Fostering creativity and innovation in engineering design education: A case study
Karl Hain
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics
THD Technische Hochschule Deggendorf
Deggendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Christoph Rappl
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics
THD Technische Hochschule Deggendorf
Deggendorf, Bavaria, Germany
Abstract
Finding innovative solutions is a key task for nowadays companies. To support the creativity of product designers and to guarantee design success a systematic / methodical design is highly recommended. Therefore, design education for future engineers has to meet these challenges. However, design methodologies are difficult to understand because described on a quite abstract level. Instructors are facing the situation of delivering the design theory in an appropriate and comprehensible manner. The conduction of generally understandable engineering design examples is essential to improve the use of design techniques and to strengthen the confidence and competence of engineering design students in terms of functional thinking and problem solving. This article presents some findings about an efficient use of design methodologies and techniques in the engineering design education at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics of the Technische Hochschule / Deggendorf. It emphasizes especially the functional representation of a design task and the systematic change of its representation in order to support problem solving capabilities of students. The applied methods are used especially in the conceptual design phase. In the following the focus is especially on the generation of variants by the variation of relationships between functional representations and the variation of related physical effects. The given example originated from working group sessions with engineering students.
Biography
Karl Hain is currently a fulltime Professor at the Technische Hochschule in Deggendorf, Germany. He is study dean of the faculty Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics. He earned his Diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University Clausthal, Germany and PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University of Karlsruhe. He worked several years in industry, e.g. at the company MTU (Motoren- und Turbinen-Union, Friedrichshafen / Germany) as a design engineer and at the company OPEL as a project leader responsible for worldwide data exchange. He has published journal and conference papers. His research interests include engineering design, design methodology, CAD and simulation. Prof. Hain has done several research projects with local companies around Deggendorf, Lower Bavaria. He is former member of the Advisory Board of INTED (International Technology, Education and Development).
Christoph Rappl is currently a fulltime Professor at the Technische Hochschule in Deggendorf, Germany. He is the former dean of the faculty Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics. He earned his Diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering from Technical University Berlin, Germany and PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in Process Engineering from Technical University of Berlin. He worked several years in industry at the company Bayer (Automation of Chemical Plants / Germany) as a project engineer. He has published journal and conference papers. His research interests include mechatronic design, automation and control, simulation and embedded systems. Prof. Rappl has done several research projects with local companies around Deggendorf, Lower Bavaria. He is former member of the Advisory Board of INTED (International Technology, Education and Development).