Work in Progress: What is Design in the Context of a Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. Program?

Design has long been considered a fundamental focus area within the mechanical engineering discipline.At the undergraduate level, students are given the tools and resources to gain knowledge and skills in critical design competencies, such as ability to scope problems, develop analytical models, and test and validate solutions.However, there is limited scholarship regarding the conceptualization and definition of design at the doctoral level within the mechanical engineering discipline.This manuscript presents ongoing work at our university to add a design focus area in the mechanical engineering PhD program.First, we conducted a preliminary review of mechanical engineering PhD programs within the U.S. to first confirm our hypothesis that design is considered a fundamental research area in the mechanical engineering discipline and, second, to gather inspiration for the development of our own design focus area.Next, we conducted focus groups with over one-third of our department's faculty to uncover perceived benefits and concerns of adding a design focus area.Overall, our preliminary findings indicate the design is a well-established area of research within mechanical engineering doctoral programs in the U.S. We also gathered strong support from our faculty that is encouraging our department to move forward with implementing a focus area in design.Our focus groups also uncovered important concerns and questions that we will address moving forward.Ultimately, we aim to define how our department can contribute to graduate research and education in design.Future work will investigate the different ways design is conceptualized, researched, and applied at the graduate level in mechanical engineering programs across the U.S.