1 00:00:01,491 --> 00:00:02,082 >>Speaker: Hello. 2 00:00:02,082 --> 00:00:03,292 Today we're going to talk about 3 00:00:03,292 --> 00:00:04,822 the engineering design process. 4 00:00:04,822 --> 00:00:09,431 All engineers design things at some point in their career. 5 00:00:09,431 --> 00:00:11,918 They could be designing a physical object; 6 00:00:12,154 --> 00:00:17,618 they could be designing a piece of software or a process. 7 00:00:17,618 --> 00:00:19,608 But engineers design things; 8 00:00:19,608 --> 00:00:21,918 it's one of the ways that they solve problems. 9 00:00:21,918 --> 00:00:25,019 And as an engineer, it can be a little overwhelming 10 00:00:25,019 --> 00:00:27,280 when you first encounter a major design project. 11 00:00:27,280 --> 00:00:29,198 So what we want to show you 12 00:00:29,465 --> 00:00:31,573 today is a process that you can use to 13 00:00:31,573 --> 00:00:33,934 help break that design project down into 14 00:00:34,173 --> 00:00:37,437 little bits, and be more successful than 15 00:00:37,437 --> 00:00:38,860 you would be if you just sat down and 16 00:00:38,860 --> 00:00:41,441 started designing just offhand. 17 00:00:41,633 --> 00:00:44,459 So you've seen this slide before; this is the 18 00:00:44,459 --> 00:00:47,079 problem categorization slide, 19 00:00:47,079 --> 00:00:51,571 and it shows the various types of problems that 20 00:00:51,825 --> 00:00:53,159 you can encounter. 21 00:00:53,159 --> 00:00:54,790 And you can have anywhere 22 00:00:54,790 --> 00:00:56,239 from not enough information, 23 00:00:56,239 --> 00:00:58,690 to just enough information to access information, 24 00:00:58,690 --> 00:01:01,196 and your problems may have no answer, 25 00:01:01,196 --> 00:01:03,319 one answer or more than one answer. 26 00:01:03,319 --> 00:01:05,278 When you're in the classroom, 27 00:01:05,278 --> 00:01:09,180 typically you encounter classroom 28 00:01:09,180 --> 00:01:11,630 problems that have one answer, 29 00:01:11,630 --> 00:01:14,437 and you're given just enough information. 30 00:01:14,437 --> 00:01:17,569 And we talked about on the problem-solving 31 00:01:17,569 --> 00:01:19,348 methodology day, how the problems you 32 00:01:19,348 --> 00:01:22,138 encounter can fit into any of these categories. 33 00:01:22,138 --> 00:01:25,540 Well, typically with engineering design, 34 00:01:25,540 --> 00:01:27,334 you are encountering problems 35 00:01:27,334 --> 00:01:29,189 that have more than one answer. 36 00:01:29,189 --> 00:01:31,629 You may be given not enough information, 37 00:01:31,629 --> 00:01:33,530 you may be given just enough information, 38 00:01:33,530 --> 00:01:35,657 or you may be given way too much information. 39 00:01:35,657 --> 00:01:38,975 But typically the problems that you encounter have 40 00:01:38,975 --> 00:01:40,368 more than one answer, 41 00:01:40,368 --> 00:01:42,498 and so part of the engineering 42 00:01:42,628 --> 00:01:45,038 design process is determining which of these answers 43 00:01:45,038 --> 00:01:46,769 is best for your product 44 00:01:46,769 --> 00:01:47,997 and for your application. 45 00:01:47,997 --> 00:01:52,379 So here we have a slide that shows you 46 00:01:52,379 --> 00:01:55,547 the combination of problem-solving and design. 47 00:01:55,780 --> 00:01:57,264 And so you can compare the two of them. 48 00:01:59,304 --> 00:02:03,652 so you can see the DRPIE, the define, represent, 49 00:02:03,873 --> 00:02:07,041 plan, implement and evaluate cycle on the 50 00:02:07,041 --> 00:02:09,325 left hand side in the gray. 51 00:02:09,325 --> 00:02:13,450 You can also see the engineering design process 52 00:02:13,605 --> 00:02:14,995 over here on the right, 53 00:02:14,995 --> 00:02:16,266 and you'll see that there are 54 00:02:16,433 --> 00:02:19,524 some aspects of them that are very similar. 