Toward a pre-disciplinary introductory design sequence

One of our greatest challenges in education is to prepare our students for the realities of the workplace they will be entering. In an economy characterized by global competition and continuous change, students need career-sustaining skills in addition to hard knowledge. They must know how to synthesize and integrate information; to work together in teams; to be creative; to attack open, multidisciplinary problems; to communicate the answers obtained; and to bring ideas into fruition. Recent critiques of engineering education, state the need a slightly different way. They claim that engineering education has focused too much of its energy on engineering science at the expense of engineering design. The author considers how Georgia Tech's EduTech Institute is spearheading an interdisciplinary effort to address these needs. Key to the effort is a two-quarter pre-disciplinary introduction to design. The introductory courses are designed to lay the foundations for teaming principles and strategies behind good design, reasoning involved in doing design, and cognitive and social skills a designer needs. Keeping in mind that good design requires effective collaboration and effective use of computer technology, collaboration and use of software is integral to the courses.