students who are working on a semi-complex integrated system and teaches the fundamentals of project management in such a way that the students themselves can understand.
07-12-2009 13:28
IKE|
It'd be 10 times better than this crap (look at pg 232...) I had to read for my SYST510 class for Systems Engineering.
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07-12-2009 14:21
bachsterJohn, thanks for sharing this! I have borrowed heavily from your earlier presentation in trying to present the design process in an easy to understand format. I'd like to have all our students read this, although we have a lot of short attention spans so might have to break it into sections.
07-12-2009 17:00
Collin Fultz
John -
Your presentation last year in Atlanta was fantastic and this paper does a great job capturing your enthusiasm for this topic. Thank you so much for writing this. It's been added to my "JVN" folder (other contents include how to effectively use a WOT and the design calculator spreadsheet).
Thanks again.
07-12-2009 23:17
Ed Law|
It'd be 10 times better than this crap (look at pg 232...) I had to read for my SYST510 class for Systems Engineering.
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23-12-2009 23:36
JVN|
I started this paper over a year ago, but got busy and never finished it. Part of it turned into this presentation:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2250 |
24-12-2009 10:25
gblake
24-12-2009 12:08
JVN|
I humbly suggest tweaking the title to remove the implication that there is only one "Engineering Design Process". Quoting what Ike expressed after reading your paper, "diversity of thought is incredibly beneficial".
I'll bet that whoever wrote that horrid (odious? stultifying? abominable? soul-sucking?) textbook Jesse has to use thinks that they are describing "The" engineering design process, and so do other authors, and so to other teachers, and so do .... With human creativity and diversity involved, I'm pretty confident that what we have is an excellent paper describing an engineering process(es), but not the engineering process. Blake |
24-12-2009 18:34
gblake|
Given the difficulty of changing the title, I'm going to leave it as is. I hope people will read the paper far enough to notice the section(s) where I talk (repeatedly) about your exact concern.
You can't judge a book by its cover (or title). -John |
25-12-2009 12:24
Rich Kressly
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Understood - I'm constantly surprised, nay dumbfounded, by instructors who truly believe that there is "one" engineering process; and that they are teaching it. It has become one of the many peeves I have accumulated on my road full-fledged curmdgeonhood.
Blake |
25-12-2009 22:18
gblake|
Agreed, however I think JVN does more than an adequate job of reminding the reader that there is a great deal of flexibility to/in the process and it needs to be applied with a knowledge of the user's particular needs, resources, etc.
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I, too, always use the term "The" when I talk about design process, but I always emphasize how "the process" is a very flexible one that can look a lot of different ways in a lot of different situations.
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27-12-2009 17:23
rsiskJohn,
I was watching the presentation preparing to show it to our team. You have a slide that states: This "problem" can be broken down into smaller problems that must be solved.
When I learned this process in the Air Force back in the early 80s, we used the term "reiterative decomposition" for this process. I like the term and thought you might like it too.
12-01-2010 00:23
Jon Jack
I showed the video to our engineering team last week and they loved it. I have yet to see a day pass where they don't reference it at least once. Lots of very useful information. Thanks John!
12-01-2010 00:52
jamie_1930|
Thread created automatically to discuss a document in CD-Media.
Using the Engineering Design Process for Design of a Competition Robot by JVN |
12-01-2010 00:56
Akash RastogiWe have stuck to John's guidelines, and so far it has been the best brainstorming/design weekend we have ever had.
We have also learned through this how important proper and extensive documentation is. I have been logging every single design and sketch any team member has created in a detailed Engineering Notebook.
All rationale for designs and strategies is very well argued and reasoned using quantitative data. The iterations of these ideas are coming along really well also. My favorite part is how even the freshmen and sophomores have really really good ideas (similar to the veteran's ideas) on what they want to build just because of this presentation.
12-01-2010 10:35
rsiskHave to agree with all that was said so far.
I actually got to use the "VOTE is a 4 letter word" during our brainstorming session
Even better, after the presentation the week before kickoff, some of our adult mentors asked for a link to the presentation to show where they work. JVN, you are changing the world.