ENGINEERING PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION WITH A MIXED DESIGN-THINKING & LEAN START-UP APPROACH
Year: 2019
Editor: Bohemia, Erik; Kovacevic, Ahmed; Buck, Lyndon; Brisco, Ross; Evans, Dorothy; Grierson, Hilary; Ion, William; Whitfield, Robert Ian
Author: Esqueda Merino, Donovan Manuel (1); Delgado Cepeda, Francisco Javier (1,2); Morano Okuno, Héctor (1), GARCÍA, Andrés (1)
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1: Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingenier
Section: Innovation 2
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.35199/epde2019.45
ISBN: 978-1-912254-05-7
Abstract
epreneurship TV reality shows.
While those methodologies are well-adapted to purely digital products (apps, social networks, etc.), they often neglect the requirements of traditional engineering and manufacturing. This has led to the creation of products that don’t get too much traction on the market as well as start-up companies which fail very quickly.
In a continuous effort to prepare the latest generations of engineers in successful product design, some question arise: can these new methodologies be successfully merged with traditional engineering? During two capstone courses for mechatronic engineers during the past 4 years, some of these techniques were gradually integrated along with diverse Engineering, Design and Financial tools, stablishing the liaison between those different domains.
The students were required to develop a prototype oriented towards solving urban problems related to sustainability, education, healthcare, mobility and education along with a comprehensive business plan.
Through this paper we will present the main concepts taught to the students, an approach for integrating these concepts as a series of iterating steps, and the activities carried out by them in order to pivot around the design of their mechatronic products.
The outcomes obtained help us to conclude those methodologies can be efficiently integrated into traditional Engineering courses as an effort to leverage the students’ skillset.
Keywords: Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Educational Innovation, Higher Education