Dear Jason,
The proposal sounds interesting, but also like a tall order... I have
been interested in trying to find engineers' perception of what are
the differences between engineering and design as fields or
apporaches, because it seems that being able to articulate the
difference helps in defining design - which seems to be an eternal
dilemma for our field.
One of the problems is that all degrees and names are somewhat bound
to cultures, regions, languages, traditions, and therefore require
enough shared concepts to build on.
For example, in Finland we do not seem to have, as far as I
understand, any established, institutionalized idea of Engineering
Design. One reason for that may be that many things that are called
"design" in English are called "suunnittelu" in Finnish, which
translates more appropriately to "planning" in English, and the
emphasis on "planning" may be sidetracking the opportunity for
"design".
However, there seem to be other places where "engineering design" is
established, and I know Terry Love would be able to say a lot about
engineering design in various places in the world. I just got two
books by Louis Bucciarelli to read on the subject ("Designing
Engineers" and "Engineering Philosophy").
Maybe it would be interesting, and useful for your purposes, if we
could hear more about the difference between "design" and
"engineering design"? How does a doctorate in design differ from a
doctorate in engineering design? Do we have a large engineering
design community on board the list? Do we have more differences or
more to share?
kh
...
At 21:28 -0400 27.9.2004, Jason Foster wrote:
>In the hope of finding a path for myself and of furthering the
>discussions on phd-design, I would like to propose that the list
>attempt to define a PhD programme in engineering design (education?)
>that is:
>
> - rigorous (whatever that means?)
> - acceptable to the engineering discipline (which affects the design
>disciplines, whatever they are?)
> - about a broader conception of design than axiometric methods
> - suitable to convince a university to confer a Doctorate
>
>In my wildest visions the result would be something akin to a "How to
>Get a PhD in Engineering Design" manual for aspiring students. I
>believe that waiting for wholesale change to occur in existing programs
>or disciplines will not further the phd-design mandate (as I see it) to
>the same degree as providing potential students with something they can
>use to legitimize design as a research activity. If it helps me to get
>back into "the game" then so much the better :)
|