1.

Engineering Design Process

1. Problem statement (chapter 2)
2. Requirement specifications (chapter 3)
3. Concept generation and evaluation (Chapter 4)
2. System Design
1. System structure (chapter 5)
2. System behavior (chapter 6)
3. System Implementation
4. System Verification

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to write the

problem statement for your project

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 Three Types:
◦ Creative Design
◦ Variant Design
◦ Routine design

 1. Creative Design
◦ You have to create something new.
◦ Such as hardware, software, or combination of both for
some application.
◦ In these designs, you must know the reason
(motivation) for making a new design.
◦ It means you must know what is the problem with
existing designs so that you can remove or address
the identified problem in your design…

Routine Design

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2. Variant Design:
Here, you don’t make something new from
scratch.
Instead, you just take one of the existing design
and just change it or modify it.
Here, you must know that what is the purpose of
modification.
Why you are changing an existing design ??

3. Routine Design:
In this case, the procedures are available for
making the design (project).
The job is to realize (implement) it.

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1. Systems Engineering & Integration projects
Large-scale, many people
It can be creative, variant or routine design, depending
upon your approach….

2. Testing projects
System is ready. The requirement is to test the system
Does system meet requirements?
Again, it can be creative, variant or routine design

3. Experimental projects
The job here is to collect the data from the system
Again, it can be creative, variant or routine design,
depending upon your approach
Difference between testing projects and experimental
projects ???????
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4. Analysis projects:
You get the data from experimental project
The job here is to ANALYZE the data.
Again, it can be creative, variant and routine

5. Technology evaluation projects:

During trial period, u evaluate the
technology before purchasing
Again, it can be creative, variant and

routine

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Applied Research:
 You use the already available principles and tools and u make
something new
 the outputs are unknown…. Here the basic purpose id to develop
an application by applying the existing knowledge of
mathematics, science and Technology
 All the projects in any branch of engineering are applied projects.

Fundamental Research:
 It targets the fundamental concepts, basic principles.
 It does not focus on applications

 In Engineering, we just focus on applied research projects

Difference between an engineer and scientist

??

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 There are three different design types
◦ (1) Creative, (2) Variant or (3) Routine

 Each type (creative, variant or routine) can

be used in different project types:
◦ (1) System integration, (2) testing, (3)
experimental, (4) analysis, and (5) technology
evaluation

Decide about your project

type
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Industry sponsorship:
Just visit different industry and meet different persons there.
It can be any type of industry related to electrical, computer and related disciplines.
Try to figure out their problems and think weather you can propose an idea ??
It is always excellent if you can secure some funding from the industry for your project

Engineers without Borders:

this is an organization which sponsors students projects to solve the problems related
to the local community……. (just google it)

www.FreeRandD.com: You can find different available funding sources for your project.
Here you can also put your CV.

Campus and local community:

Justobserve different entities (parts) of the community like hospitals, shopping
centers, educational institutes, traffic, hajj and umra etc…. Try to figure out a
problem

Brainstorming

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See Appendix B – Complete description of AHP
1. Determine selection criteria
2. Determine the criteria weightings
3. Identify and rate alternatives relative to
criteria
4. Compute scores
5. Review the decision

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 Now you have selected the project.
 Lets start the engineering design process

now.
◦ Problem statement
◦ Requirement specification
◦ Concept generation and evaluation
 Problem Statement:
◦ Identify needs

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1. The needs are identified using the
following steps:
I. Gather raw data
II. Translate the raw data into marketing
requirements (needs).
III. Organize the needs into a hierarchy
(organization).
IV. Rank the Needs
V. Review the outcomes

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1. Gather raw data
2. Translate to marketing requirements.
3. Organize the needs into a hierarchy.
4. Rank the Needs

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 Collection of fair and unbiased data is very
important.
 If your data is not clean and fair, all the analysis
in remaining steps is not reliable.
 Some methods of data collection are
◦ Interviews (see questions in the book).
◦ Focus Groups (the people who are already working in
the same domain)
◦ Observation: Don’t believe only on the statement of
others. Sometimes it is very important to visit the
place and get the data directly
◦ See questions in book
◦ Technology push-pull
◦ Trends

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1. Gather raw data
2. Translate to marketing requirements.
3. Organize the needs into a hierarchy.
4. Rank the Needs
5. Review the outcomes

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Marketing Requirements
 Statement of Customer Needs in the
language of customer
 What the product should do, NOT how it
should be achieved.
 Short, action-oriented phrases or sentences
 Examples –
◦ “The system should have high quality audio.”
◦ “The system should have high battery life.”
◦ “The system should have very low cost.”
◦ “The system should be portable.”

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1. Gather raw data
2. Translate the gathered data into
marketing requirements
3. Organize the needs into a hierarchy
using some techniques or tools
(Objective tree)
4. Rank the Needs

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 Organize marketing requirements by
functional similarity
◦ You should use some tricks so that you can
arrange the needs or requirements in a logical
way.
 What is functional similarity?
◦ The organization/arrangement of different
needs/requirements according to the
similarity of their functions.

