T1. IDEA - Institute for Design Engineering Applications

Contact Information:

Edward j. Colgate, Ph.D.
colgate@northestern.edu
www.idea.northwestern.edu (opens in new window)

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IDEA, the Institute for Design Engineering Applications at Northwestern University, is a structure designed to foster innovative design education throughout the engineering curriculum. IDEA combines excellent technical and non-technical courseware with real life design projects, supported by a formal resource center and collaborative environment featuring real and virtual workplaces. Since it offers students a way to engage in problem-based learning about design throughout their undergraduate years, it develops the problem-solving skills and "adaptive expertise" that the workplace requires.

All incoming engineering students take an innovative project-based design course - Engineering Design and Communication (EDC). EDC introduces students to the design process and its essential components of teamwork and communication. These projects require students to use various engineering tools and techniques to define the problem, generate alternatives, observe and interview users, build mockups, conduct design reviews, and produce models or prototypes. Projects culminate in a prototype, written report, and oral presentation.

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EDC teaches a user-centered approach to design. We emphasize that the most technically elegant design solutions are destined to fail if they do not address real user (and stakeholder) needs. Moreover, needs cannot always be understood by simply asking questions. It is also necessary to observe users in actual settings and to test prototypes with real users.

This RRTC will pursue, through IDEA, a number of engineering design projects in the areas of "universal design" and rehabilitation technology for stroke survivors.