It May Be Engineering Design, but Is It Design?

Houston Abstract Creative design is not taught in most engineering academic programs. The engineering design textbooks (and presumably engineering design classes) do a good job presenting analytical schemes for the systematic evaluation of design and linear design processes --both of which are necessary and appropriate for much of engineering design -- but they really have little to say about the creative, parallel processing necessary for design. It is suggested that engineering students and design faculty would benefit greatly from a good dose of creative design as practiced by our colleagues in the Arts. The paper will provide evidence of how two aspects of “creativity” are missing from most engineering