Students practising realistic design process by collaboration of different disciplines
Year: 2013
Editor: John Lawlor, Ger Reilly, Robert Simpson, Michael Ring, Ahmed Kovacevic, Mark McGrath, William Ion, David Tormey, Erik Bohemia, Chris McMahon, Brian Parkinson
Author: Huggins, Bernard James; Linda, Sara; Rane, Sham; Walle, Adam; Dougan, Chris
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1: City University London, United Kingdom; 2: Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom
Section: Projects
Page(s): 350-355
ISBN: 978-1-904670-42-1
Abstract
A pilot project was arranged between Product Design (PD) students at Glasgow Caledonian University and Engineering Design (ED) students at City University London. The assignment was to produce concepts for low cost solar thermal collectors, for a company based in Scotland. There was an underlying goal to produce an innovative sustainable product, with an identified target market. The educational aim of the project was to teach students about working in collaboration with people from different disciplines. This included working in teams with a combination of the two disciplines from distantly located institutions, using modern means of distance communication. An underlying synergy was observed in divergence and convergences throughout the design process. Regular meetings kept the lines of communication open and formed the integration point. This allowed ideas to flow between each group of students, and mutual benefit through the sharing of design process tools, whilst also ensuring all parties remained on track towards developing innovative solutions that would meet the researched requirements. Convergence occurred at the stage of creating a vision for the product. This was followed by a systematic process of developing concepts for further pursuit, and decision making. Productivity and innovation was enhanced by being open to all possible design tools that individual team members were comfortable with. It is considered that through the collaboration of both disciplines for this project, students were able to come up with innovative, creative, and thorough solutions, with a clear place in a market of increasing green consciousness.
Keywords: Design process, product design, engineering design, solar thermal collectors