The uncertainties and variation of additive manufacturing (AM) material properties and their impact on product quality trouble designers. The lack of experience in AM technologies renders the experts’ assessment of AM components and the establishment of safety margins difficult. Consequently, unexpected qualification difficulties resulting in expensive and lengthy redesign processes might arise. To reduce the risk of qualification failure, engineers might perform copious time-consuming and expensive specimen testing in early phases, or establish overconservative design margins, overriding the weight reduction benefits of AM technologies. In this article, a model-based design method is proposed for the conceptual design of AM space components with affordable test phases. The method utilizes fuzzy logics to systematically account for experts’ assessment of AM properties variation, and to provide an early estimation of a product qualification likelihood related to design parameters of interest, without the need for copious testing. The estimation of qualification likelihood can also point out which are the unique AM material uncertainties that require further specific testing, to enable the design of a product with a better performance and more affordable test phases. The method is demonstrated with the design for AM gridded of ion thrusters for satellite applications.

Effective stakeholder interviewing is a critical component of a design process. However, interviewing is a complex skill that is difficult for novice designers to learn and incorporate into their design practices. Few studies have investigated how novice designers apply recommended practices for interviewing stakeholders during the development of product requirements. In this research, we studied how novice designers elicited information to inform the development of product requirements during stakeholder interviews. Results included the establishment of a coding methodology developed from a systematic literature review of recommended interviewing practices that was used to reliably evaluate the use of recommended practices in novice designers’ interviews. A correlation existed between the use of recommended practices and the extent to which information gathered from interviews was incorporated into the requirements. Additionally, specific recommended practices, such as encouraging deep thinking and being flexible and opportunistic, differentiated performance among novice designers. The coding methodology could be adapted to guide the development of stakeholder interview protocols and assessment of design interview skills.

Having upended the traditional software development, which historically was centred exclusively on proprietary, copyright-protected code, open-source has now entered the physical artefact world. In doing so, it has started to change not only how physical products are designed and developed, but also the commercialisation process. In recent years, authors have witnessed entrepreneurs intentionally choosing not to patent their product design and technologies but instead licencing the designs and technologies under open-source licences. The entrepreneurs share their product designs online with their community – people who congregated due to the shared interests in products’ technology or project’s social objectives. Founding a startup firm without excluding others from using their own invention is not a common practice. Therefore, there is reason to ask if this choice a strategic decision or irrational action due to short-sightedness or extreme altruism? Conducting interviews with 65 founders, we grounded a framework explaining that the driver of going open is a result of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. In addition, we observed the change of identities over time among the entrepreneurs. We hope to use this paper as a pilot study of this emerging socio-technological phenomenon, which is understudied relative to the proprietary product commercialisation process.

This paper presents a novel manufacturing technique for complex-shaped, hybrid metal composite structures leveraging the design freedom of additive manufacturing (AM). The key novelty of this research is an approach for an autoclave-suitable and removable tooling, which consists of a 3D-printed functional shell and a structural filler material. In this process, a layup shell is produced with AM and filled with a temperature-resistant curing support to form a removable inner tooling. The functional shell has integrated design features for the positioning and the fixation of metallic interface elements and is removed after curing through integrated breaking lines. The feasibility of this manufacturing technique is demonstrated by fabricating a novel lightweight structure for the hydraulic quadruped (HyQ) robot. Selective laser sintering (SLS) was used to produce the functional shell tooling. Titanium interface elements made via selective laser melting (SLM) were assembled to the shell and co-cured to carbon fiber using an autoclave prepreg process. The resulting multi-material structure was tested in ultimate strength and successfully operated on the HyQ robot. Weight savings of 55% compared to a reference design and the mechanical viability of the multi-material structure indicate that the proposed manufacturing technique is appropriate for individualized hybrid composite structures with complex geometries.

Injera is Ethiopian ethnic traditional staple food, made from teff and other crops. The country’s superfoods are highly regarded in many Western countries for their excellent nutritional properties (‘very low gluten’), and mineral composition. Injera provides sufficient conditions for fungi to grow and ruin injera by changing the texture and making it inedible. This study aimed to develop an evaporative cooler clay chamber (ECCC) used to extend the shelf life of injera by controlling temperature and relative humidity (RH). This system is an economical and efficient way to lower the temperature and increase RH. The results show the maximum daily ambient temperature reduced from 28.98 °C to 22.90 °C and increased the RH of the storage chamber from 28.78% to 80.94%, respectively. The temperature drops up to 6.08 °C, and the RH rises to 52.16% observed. Additionally, the effects of temperature, RH and potential of hydrogen were studied for identified rotten injera and designed for injera storage. ECCC can store freshly made injera for 9 days before any visible mould stains appear, significantly reducing weight loss with an average cooling efficiency of 79.31%. Therefore, this study might help to develop low-cost cold storage for injera preservation at farms end in Ethiopia.

