ABSTRACT
Design processes and approaches permeate the technical and engineering
world-with emphasis on effective communication. Engineers recognize the importance of design practices because engineers make things-bridges, handtools, circuits, diapers-that must work within the complex contexts of human activity. As they research who will use the things they make and when, where, and why those people will use them, engineers must communicate carefully with others. They must also understand and continue to learn about the materials with which they build. In these design processes, it is impossible to separate design from either material or communication-as the authors of a report on “integrating professional practice” into undergraduate engineering classes describe when they give this definition of design:
OUTCOME: Students will understand how and why to use design
approaches in developing technical and scientific communications
and will be able to use different modalities rhetorically in
developing communications.
