Design and Engineering Education for sustainability

Emelia Delaney; Wei Liu

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: DEED Technical Session 8 - Design Methodologies
Page Count: 29
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40620
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40620
Download Count: 243

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Paper Authors

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Emelia Delaney

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Emelia Delaney is a doctoral researcher from King’s College London. Her doctoral work explores how designers currently implement factors of environmental sustainability into their design process during New Product Development. Emelia’s research also investigates design management, design and engineering education, and the circular economy. She won the Design Management Institute (DMI) student essay competition and has been selected as a Doctoral Student Fellow in 2022 Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) Doctoral Consortium.

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Wei Liu

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Dr Wei Liu is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at King's College London with extensive teaching and research experience across design, engineering and management. Wei accomplished her PhD at the University of Cambridge and was Visiting Fellow at Harvard University. Wei was founding director of several interdisciplinary degree programmes such as MSci Design, Enterprise and Innovation. Moreover, she has rich experience of conducting interdisciplinary research, and has obtained around £3 million research grants from prestigious funding bodies. She won Best Paper Awards from Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and British Academy of Management (BAM) Conference. Her research outputs have been published in the leading design, advanced manufacturing and innovation management journals. Wei also has professional design experience in world leading business and design consultancies, where she led the design and development of consumer goods, industrial products and digital products for global top brands. She is acknowledged as Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA).

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Abstract

New Product Development (NPD) describes the development of a product from design to manufacture to distribution, this involves a diverse set of roles including industrial designers, design engineers and engineers. Sustainability is an important theme within literature, and industry increasingly demands designers and engineers to be equipped with the skills to effectively implement sustainability into NPD. Furthermore, the product design stage within NPD is suggested to impact up to 80% of the overall sustainability of a product [1], [2], [3] and designers have particularly been identified to aid in the sustainable NPD process. However, sustainability is a complex issue and is often divided into three main pillars [4], which is frequently defined as the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [5, p. 16] within literature. As sustainability and issues surrounding climate change become more present within academic literature and global news it is of high importance that designers and engineers are suitably equipped with sustainability knowledge and understand how to implement sustainability within their processes during NPD to ensure the development of sustainable products.

It remains unclear how equipped undergraduates are on the topic of sustainability within NPD. To investigate this gap, a two-stage methodology was employed. Firstly, a literature review was conducted, focusing on the current status of undergraduate education of designers and engineers, investigating modules for evidence of sustainability education within these disciplines. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 industry professionals, all of which currently implement sustainability within their process in NPD. The semi-structured interviews included several questions focused on the participants education, whether they were taught about sustainability and whether this aids them in sustainability implementation during NPD currently. This investigation has enabled an evaluation of the current status of sustainability education within design and engineering disciplines. Additionally, a conceptual framework has been developed to aid the implementation of sustainability into design and engineering undergraduate courses. Future research directions have also been outlined.

Citation
Format

Delaney, E., & Liu, W. (2022, August), Design and Engineering Education for sustainability Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40620

TY - CPAPER
AB - New Product Development (NPD) describes the development of a product from design to manufacture to distribution, this involves a diverse set of roles including industrial designers, design engineers and engineers. Sustainability is an important theme within literature, and industry increasingly demands designers and engineers to be equipped with the skills to effectively implement sustainability into NPD. Furthermore, the product design stage within NPD is suggested to impact up to 80% of the overall sustainability of a product [1], [2], [3] and designers have particularly been identified to aid in the sustainable NPD process. However, sustainability is a complex issue and is often divided into three main pillars [4], which is frequently defined as the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [5, p. 16] within literature. As sustainability and issues surrounding climate change become more present within academic literature and global news it is of high importance that designers and engineers are suitably equipped with sustainability knowledge and understand how to implement sustainability within their processes during NPD to ensure the development of sustainable products.

It remains unclear how equipped undergraduates are on the topic of sustainability within NPD. To investigate this gap, a two-stage methodology was employed. Firstly, a literature review was conducted, focusing on the current status of undergraduate education of designers and engineers, investigating modules for evidence of sustainability education within these disciplines. Secondly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 industry professionals, all of which currently implement sustainability within their process in NPD. The semi-structured interviews included several questions focused on the participants education, whether they were taught about sustainability and whether this aids them in sustainability implementation during NPD currently. This investigation has enabled an evaluation of the current status of sustainability education within design and engineering disciplines. Additionally, a conceptual framework has been developed to aid the implementation of sustainability into design and engineering undergraduate courses. Future research directions have also been outlined.
AU - Emelia Delaney
AU - Wei Liu
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Design and Engineering Education for sustainability
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40620
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40620
ER -