In the design of long fibre reinforced thermoplastic (LFT) structures, there is a direct dependency on the manufacturing. Therefore, it is indispensable to integrate the manufacturing influences into the design process. This not only offers new opportunities for material- and load-adapted designs, but also reduces cost-intensive modifications in later stages. The goal of this contribution is to make the complexity manageable by presenting a method which couples LFT manufacturing and structural simulations in an automated optimization loop. Herein, the influence of linear-elastic, local anisotropic material properties as well as residual stresses resulting from the compression molding of LFT on the stiffness-optimized design of beaded plates is investigated. Based on the simulation studies in this contribution, it can be summarized that the resulting bead height and flank angle, considering anisotropies and residual stresses, are smaller compared to isotropic modelling. As a conclusion, the strength constraint limits the maximum bead height and the flank angle needs to be additionally chosen as a consequence of the local fibre orientations and residual stresses resulting from manufacturing. Optimized bead cross sections are only valid for a specific system under investigation, as they depend on the defined boundary conditions (load case, initial charge geometry and position, fibre orientations, etc.).

Interdisciplinary engineering of cyber physical production systems (CPPS) are often subject to delay, cost overrun and quality problems or may even fail due to the lack of efficient information exchange between multiple interdisciplinary teams working in complex networks within and across companies. We propose a direct integration of multiteam and organisational aspects into the graphical notation of the systems engineering workflow. BPMN++, with eight new notational elements and two subdiagrams, enables the modelling of the required cooperation aspects. BPMN++ provides an improved overview, uniform notation, more compact presentation and easier modifiability from an engineering point of view. We also included a first set of empirical studies and historical qualitative and quantitative data in addition to subjective expert-based ratings to increase validity. The use case introduced to explain the procedure and the notation is derived from surveys in plant manufacturing focussing on the start-up phase and decision support at site. This, in particular, is one of the most complex and critical phases with potentially high economic impact. For evaluation purposes, we compare two alternative solutions for a short-term management decision in the start-up phase of CPPS using the BPMN++ approach.

Innovation Engineering (IE) is an educational training program that presents tools and advice on product innovation in three main categories: Create, idea generation; Communicate, communicating ideas; and Commercialize, selecting ideas to invest in further. The concepts taught in IE include common suggestions for early-stage product innovation. This paper addresses a challenge of implementing the IE program, specifically that it does not provide peer-reviewed sources or adequate data to substantiate its approach. This lack of substantiation limits effective implementation at companies. This paper also takes a step in examining IE’s claims that it is ‘a new science’ and a ‘new field of academic study’, a topic motivated by the Design Science Journal’s aim to serve as the archival venue of science-based design knowledge across multiple disciplines. This paper provides a compilation of academic literature that has tested the tools and advice espoused by IE. Almost all included papers contain test-versus-control experimental evidence. A mix of supporting and refuting evidence was found. Overall, the work provides a useful compilation of evidence-of-effectiveness related to common innovation and design practices that spans different design stages and is applicable for multiple disciplines and industries. This evidence comes from a variety of sources, including design, engineering education, psychology, marketing, and management. The work can also serve as an approach to evaluate overarching approaches to design in general, specifically, testing the foundations by vetting related test-versus-control experimental studies.

Lightweight design demands and complexity requirements of modern high-end structures in aerospace, automotive, sports and bioengineering can be successfully covered by a combination of fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) with metallic components. Conventionally, mechanical locking is favored in integrating multi-material parts, avoiding bonded interfaces. The feasibility of a multi-material carbon FRP–aluminum structural component of a robotic exoskeleton, fabricated in a single step with the FRP directly cured on the aluminum domain, was investigated. To conduct the feasibility analysis, pertinent systematic FE modeling involving cohesive contact was employed to optimize the design, while strength and fracture testing were conducted to define the formed interfaces’ resistance. Sandblasting treatment was also investigated and compared with plain surfaces. The results show that the effect of residual stresses due to curing process governs the created joint’s durability. To reduce their effect, the local compliance of the multi-material components was altered by introducing a compliant layer along with modification of the aluminum domains’ local geometry in a manner that does not compromise the overall structural integrity. The interface stresses of the optimized geometry are a few times lower than the ones estimated for the initial design. The methodology adopted herein delivers some guidelines on treating such problems.

