IED Key Terms #1

IED

Assess

To thoroughly and methodically analyze accomplishment against specific goals and criteria.

Assessment

An evaluation technique for technology that requires analyzing benefits and risks, understanding the trade-offs, and then determining the best action to take in order to ensure that the desired positive outcomes outweigh the negative consequences.

Brainstorm

A group technique for solving problems, generating ideas, stimulating creative thinking, etc. by unrestrained spontaneous participation in discussion.

Client

A person using the services of a professional person or organization.

Creativity

The ability to make or bring a new concept or idea into existence.

Criteria

A means of judging. A standard, rule, or test by which something can be judged.

Constraint

1. A limit to a design process. 2. A limitation or restriction.

Design

1. An iterative decision-making process that produces plans by which resources are converted into products or systems that meet human needs and wants or solve problems.

Design Brief

A written plan that identifies a problem to be solved, its criteria, and its constraints.

Design Process

A systematic problem-solving strategy, with criteria and constraints, used to develop many possible solutions to solve a problem or satisfy human needs and wants and to winnow (narrow) down the possible solutions to one final choice.

Design Statement

A part of a design brief that challenges the designer, describes what a design solution should do without describing how to solve the problem, and identifies the degree to which the solution must be executed.

Designer

A person who designs any of a variety of things. This usually implies the task of creating drawings or in some ways uses visual cues to organize his or her work.

Engineer

A person who is trained in and uses technological and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems.

Engineering Notebook

A book in which an engineer will formally document, in chronological order, all of his/her work that is associated with a specific design project.

Innovation

An improvement of an existing technological product, system, or method of doing something.