EAGER: Cognitive Ethnographies of Engineering Design

这个早期概念探索性研究（EAGER）项目的目标是了解当代工程工作场所的设计实践，并了解设计过程是如何组织的。一个相关的目的是了解专业实践与大学工程类名义上类似的实践之间的关系，以及工作和学校之间的任何连续性和不连续性如何影响工程类的设计。这些目标正在通过探索性的，比较性的，基于实地的人种学研究的专业工程师与工程专业学生的设计实践来实现。研究人员正在观察工作场所的执业工程师-他们做什么，他们与谁沟通，他们说什么，以及他们是如何组织的。研究的结果将是这些观察的文件和分析。这项研究的主要好处来自两个方面：第一，目前的工程设计理论可以测试的有效性对真实的数据对什么真实的工程师每天做的。 其次，工程师的教育可以通过更直接地为学生在工作场所做什么做准备来加强。

The objective of this EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project is to to understand the design practices of contemporary engineering workplace and to understand how the design process is organized. A related purpose is to understand how professional practices relate to nominally similar practices in university engineering classes, and how any continuities and discontinuities between work and school might inform efforts to design engineering classes. These objectives are being accomplished through an exploratory, comparative, field-based ethnographic study of the design practices of professional engineers versus engineering students. Researchers are observing practicing engineers in the workplace - what they do, who they communicate with, what they say, and how they are organized. The results of the research will be the documentation and analysis of these observations.The primary benefits of this research come in two areas: First, current theories of engineering design can be tested for validity against real data on what real engineers do every day. Second, education of engineers can be enhanced by preparing students more directly for what they will be doing in the workplace.