Engineered products have economic, environmental, and social impacts, which comprise the major dimensions of sustainability. This paper seeks to explore interactions between design parameters when social impacts are incorporated into the concept development phase of the systems design process. Social impact evaluation is increasing in importance similar to what has happened in recent years with environmental impact consideration in the design of engineered products. Concurrently, research into new airship design has increased. Airships have yet to be reintroduced at a large scale or for a range of applications in society. Although airships have the potential for positive environmental and economic impacts, the social impacts are still rarely considered. This paper presents a case study of the hypothetical introduction of airships in the Amazon region of Brazil to help local farmers transport their produce to market. It explores the design space in terms of both engineering parameters and social impacts using a discrete-event simulation to model the system. The social impacts are found to be dependent not only on the social factors and airship design parameters but also on the farmer-airship system, suggesting that socio-technical systems design will benefit from integrated social impact metric analysis.

We investigate how four internet of things (IoT) companies perceive the large quantity of community-generated content as a significant source of innovation. We study the extent to which these companies are willing to align their internal organisation to cope with the external community dynamics and define beneficial modes of collaboration for all involved stakeholders. Four IoT companies adopting open-source hardware principles were selected as case studies. The data collection was based on 18 interviews highlighting both the perspectives of the companies and their corresponding communities and the opinions of key experts in the domain. In our findings, we illustrate the different manifestations of open business models and the companies’ concrete approaches to working with external stakeholders. It is shown that companies with a business history more clearly claim sovereignty over their strategic decisions in a community-infused model, while, on the other hand, the community-based companies pursue a community-led strategy.

Additive manufacturing offers a high degree of design freedom. When Design for Additive Manufacturing is conducted properly, lightweight potential can be exploited. This contribution introduces a novel design approach for the widespread fused layer modelling (FLM) technology when using orthotropic Fibre Reinforced Polymer filament. Its objective is to obtain stiff and strong load-path optimized FLM structures in a structured and algorithmic way. The approach therefore encompasses (1) build orientation optimization to consider weaker bonding between layers than intralayer; (2) topology optimization with orthotropic material properties to obtain favourable overall geometry and inner structure; (3) direct build path generation from optimized material orientation and alternatives to the direct generation and (4) simulation. The approach is demonstrated using a lift arm under multiple load cases and further demonstrator parts to show its general applicability. Lightweight potential of individual optimization steps and the influence of modifications contrasting general non-FLM-specific optimization are studied and discussed.

There is a well-developed view of artifacts according to which their nature depends on the intentions of their authors or creators. However, in the modern world of artifact design and creation, typically not one but many agents are involved in the process of making an artifact. In this paper, I show how the intentional view can be maintained even for ‘collective’ artifacts having multiple authors. My approach is to combine some basic concepts that have been proposed in the study of collective intentionality with a suitable model of artifact creation that takes account of the multiple agents and processes that arise in design, engineering and manufacturing a new or existing product. In this way, we can explain how an artifactual kind can be understood via a form of collective intentionality. For the design sciences, notions such as we-intentionality and group agency can help to model different types of cooperation and, in particular, to reconcile individualism with strong forms of collectivity at a group level.

Improving designers’ ability to identify manufacturing constraints during design can help reduce the time and cost involved in the development of new products. Different design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) tools exist, but the design outcomes produced using such tools are often evaluated without comparison to existing tools. This study addresses the research gap by directly comparing design performance using two design support tools: a worksheet listing DfAM principles and a manufacturability analysis software tool that analyzes compliance with the same principles. In a randomized-controlled study, 49 nonexpert designers completed a design task to improve the manufacturability of a 3D-printed part using either the software tool or the worksheet tool. In this study, design outcome data (creativity and manufacturability) and design process data (task load and time taken) were measured. We identified statistically significant differences in the number of manufacturability violations in the software and worksheet groups and the creativity of the designs with novel build orientations. Results demonstrated limitations associated with lists of principles and highlighted the potential of software in promoting creativity by encouraging the exploration of alternative build orientations. This study provides support for using software to help designers, particularly nonexpert designers who rely on trial and error during design, evaluate the manufacturability of their designs more effectively, thereby promoting concurrent engineering design practices.

Developing effective design solutions requires successful idea generation, development and selection. Studies have demonstrated that engineering students face challenges in these idea phases and may struggle to implement recommended practices, hindering the potential for an innovative outcome. The first part of the study investigated student practices in idea generation, development and selection through think-aloud experimental sessions and post-session interviews. Data analysis from mechanical engineering students’ sessions, with think-aloud and interview data, revealed that students focused on existing ideas, assumed requirements that constrained their divergence, limited their development of ideas and did not engage much in idea selection. Then, in the second phase of the study, we implemented a learning intervention that leveraged research-based education practices to examine student adoption of recommended practices. After engaging with the learning blocks, students generated unconventional ideas, abstained from requirement assumptions early in ideation, generated a larger quantity of ideas, developed ideas intentionally and used more rigorous idea selection methods. These outcomes demonstrated that a relatively short and targeted intervention can support students in leveraging recommended approaches to idea generation, development and selection.