55 00:02:21,225 --> 00:02:24,743 So some of the -- the obvious one is define; 56 00:02:24,986 --> 00:02:28,196 it appears in both places, so I have 57 00:02:28,419 --> 00:02:30,348 define, and I'm defining my problem. 58 00:02:30,348 --> 00:02:35,749 Represent will often take place in a couple of places; 59 00:02:36,012 --> 00:02:37,529 one of them may be when you're 60 00:02:37,529 --> 00:02:39,251 creating the specifications and requirements. 61 00:02:39,251 --> 00:02:42,154 It may also appear over in 62 00:02:42,382 --> 00:02:43,921 creating the design concepts, 63 00:02:43,921 --> 00:02:47,279 and possibly over in designing of the solution. 64 00:02:47,279 --> 00:02:49,969 So represent kind of is all throughout there. 65 00:02:50,409 --> 00:02:53,469 Planning tends to occur over here 66 00:02:53,469 --> 00:02:55,464 in the designing of the solution. 67 00:02:55,464 --> 00:02:59,063 Implement tends to appear over here, 68 00:02:59,063 --> 00:03:00,813 in creating the prototype and to 69 00:03:00,813 --> 00:03:02,719 an extent in designing the solution. 70 00:03:02,719 --> 00:03:06,989 And evaluate tends to happen over here with 71 00:03:06,989 --> 00:03:08,778 testing and validating the design. 72 00:03:08,915 --> 00:03:12,270 So it's not quite a one-to-one comparison, 73 00:03:12,270 --> 00:03:14,166 but you do see a lot of similarities 74 00:03:14,166 --> 00:03:17,384 between problem-solving methodology 75 00:03:17,844 --> 00:03:20,336 and the engineering design process. 76 00:03:20,589 --> 00:03:22,805 So we shouldn't be venturing too far from 77 00:03:23,070 --> 00:03:24,939 stuff that you're at least familiar with 78 00:03:24,939 --> 00:03:27,013 in a cursory fashion. 79 00:03:27,013 --> 00:03:31,070 So this is the engineering design process, 80 00:03:31,070 --> 00:03:33,767 and we are going to go through and talk about 81 00:03:33,957 --> 00:03:36,046 each of these aspects or each of these stages 82 00:03:36,342 --> 00:03:39,273 one at a time here in the next few slides. 83 00:03:39,526 --> 00:03:41,809 But I just want to give you the overall picture. 84 00:03:41,809 --> 00:03:44,577 And one of the things that I want you to keep in mind 85 00:03:44,577 --> 00:03:47,499 as we're going through each of these stages is 86 00:03:47,911 --> 00:03:50,970 that this is not necessarily a linear process. 87 00:03:50,970 --> 00:03:53,212 Just like problem-solving methodology, 88 00:03:53,212 --> 00:03:56,960 you may be halfway through your evaluate, 89 00:03:57,166 --> 00:03:58,770 and you realize that something was wrong 90 00:03:58,957 --> 00:03:59,918 with your implementation. 91 00:03:59,918 --> 00:04:00,790 And so you have to go back 92 00:04:00,790 --> 00:04:02,208 to one of the earlier stages. 93 00:04:02,208 --> 00:04:04,957 Similarly, in the engineering design process, 94 00:04:04,957 --> 00:04:07,299 you may have be in the middle of 95 00:04:07,299 --> 00:04:09,071 creating a prototype and realized that 96 00:04:09,071 --> 00:04:11,327 you wanted two parts to occupy the same space. 97 00:04:11,327 --> 00:04:12,913 We know that that can't really happen, 98 00:04:12,913 --> 00:04:14,689 so maybe you're stepping back 99 00:04:14,689 --> 00:04:17,007 over here into designing the solution. 100 00:04:17,007 --> 00:04:19,625 Or maybe you're designing the solution and 101 00:04:19,625 --> 00:04:21,127 you realize that your design is not 102 00:04:21,127 --> 00:04:22,811 sufficiently constrained. 