Infusing the Engineer Design Process into Education

The engineering design process (EDP) is an iterative decision-making process, in which basic science, math, and engineering concepts are applied to develop optimal solutions to meet an established objective (Mangold & Robinson, 2013). There is no unitary standard for the EDP, and researchers have different ideas about the basic steps that should be included in the process. In practice, the EDP may varies by discipline and project, but it’s essential features typically include: (1) starting with the definition of the problem or needs; (2) being open-ended with multiple possible solutions; (3) involving mathematical modeling and scientific analysis; (4) being highly iterative (Atman et al., 2007; Hynes, 2012; Berland et al., 2014).