Robust designs protect system utility in the presence of uncertainty in technical and operational outcomes. Systems-of-systems, which lack centralized managerial control, are vulnerable to strategic uncertainty from coordination failures between partially or completely independent system actors. This work assesses the suitability of a game-theoretic equilibrium selection criterion to measure system robustness to strategic uncertainty and investigates the effect of strategically robust designs on collaborative behavior. The work models interactions between agents in a thematic representation of a mobile computing technology transition using an evolutionary game theory framework. Strategic robustness and collaborative solutions are assessed over a range of conditions by varying agent payoffs. Models are constructed on small world, preferential attachment and random graph topologies and executed in batch simulations. Results demonstrate that systems designed to reduce the impacts of coordination failure stemming from strategic uncertainty also increase the stability of the collaborative strategy by increasing the probability of collaboration by partners; a form of robustness by environment shaping that has not been previously investigated in design literature. The work also demonstrates that strategy selection follows the risk dominance equilibrium selection criterion and that changes in robustness to coordination failure can be measured with this criterion.

A network modelling approach to educational mapping leads to a scalable computational model that supports adaptive learning, intelligent tutors, intelligent teaching assistants, and data-driven continuous improvement. Current educational mapping processes are generally applied at a level of resolution that is too coarse to support adaptive learning and learning analytics systems at scale. This paper proposes a network modelling approach to structure extremely fine-grained statements of learning ability called Micro-outcomes, and a method to design sensors for inferring a learner’s knowledge state. These sensors take the form of high-resolution assessments and trackers that collect digital analytics. The sensors are linked to Micro-outcomes as part of the network model, enabling inference and pathway analysis. One example demonstrates the modelling approach applied to two community college subjects in College Algebra and Introductory Accounting. Application examples showcase how this modelling approach provides the design foundation for an intelligent tutoring system and intelligent teaching assistant system deployed at Arapahoe Community College and Quinsigamond Community College. A second example demonstrates the modelling approach deployed in an undergraduate aerospace engineering subject at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to support course planning and teaching improvement.

In recent years, co-creation and collaboration platforms to create and deliver new products and services have taken a step forward; this has led to the development of a new active involvement of users, who from co-designers have become independent designers, even if not experts. Co-design is dynamic and provides the tools to generate democratic design processes guided by the users themselves. The democratization of design tools is the premise for a new paradigm defined ‘Diffuse Design’ by Manzini (2015). This contribution explores the approaches of open design and open production with particular attention to the field of visual communication and the production of motion design artifacts. After an introduction to the co-design framework, the main open-production visual communication platforms are presented to offer an overview of the topic. Next, the potential of online platforms to enable non-designers to produce animated artifacts is explored by examining student projects in a motion design University course. The most significant outputs of the student experience are then described and critically analyzed. Finally, the conclusions investigate the different perspectives for reading the democratization of tools for creating visual artifacts and lay the foundations for future lines of research.

Interdisciplinary programmes have become common in universities and research groups’ curricula. This study conducted a network analysis on a Korean university’s undergraduate curriculum and used several visualisation tools to assess keywords across courses and departments, revealing epistemological distances between the courses/departments and their concepts of study. This data-driven methodology defined the characteristics of close or neighbouring departments, making it possible to implement narrow interdisciplinarity through common subjects within the courses. Interestingly, a further projected network could determine the implicit relations between departments that are not considered close, which would make it possible to implement a wide interdisciplinary curriculum. The data-driven network analysis conducted in this study contributes to searching for new programmes for specific levels of interdisciplinarity on an empirical basis.

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of using a social science mixed-methods approach to stimulate creativity and improve the attainment of creative outcomes in teaching design. In a focused study framed through a design collaborative experiment within a classroom context, sketches produced by a sample of 351 students were analyzed and the impact of stimuli was categorized by visual, physical, quantitative and contextual information on creative processes and outcomes in product design. Sixteen combinations of these stimuli were integrated as parameters of design briefs (DBs) given to the participating students. This research was augmented with a survey to understand participants’ perceptions and reactions and was rated by expert judges. The results demonstrate that certain combinations of quantitative and qualitative stimuli have a positive impact on creative processes and outcomes. These findings will inform new techniques for engaging and inspiring students in design studies.