Global Design Engineering Innovation

Catalog description

This field course would expose students to apply the design thinking and mission-centric Lean LaunchPad methodology for discovering both the technical problems and the customers for the local community. The students will identify such problems in the proper socio-economic and cultural context by deep observation and engagement with the local community by taking an empathy-oriented approach. They will be led to follow the engineering design cycle of need identification, generation of problem statement, product design specifications and criteria to creation, evaluation, and selection of conceptual designs. Examples of the problems could include activities of daily living (ADL), resource generation and conservation, and disability assistance. The multi-disciplinary students working in groups will collaboratively identify and define the problems and propose ethical, socially-responsible, and innovative solutions that maximize the value proposition of the innovation.