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 Portable Audio
Device

High-Quality Easy to Use

Portable
Audio (0.14)
(0.62)
(0.24)
Limited
Low Distortion Lightweight
Controls
(0.67) (0.33)
(0..25)
Multiple Data
Low Noise Small
Formats
(0.33) (0.32)
(0.50)

Ergonomic Long Operating

(0.16) Time
(0.25)

Environment
(0.19)

Outdoor
Temperatures
(0.32)
Runner’s
Shock
(0.10)

Drop Resistant
(0.14)

Water Resistant
(0.38)

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1. Gather raw data
2. Translate the gathered data into
marketing requirements
3. Organize the needs into a hierarchy using
some techniques or tools (Objective tree)
4. Rank the Needs in objective tree

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 Rank the needs to determine the relative
importance of each of the needs.
 Systematically compare each need to all

other needs.
 What you will do for giving ranks to each

requirement in your objective tree?

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 High- Portable Easy-to- GM/NS
Quality Use
Audio
High- 1 3 5 2.446,
Quality 0.64
Audio
Portable 1/3 1 3 1
0.25

Easy-to- 1/5 1l3 1 0.405,

Use 0.11

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1. Gather the “Raw Data” (Customers, end-users)
2. Translate the gathered data into “Marketing
Requirements”.
3. Organize the needs into Hierarchy using an objective tree
4. Rank Needs (Pairwise comparison at each level of the
objective tree

YES – you will apply this to your design

project!

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 Identify the needs of customer (customer
requirements) for your project.
◦ Suppose you have gathered the data from
customer (step 1) and
◦ convert the data into simple marketing
requirements (step 2).
◦ You are required to translate the marketing
requirements into an objective tree (step 3)
◦ Rank the objective tree (step 4)

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 Based on the customer
requirements (four steps done
previously) , you have to perform a
literature review (related work)
(research survey)
 You need to become the experts on the
problem and state-of-the-art (related
work) in this area.
 If you don’t, then you re-invent the
wheel
 If you don’t, then you don’t look too
smart.
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 What is the basic theory behind the concept?
 How is it currently being done?
 What are the limitations of the current designs or technology?
 What are the similarities/differences between your requirements (shown in
objective tree) and current systems?
 Are there existing or patented systems that are relevant to the design?
 If you don’t do a research survey and start the project, it means u CAN NOT
justify your project.
 In other words, u can not show the motivation for your project without a
research survey.
 It is very much essential and critical for an engineer to show the justification as
well as motivation for his work.
 Otherwise his work will not be considered as a scientific work. OR u can say
your work will not be considered as an engineering work.
 Summary: After making the objective tree in which u have shown all the
requirements as well as the ranks for these requirements, Research survey is
very important and critical before doing anything else.

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See the book for more details
◦Internet websites for multiple
information
◦Journal and conference papers
◦Books
◦Manufacturer websites
◦Technical reports
◦And so on.

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 So far:
 Problem statement
◦ (1)Identify needs
 Gathered the data from customer
 translate the data into marketing requirements
 Organized the marketing requirements in the form of an
objective tree
 Ranked different requirements using AHP
◦ (2) Conducted a research survey to identify the pros
and cons of already available products for your
requirements
 Next:
◦ (3) Need and Objective Statements:

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The need statement should
 Briefly and clearly state the need to be met
 Do not provide a solution to the problem
 Provide supporting statistics or anecdotes
 Describe current limitations
 Describe any supporting processes.

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According to AppleInsider, approximately 10.3 million people
owned iPods at the end of 2004 and many of the owners used
them while operating their automobiles. The National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration estimates that driver distraction is
a contributing cause of 20 to 30 percent of all motor vehicle
crashes – or 1.2 million accidents per year. One research study
has estimated that driver inattention may cause as many as
10,000 deaths each year and approximately $40 billion in
damages. iPods can present a distraction to drivers that is
similar to cell phones in that the driver’s attention is divided
between controlling the steering wheel, watching the road, and
navigating controls on the iPod. A system is needed to allow
users to navigate among the music selections of their iPod
without distracting their attention from the road. (here u
should also mention that what are the limitations of existing
systems for this problem or requirement)
From the iPod Hands-Free Device Design Report by Al-Busaidi,
Bellavia, and Roseborough [Alb07].

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The objective statement should
 Summarize what is being proposed to meet

the need
 Provide some preliminary design objectives
 Provide a preliminary description of the

technical solution, avoiding a detailed

description of the implementation.

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The objective of this project is to design and
prototype a device that will make the iPod safer
to use while driving an automobile, by allowing
hands-free control of the iPod. The device will
interact with the user using spoken English
commands. The user will be able to issue simple
voice commands to the device to control the
operation of the iPod. In turn, the device will
communicate information verbally, such as song
titles that are displayed on the iPod screen, to the
user.
From the iPod Hands-Free Device Design Report by
Al-Busaidi, Bellavia, and Roseborough [Alb07].

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Problem Statement:
1. Identify needs
1. Gather data
2. Marketing requirements
3. Objective tree
4. Rank objective tree
2. Researchsurvey
3. Need and objective statements

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