The design process is full of judgment, especially around successes and failures that occur through each iteration. Decisions about how to proceed when ideas do not work can be especially challenging for beginning designers. Yet, experts are able to demonstrate more natural regulation of the process. This research focused on the experiences of…

This study explored the use of heuristics in the design space by novice and expert engineers in the initial ideation of a design solution. Verbal protocol analyses were conducted with four engineering students and four professional engineers as they generated ideas to solve a design problem. Overall, both experts and novices used various types of…

Since the publication of the Standards for Technological Literacy in 2000 (ITEA), there have been a number of new programs developed that are designed to teach pre-engineering. Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is one such program. Project Lead the Way boasts serving over 1250 schools in 44 states and teaching over 160,000 students. Another program is…