103 00:04:23,070 --> 00:04:25,292 So you have to go all the way back over here 104 00:04:25,292 --> 00:04:28,221 -- to creating specifications and requirements. 105 00:04:28,221 --> 00:04:31,403 So at any point in this process, 106 00:04:31,403 --> 00:04:33,800 you can jump back to any of the 107 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:36,837 previous stages as needed during the 108 00:04:36,837 --> 00:04:37,631 design process. 109 00:04:37,899 --> 00:04:39,642 Where does this design process 110 00:04:39,642 --> 00:04:42,873 fit in the general lifecycle of a product? 111 00:04:42,873 --> 00:04:46,671 Well, you start out with somebody needing something, 112 00:04:46,671 --> 00:04:48,987 and then you design the product. 113 00:04:49,227 --> 00:04:52,159 This is separate, for our purposes, 114 00:04:52,159 --> 00:04:53,604 from implementing the project. 115 00:04:53,604 --> 00:04:55,854 So you notice if you look back 116 00:04:55,854 --> 00:04:58,526 at the engineering design process that 117 00:04:58,526 --> 00:05:00,555 we stopped over here in testing and 118 00:05:00,555 --> 00:05:01,675 validating the design; 119 00:05:01,977 --> 00:05:03,348 we don't actually 120 00:05:03,348 --> 00:05:05,715 go through to creating and releasing the 121 00:05:05,715 --> 00:05:08,261 final product that's for our purposes 122 00:05:08,458 --> 00:05:10,086 considered to be a separate step. 123 00:05:10,373 --> 00:05:13,625 Once you've implemented the project, you're not done. 124 00:05:13,625 --> 00:05:15,224 A lot of engineers think, 125 00:05:15,224 --> 00:05:16,736 I've implemented the project, I'm done, 126 00:05:16,736 --> 00:05:19,872 I can walk away and enjoy my beautiful product. 127 00:05:19,872 --> 00:05:21,464 That's not what happens; 128 00:05:21,606 --> 00:05:22,741 people break your products; 129 00:05:22,741 --> 00:05:25,566 they will use anything as a hammer. 130 00:05:25,791 --> 00:05:26,991 And in the process 131 00:05:26,991 --> 00:05:29,072 your product breaks and you're going to 132 00:05:29,072 --> 00:05:30,553 have to find a way to fix it, 133 00:05:30,553 --> 00:05:33,873 or to modify the product so that it makes a 134 00:05:33,873 --> 00:05:34,853 better hammer. 135 00:05:34,853 --> 00:05:38,319 And then eventually your product is supported, 136 00:05:38,500 --> 00:05:41,347 it's maintained and eventually it's used up and it's 137 00:05:41,347 --> 00:05:44,095 disposed of or recycled in some fashion. 138 00:05:44,095 --> 00:05:47,243 The rest of this presentation focuses 139 00:05:47,243 --> 00:05:50,387 here on the engineering design process; 140 00:05:50,535 --> 00:05:52,704 although the rest of the product 141 00:05:52,704 --> 00:05:55,854 lifecycle is important, that's not what 142 00:05:55,854 --> 00:05:57,055 we're going to be focusing on today. 143 00:05:57,055 --> 00:06:00,134 So here we're in the stage where we are 144 00:06:00,134 --> 00:06:03,556 just beginning out, and we need to define 145 00:06:03,556 --> 00:06:04,895 what our problem is. 146 00:06:05,159 --> 00:06:07,758 So we want to understand what the problem is 147 00:06:07,758 --> 00:06:10,040 in some level of detail; 148 00:06:10,226 --> 00:06:11,342 we're not necessarily 149 00:06:11,342 --> 00:06:13,484 going to need every little specification, 150 00:06:13,484 --> 00:06:15,730 every little requirement, but we want to 151 00:06:15,730 --> 00:06:17,654 really get a good grasp on what's going 152 00:06:17,654 --> 00:06:18,865 on with the project. 