Application, Testing & Decision-Making Tools
If you are searching for an explanation of a natural event using logic and evidence, you are doing this.
What is science?
Every system is made up of interacting parts or components, and typically includes inputs, processes, and these final results.
What are outputs?
These are defined as the desirable features that a successful engineering solution should have.
What are criteria?
This evaluation tool assigns point values to different criteria to numerically rank and compare multiple proposed solutions.
What is a decision matrix?
This is the term for a working test model of a design solution used to gather feedback and test performance.
What is a prototype?
A phone case designer chooses a plastic case over a metal one because customers prefer a lighter weight and lower cost, even though the metal case offers a longer lifetime. This is known as...
What is a tradeoff?
This type of model is made up of numbers and equations and can often be shown as graphs to predict future trends.
What is a mathematical model?
This term describes the limits on an engineering design, such as a strict budget cap, available raw materials, or safety laws.
What are constraints?
This term describes giving up something you like about one design feature in order to gain a more desirable feature in another.
What is a tradeoff?
This is the formal process of making an object or system as effective and useful as possible through testing and revisions.
What is design optimization?
An engineer is testing several plastic containers to see which one holds soup best without leaking, making sure to change only the container style per test.
How many variables should be tested at a time?
What is one variable at a time?
This is the main reason why engineers test scale models of buildings or bridges instead of full-scale real-world systems.
What is safer, less expensive, and easier?
This is why stating a car horn should be "95 decibels" is a proper engineering definition, whereas calling it "loud" is not.
What is "loud" is not a measurable value, while 95 decibels is precise and measurable?
Houses, roads, computers, and clothing are all part of this environment because they were made by people.
What is the designed world?
While science is about searching for explanations, this related field is the systematic practice of solving problems with designed solutions.
What is engineering?
Test results to improve the next version of the design is known as this process.
What is iterative testing.
Iterative design or optimization also acceptable.
When modeling a physical structure like a bridge's piers and beams, these three factors must strictly reflect the real-life object to ensure valid test data.
What are proportions, scale, and quantities?
This term describes the process of restating an engineering question or altering design criteria because new information or research was discovered.
What is reframing?
In a decision matrix used to design a soup container, if "does not leak" is deemed the most important feature, it should be assigned this type of numerical rating.
What is the highest point value (or maximum rating)?
This type of testing involves repeating cycles of prototyping, testing, and modifying—such as the process used to invent the pressurized "space pen".
What is iterative testing (or iterative design)?
An industrial engineering team is evaluating whether to invest in an expensive automated assembly line by comparing the high manufacturing costs against the massive long-term drop in labor time and production cost.
Hint: Comparing the unfavorable effects or costs of a solution against its favorable effects to determine if it is the most promising path is called this type of analysis.
What is a cost-benefit analysis?
In an engineered system like a river lock and dam, these components act as the system's borders, separating it from the rest of the river.
What are boundaries (or the gates)?
Before an engineer can clearly define a problem, they must research these four external pressures alongside customer preferences.
What are production costs, schedules, market pressures, and new scientific discoveries?
Choosing a plastic cell phone case over a metal one is a classic design tradeoff because the designer sacrifices the phone's extended lifetime for these two consumer-driven benefits.
What are lower cost and lighter weight?
If you are searching for an explanation of a natural event using logic and evidence, you are doing this.
What is science?