Abstract
A Comparison of Design Education Across Two Fields: Lessons from Industrial Design EducationA call has been made by governing bodies, including the National Academy of Sciences, andindustry to put a greater emphasis on design education and creativity in undergraduatemechanical engineering programs. As engineering is not the only field in which design istaught, it is likely that there is much to be learned about design education by looking at howother disciplines teach design. Industrial design and product design programs are a fruitful placeto look for inspiration as they typically incorporate some engineering content into their curricula,yet remain heavily focused on other aspects of design as well. We believe that engineeringeducation could incorporate some industrial and product design content in their curricula, whilestill remaining heavily focused on the engineering fundamentals.The goal of this paper is to summarize the current status of the field in regard to how and why,techniques commonly used in the discipline of industrial (product) design could be utilized bymechanical engineering educators. We will present an overview of trends in design education inboth engineering and industrial design programs. We will then identify a number of techniques,both content and pedagogical, that warrant closer attention from engineering educators, withhopes of showing that engineering education could indeed benefit from the integration ofindustrial and product design techniques.