153 00:06:18,865 --> 00:06:20,647 So you start out 154 00:06:20,857 --> 00:06:22,917 with a general project needs statement 155 00:06:22,917 --> 00:06:26,315 of what basically you need out of this 156 00:06:26,315 --> 00:06:28,991 product that you're creating. 157 00:06:28,991 --> 00:06:32,211 And the product -- again it doesn't have to be a 158 00:06:32,211 --> 00:06:35,010 physical product; it could be a process; 159 00:06:35,010 --> 00:06:37,271 it could be a software package, 160 00:06:37,271 --> 00:06:39,318 lots of things it could be -- 161 00:06:39,318 --> 00:06:43,040 but you start out with some rough idea of what you want, 162 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:45,403 and then the goal of defining the 163 00:06:45,403 --> 00:06:49,301 problem is narrowing this down into a 164 00:06:49,301 --> 00:06:53,274 defined set of projects needs. 165 00:06:53,274 --> 00:06:57,377 So this is going from saying that I need a phone 166 00:06:57,377 --> 00:06:59,960 that is better than the other phones. 167 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:02,994 This is the stage where I define what 168 00:07:02,994 --> 00:07:07,271 exactly it is I want better about that phone. 169 00:07:07,271 --> 00:07:10,399 So am I looking for improved 170 00:07:10,399 --> 00:07:14,833 coverage; is the wireless capabilities 171 00:07:14,833 --> 00:07:17,787 supposed to improve, is it going to take 172 00:07:17,787 --> 00:07:19,710 better photos, is it meant to be more 173 00:07:19,710 --> 00:07:20,771 user friendly. 174 00:07:20,771 --> 00:07:22,045 So you come down and you 175 00:07:22,045 --> 00:07:23,441 figure out exactly what the project 176 00:07:23,441 --> 00:07:24,771 needs are. 177 00:07:24,771 --> 00:07:28,524 Then once I figured out roughly what the project needs are, 178 00:07:28,524 --> 00:07:32,275 I then get down into the more nitty-gritty 179 00:07:32,275 --> 00:07:33,949 specifications and requirements. 180 00:07:33,949 --> 00:07:36,571 And this is a really important stage in the 181 00:07:36,571 --> 00:07:38,730 engineering design process, because this 182 00:07:38,730 --> 00:07:40,611 is really what lets me know when I'm done. 183 00:07:40,611 --> 00:07:43,124 As an engineer you can design and 184 00:07:43,124 --> 00:07:45,761 design and design and put more and more 185 00:07:45,761 --> 00:07:47,641 time into your product, 186 00:07:47,955 --> 00:07:50,397 but this specification and requirement stage 187 00:07:50,397 --> 00:07:55,156 gives me an endpoint, so that, when I've 188 00:07:55,156 --> 00:07:57,031 met these specifications and 189 00:07:57,031 --> 00:07:58,251 requirements, 190 00:07:58,251 --> 00:08:00,856 I know that I've reached my desired goal. 191 00:08:00,856 --> 00:08:03,921 So this may be, I want to be 192 00:08:03,921 --> 00:08:06,672 able to talk on my phone in this 193 00:08:06,672 --> 00:08:08,969 specific location that tends to have 194 00:08:08,969 --> 00:08:10,793 trouble with reception, 195 00:08:10,793 --> 00:08:12,417 or I want to be 196 00:08:12,646 --> 00:08:16,280 able to take a photo in, you know, 197 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:20,159 half a second without delay from when I press 198 00:08:20,159 --> 00:08:21,305 the shutter button. 199 00:08:22,965 --> 00:08:25,137 So these are my specifications, 200 00:08:25,351 --> 00:08:26,489 and they really give me 201 00:08:26,489 --> 00:08:29,400 my goals and my endpoints for my design. 