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ASME District F - Early Career Technical Conference, ASME District F ECTC 2013
November 2 3, 2013 - Birmingham, Alabama USA
ABSTRACT
In order to process knowledge during the engineering
design process certain cognitive tools are necessary. At a
surface level those tools are creativity, scientific, and process
knowledge. While some progress has been made recently in
exploring cognitive processes, reading between the lines, and
thinking about design thinking much more work is yet to be
done in this expansive field.
The purpose of this paper is to present a method of
extracting cognitive evidence from engineering design
documentations-specifically capstone design journals from
undergraduate students-and the results from its application.
Attempting to reveal cognitive processes is a complex science,
as such methods and tools should be created to explore the
unknown realms of the engineers mind. Using different types
of engineering design documentation is one path to retrieving
cognitive information.
Capstone design journals are examined as part of a larger
study that partially fulfilled the requirements for the authors
dissertation research. A Cognitive Coding Scheme was created
by the author to explore evidence of design thinking and
behavior. This paper seeks to identify patterns of behavior
found in a capstone design team using hand written design
journals.
INTRODUCTION
A wide array of engineering design studies on cognition
exist in literature that combine research from the engineering
and psychology domains [1-5]. This present work effort is a
part of a larger work which includes the authors dissertation
[6]. The goal of this work is to contribute to the understanding
of cognitive processes during engineering design.
The mixture of art and engineering is what design is all
about. Designers use what they know to create some new
artifact. Executing this skill requires the use of cognitive
activities that are the evidence of the process of a designers
thinking. Some examples of cognitive activities are analogical
thinking, questioning, and inquiry. The minds arrangement of
this information is used to energize the art of innovation.
Linda Schmidt
University of Maryland College Park
College Park, Maryland, USA
236
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238
Embodiment
Redesign
75%
50%
Figure 2: Coding Example
25%
0%
ID
Number of
Journal
Pages
Recorded
Design
Sessions
Design
Segments
Activity
Density
3
5
6
7
32
28
20
20
20
11
20
9
69
123
101
119
3.45
11.18
5.05
13.22
239
100%
100%
80%
60%
40%
40%
20%
20%
7
80%
60%
0%
0%
Student 5
1
100%
8
1
80%
80%
2
8
60%
40%
REFERENCES
40%
20%
7
60%
FUTURE WORK
An important next step is combining the cognitive coding
scheme results with a design performance measure to
understand the relationship between good design and
cognitive activities. It would be essential to involve
professional design experts in this process to identify student
projects that are of high quality. Creating a design performance
measure can effectively codify innovation early in the design
process. This path will lead to an increased understanding of
innovative design thinking.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This material is based in part on work done for the authors
dissertation. The authors are grateful for the student volunteers,
coding assistants, and the Mechanical Engineering department
at the University of Maryland for their support and assistance
with this work.
Student 3
20%
3
0%
4
5
0%
4
5
Student 6
Student 7
Figure 5: Cognitive Codes during Conceptual Design
Taking a closer look at the students design journal
behavior during the conceptual design phase is shown in Figure
5. The numbers in the figure correspond with the cognitive
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APPENDIX
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