Collaborative Research: Quantifying Differences Between Professional Expert Engineers and Engineering Students Designing: Empirical Foundations for Improved Engineering Education

工程设计被认为是工程思维的关键要素，也是工程与科学和数学中其他问题解决方法的不同之处。工程设计教育的主要目标之一是使学生具备成为专业设计工程师的能力。为了培养学生的这种能力，教育工作者需要对本科生和专业设计工程师的思维过程有详细的了解。本项目将测量和比较工科学生和专家专业工程师在设计时的设计思维。这项研究使用以前资助的NSF项目中开发的技术和过程来比较学生和专家，这与参与者的教育和经验背景无关。该项目的重要意义在于它能够获得工程设计思维，并为工程教育决策奠定基础。了解发展中的学习者和专家知识之间的差异对于确定适当的学习经验以缩小这种成绩差距是至关重要的。为了解决这一知识差距，该项目建议对来自两所大学、具有不同多样性的学生团队和工程设计专家团队进行对照研究，以衡量他们在设计时各自的设计思维。它利用协议分析方法，对视频进行转录、分段、编码和分析，以产生基本数据。对设计教学和结果以及工程专家行为之间的关系的理解还不完全清楚。因此，人们对工程设计教育预期的长期绩效缺乏足够的了解。这项研究的结果有可能改变全国的工程教育。了解培养工程学学习者和专家工程师的目标绩效之间的差异，对于确定适当的学习经验，推动新手成为专家是至关重要的。然而，专家设计工程师的设计认知还没有得到充分的刻画。本项目将通过研究工科学生和专家专业工程师在设计过程中的认知过程来测量和比较他们的设计思维。它将使用以前资助的NSF项目中开发的工具和程序，为比较学生和专家提供统一的基础，而不受参与者的教育和经验背景的影响。该项目具有为工程教育决策奠定基础的能力。以往的研究结果表明，工科学生与工程专家之间存在差距。为了解决这一知识差距，该项目建议对来自两所具有不同多样性特征的大学的学生团队和工程设计专家团队进行对照研究，以衡量他们各自的设计思维。它利用协议分析方法，对视频进行转录、分割、编码和分析，以产生基本数据，并使用功能-行为-结构本体作为编码方案的基础。为了更好地为学生未来的职业生涯做好准备，将这一内容纳入工程教育是极其重要的。有必要开发以问题分解和问题重组为特色的补充教材。建议举办一次工程教育工作者研讨会，在那里这些成果可以作为教育干预的基础。

Engineering design is recognized as a critical element of engineering thinking and is what differentiates engineering from other problem solving approaches in science and mathematics. One of the primary goals of engineering design education is to equip students with the capability to become expert design engineers. To develop this capability in students, educators require a detailed knowledge of the thinking process of both undergraduate students and expert design engineers. This project will measure and compare the design thinking of engineering students and expert professional engineers while designing. This research uses techniques and processes developed in previously funded NSF projects to compare students and experts that is independent of the educational and experiential background of the participants. The project is significant in its ability to gain access to engineering design thinking and lay the foundation for engineering education decision-making. Understanding the differences between developing learners and an experts' knowledge is essential to the identification of appropriate learning experiences to reduce this performance gap. To address this gap in knowledge, this project proposes a controlled study of teams of students from two universities with different diversity profiles and of teams of engineering design experts, to measure their respective designing thinking while designing. It utilizes the protocol analysis method, where videos are transcribed, segmented, coded, and analyzed to produce the base data. Understanding the relationship between design teaching and outcomes, and engineering expert behavior is not fully understood. As a consequence there is insufficient knowledge of the long-term performance expected as a result of engineering design education. Results from this research have the potential to transform engineering education nationally.Understanding the differences between developing learners in engineering and an expert engineers' target performance is essential to identify appropriate learning experiences to move novice learners along the trajectory to becoming experts. However, the design cognition of expert design engineers is inadequately characterized. This project will measure and compare the design thinking of engineering students and expert professional engineers through a study of their cognitive processes while designing. It will use tools and processes developed in previously funded NSF projects to provide a uniform basis for comparing students and experts that is independent of the educational and experiential background of the participants. The project has the ability to lay the foundation for engineering education decision-making. The results of prior research showed that there is a gap between engineering students and engineering experts. To address this gap in knowledge, this project proposes a controlled study of cohorts of teams of students from two universities with different diversity profiles and of teams of engineering design experts, to measure their respective design thinking. It utilizes the protocol analysis method, where videos are transcribed, segmented, coded, and analyzed to produce the base data and uses the Function-Behavior-Structure ontology as the basis of the coding scheme. In order to better prepare students for future careers, it is extremely important to incorporate this content into engineering education. There is a need to develop supplemental teaching materials featuring problem decomposition and problem recomposition. A workshop of engineering educators is proposed where these results can be developed as the basis of educational interventions.