202 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,706 And so once I have these specifications 203 00:08:32,706 --> 00:08:33,789 and requirements, 204 00:08:33,789 --> 00:08:36,996 I can also plan out a high-level project plan. 205 00:08:36,996 --> 00:08:39,032 What are the components to my 206 00:08:39,032 --> 00:08:42,402 project, how am I going to progress 207 00:08:42,402 --> 00:08:44,609 through those stages, and design each of 208 00:08:44,609 --> 00:08:45,987 those stages. 209 00:08:45,987 --> 00:08:47,278 I can plan out my project 210 00:08:47,278 --> 00:08:49,497 and it's really important that I give 211 00:08:49,497 --> 00:08:50,672 myself milestones. 212 00:08:50,672 --> 00:08:53,528 And some of them will be really being milestones, 213 00:08:53,528 --> 00:08:55,076 some of them will be small milestones, 214 00:08:55,076 --> 00:08:57,011 but my goal should really be 215 00:08:57,011 --> 00:09:00,041 to break up what I'm doing into small 216 00:09:00,041 --> 00:09:03,080 manageable pieces and give myself some 217 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:05,471 sort of deadlines along the way so that 218 00:09:05,471 --> 00:09:06,830 I don't reach two days before the 219 00:09:06,830 --> 00:09:10,117 project is due and realize that I have nothing done. 220 00:09:10,117 --> 00:09:11,635 If I had milestones along 221 00:09:11,635 --> 00:09:13,672 the way I probably could have prevented that. 222 00:09:13,672 --> 00:09:15,512 Phase three involves creating the 223 00:09:15,512 --> 00:09:17,444 design concepts. 224 00:09:17,444 --> 00:09:18,894 So I now have my 225 00:09:18,894 --> 00:09:20,580 specifications and requirements, 226 00:09:20,580 --> 00:09:22,625 I have my high-level project plan, 227 00:09:22,625 --> 00:09:24,151 and now I'm 228 00:09:24,151 --> 00:09:26,613 going to think about all of the 229 00:09:26,613 --> 00:09:27,870 different ways that I could approach 230 00:09:27,870 --> 00:09:30,718 this problem and all of the different 231 00:09:30,718 --> 00:09:32,611 solutions that I can come up with. 232 00:09:32,611 --> 00:09:35,704 And there are lots of different methods that 233 00:09:35,704 --> 00:09:36,879 are used in the stage. 234 00:09:36,879 --> 00:09:39,341 A lot of people use brainstorming, 235 00:09:39,341 --> 00:09:40,462 where you come up with 236 00:09:40,462 --> 00:09:42,682 as many ideas as you can as quickly as 237 00:09:42,682 --> 00:09:44,929 you can, there's no judgment, 238 00:09:44,929 --> 00:09:47,951 so some really silly ideas sometimes come out, 239 00:09:47,951 --> 00:09:50,528 but you end up with a good variety of 240 00:09:50,528 --> 00:09:53,883 ideas from which to choose and build and 241 00:09:53,883 --> 00:09:55,202 they can grow on each other. 242 00:09:55,202 --> 00:09:58,821 I also want to create some sort of method by which 243 00:09:58,821 --> 00:10:00,644 I'm going to evaluate these design 244 00:10:00,644 --> 00:10:02,828 concepts that I've developed. 245 00:10:02,828 --> 00:10:06,349 One method that is often used is called a design matrix, 246 00:10:06,349 --> 00:10:08,700 where I have different criteria 247 00:10:08,700 --> 00:10:11,783 that I plan on evaluating for my 248 00:10:11,783 --> 00:10:13,863 different designs and I give each of 249 00:10:13,863 --> 00:10:18,084 those a weight, so that I can evaluate 250 00:10:18,084 --> 00:10:20,492 each idea based on these criteria, end up 251 00:10:20,492 --> 00:10:22,062 with a total score, and from that total 252 00:10:22,062 --> 00:10:25,941 score I can determine what my best 253 00:10:25,941 --> 00:10:27,314 design is going to be. 254 00:10:27,314 --> 00:10:28,363 Somehow through 255 00:10:28,363 --> 00:10:29,606 some combination of coming up with 256 00:10:29,606 --> 00:10:32,243 different ideas, thinking through them 257 00:10:32,243 --> 00:10:35,530 evaluating them, I come up, then, with a 258 00:10:35,530 --> 00:10:36,825 best solution. 