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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Spanning The Complexity Chasm: A Research Approach To Move From Simple To Complex Engineering Systems, Vimal Viswanathan, Julie Linsey
Spanning The Complexity Chasm: A Research Approach To Move From Simple To Complex Engineering Systems, Vimal Viswanathan, Julie Linsey
Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering
A multistudy approach is presented that allows design thinking of complex systems to be studied by triangulating causal controlled lab findings with coded data from more complex products. A case study illustration of this approach is provided. During the conceptual design of engineering systems, designers face many cognitive challenges, including design fixation, errors in their mental models, and the sunk cost effect. These factors need to be mitigated for the generation of effective ideas. Understanding the effects of these challenges in a realistic and complex engineering system is especially difficult due to a variety of factors influencing the results. Studying …
A Study On The Factors Influencing The Usage Of Environmentally Friendly Products, Nicole Esposito, Vimal Viswanathan, Julie Linsey
A Study On The Factors Influencing The Usage Of Environmentally Friendly Products, Nicole Esposito, Vimal Viswanathan, Julie Linsey
Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering
Benchmarking in Design Projects: Lessons Learned from a Sophomore Design Course This paper presents some of the lessons learned from a sophomore design course offered at one of the major universities in the United States. This course is developed to provide realistic design, machining and mechatronics experiences to mechanical engineering sophomores. As apart of this course, the students are required to generate ideas for solving a real-life design problem. The objective of this study is to identify the influences of benchmarking products on the final concepts generated by student designers. Literature shows that designers, while solving open-ended design problems, tend …
A Study On The Role Of Physical Models In The Mitigation Of Design Fixation, Vimal Viswanathan, Olufunmilola Atilola, Nicole Esposito, Julie Linsey
A Study On The Role Of Physical Models In The Mitigation Of Design Fixation, Vimal Viswanathan, Olufunmilola Atilola, Nicole Esposito, Julie Linsey
Faculty Publications, Mechanical Engineering
Designers implement a variety of models and representations during the design process, yet little is known about the cognitive impacts of various representations. This study focuses on how physical models can assist novices in mitigating design fixation on undesirable features. During idea generation, designers tend to fixate on examples they encounter or on their own initial ideas. The first hypothesis states that designers tend to duplicate features of provided examples. The second hypothesis states that this fixation can be mitigated with appropriate warnings. The last hypothesis is that building and testing physical models can help designers in mitigating fixation. To …