259 00:10:36,825 --> 00:10:38,449 And best solution can be a 260 00:10:38,449 --> 00:10:40,573 little bit of a misnomer here because 261 00:10:40,573 --> 00:10:42,739 it's what I think at this stage is the 262 00:10:42,739 --> 00:10:43,767 best solution. 263 00:10:43,767 --> 00:10:46,876 Chances are the first time you go 264 00:10:46,876 --> 00:10:48,968 through this stage, the best solution 265 00:10:48,968 --> 00:10:50,959 that you come up with is not going to be 266 00:10:50,959 --> 00:10:52,597 the solution that you end up using, 267 00:10:52,597 --> 00:10:56,642 But it's based on what you know so far, what 268 00:10:56,642 --> 00:10:59,931 you think the best solution is going to be. 269 00:11:01,721 --> 00:11:07,747 Once I've chosen this best so I then design the solution, 270 00:11:08,037 --> 00:11:11,950 and so this is where I really sit down and plan 271 00:11:11,950 --> 00:11:15,018 everything out and sketch out my design, 272 00:11:15,018 --> 00:11:19,134 if it's a physical system or plan out my 273 00:11:19,134 --> 00:11:21,689 algorithm; if it's software -- 274 00:11:21,689 --> 00:11:22,508 -- something like that, 275 00:11:22,508 --> 00:11:23,706 this is where I get down into 276 00:11:23,706 --> 00:11:25,088 the nitty-gritty design; 277 00:11:25,088 --> 00:11:29,627 I spec components and I determine what the flow 278 00:11:29,627 --> 00:11:31,317 of my code is going to be. 279 00:11:31,317 --> 00:11:35,441 All of those things go on in this design solution stage. 280 00:11:35,441 --> 00:11:38,796 Now I want you to realize that we 281 00:11:38,796 --> 00:11:41,296 are now in stage 4 of 6 and we still 282 00:11:41,296 --> 00:11:43,541 haven't built anything and that's 283 00:11:43,541 --> 00:11:44,864 intentional. 284 00:11:44,864 --> 00:11:48,085 This has all been preparation and planning and thinking 285 00:11:48,085 --> 00:11:49,017 and designing. 286 00:11:49,017 --> 00:11:51,927 This allows us to to save 287 00:11:51,927 --> 00:11:59,440 money and not go down rabbit trails on 288 00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:02,229 designs that we don't end up choosing as 289 00:12:02,229 --> 00:12:04,394 our best design or designs that we 290 00:12:04,394 --> 00:12:06,408 haven't thoroughly thought out. 291 00:12:06,408 --> 00:12:10,598 Actually building things and going all the way 292 00:12:10,598 --> 00:12:11,994 through that process is a fairly 293 00:12:11,994 --> 00:12:14,812 labor-intensive process, so my goal 294 00:12:15,051 --> 00:12:18,606 should be to have a well designed system 295 00:12:18,899 --> 00:12:22,295 before I ever start actually building anything. 296 00:12:22,295 --> 00:12:24,605 If I just sit down with a bunch 297 00:12:24,605 --> 00:12:26,283 of materials and start putting them 298 00:12:26,283 --> 00:12:27,821 together without a lot of forethought, 299 00:12:27,821 --> 00:12:29,307 chances are I'm not going to end up with 300 00:12:29,307 --> 00:12:30,694 a very good design. 301 00:12:30,694 --> 00:12:32,156 And we want to avoid that, 302 00:12:32,156 --> 00:12:34,355 and so we do spend a lot of time 303 00:12:34,355 --> 00:12:35,876 here planning before we physically start 304 00:12:35,876 --> 00:12:38,034 touching materials and building things. 305 00:12:41,585 --> 00:12:45,738 Phase 5 is where we actually create the prototype. 306 00:12:46,114 --> 00:12:48,351 So this may be code that's intended 307 00:12:48,351 --> 00:12:50,975 to work with a subset of data, 308 00:12:50,975 --> 00:12:55,340 or to perform a subset of the desired 309 00:12:55,340 --> 00:12:58,691 processes, or work under very controlled 310 00:12:58,691 --> 00:13:02,555 circumstances, or maybe this is a 311 00:13:02,555 --> 00:13:05,552 mechanism that I build out of cardboard, 312 00:13:05,552 --> 00:13:09,346 or rapidly prototype it, so this is a not 313 00:13:09,346 --> 00:13:11,605 my final product. 314 00:13:11,605 --> 00:13:13,548 This is a prototype 315 00:13:13,548 --> 00:13:15,532 where I haven't spent all the time to 316 00:13:15,532 --> 00:13:17,113 make it perfect and pretty. 317 00:13:17,113 --> 00:13:19,861 It's just something that gives me a good 318 00:13:19,861 --> 00:13:22,172 proof-of-concept to show that this 319 00:13:22,172 --> 00:13:25,854 design that I've created is actually 320 00:13:25,854 --> 00:13:27,027 going to work. 321 00:13:27,027 --> 00:13:30,213 So then once I create this 322 00:13:30,213 --> 00:13:33,061 prototype, I can test and validate my 323 00:13:33,061 --> 00:13:38,023 design, and I can run my prototype 324 00:13:38,275 --> 00:13:39,359 through all of my different 325 00:13:39,359 --> 00:13:41,694 specifications and requirements and see 326 00:13:41,694 --> 00:13:43,406 whether it meets those specifications 327 00:13:43,406 --> 00:13:44,214 and requirements. 328 00:13:44,214 --> 00:13:45,478 Once it meets the 329 00:13:45,478 --> 00:13:46,946 specifications and requirements, 330 00:13:46,946 --> 00:13:50,795 I have a validated design and I'm done and I can 331 00:13:50,795 --> 00:13:52,219 I'm done with the design process. 332 00:13:52,219 --> 00:13:54,914 Chances are the first time I reach this 333 00:13:54,914 --> 00:13:56,591 stage, probably the second and third time 334 00:13:56,591 --> 00:13:59,624 I reach this stage, the design that I've 335 00:13:59,624 --> 00:14:01,303 created is going to fail my 336 00:14:01,303 --> 00:14:03,055 specifications somehow. 337 00:14:03,055 --> 00:14:05,704 And so at this stage, 338 00:14:05,704 --> 00:14:07,635 it's fairly likely that I'm going 339 00:14:07,635 --> 00:14:09,870 to have to run back to designing the 340 00:14:09,870 --> 00:14:11,957 solution and maybe improving it somehow, 341 00:14:12,168 --> 00:14:14,433 or even choosing an entirely different 342 00:14:14,433 --> 00:14:15,556 design concept. 343 00:14:15,556 --> 00:14:18,097 So in summary, engineers use the 344 00:14:18,097 --> 00:14:21,006 engineering design process as a proven 345 00:14:21,006 --> 00:14:23,364 way to make sure that you're meeting the 346 00:14:23,364 --> 00:14:25,576 project's specifications and 347 00:14:25,576 --> 00:14:27,433 requirements in regards to functionality, 348 00:14:27,433 --> 00:14:30,467 on time and within budget. 349 00:14:30,467 --> 00:14:34,616 And it seems like a somewhat cumbersome process when 350 00:14:34,616 --> 00:14:37,237 you first sit down and start it, but this 351 00:14:37,237 --> 00:14:40,828 is how experienced, expert engineers go 352 00:14:40,828 --> 00:14:46,472 through this process in order to design things. 353 00:14:46,690 --> 00:14:48,093 And the reason they do that is 354 00:14:48,093 --> 00:14:49,325 because it works. 355 00:14:49,325 --> 00:14:51,869 And so in class, we are 356 00:14:51,869 --> 00:14:54,560 going to be going through an exercise 357 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:56,313 that helps step you through each of 358 00:14:56,313 --> 00:14:58,380 these, so you have a more practical 359 00:14:58,478 --> 00:15:00,752 understanding of what is entailed in 360 00:15:00,752 --> 00:15:01,924 each of these stages.