Case study research in engineering design, while not as formalized and accepted as in the social sciences, is growing in popularity because of its ability to yield significant insights into how designers interact with design problems, processes, artifacts, and each other. A wealth of evidence for use in case studies exists in the form of undergraduate senior design courses, which produce documentation related to the design of new artifacts every academic semester. The resulting documentation can be effectively mined to test hypotheses about design processes and designer behaviors. In this paper, we offer an example application of how to apply case study research to a completed senior design project in order to test a theory for how designers, users, and artifacts behave as a complex adaptive system. The evidence from the case study supports the descriptive power of the theoretical framework and supports the practical conclusion that effective communication between designers and users is particularly important and should be strengthened to foster overall project success, especially during the problem definition stage of design.
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e-mail: jmaier@clemson.edu
e-mail: ttroy@clemson.edu
e-mail: jud.johnston@gmail.com
e-mail: vedikb@clemson.edu
e-mail: jsummer@clemson.edu
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November 2010
Research Papers
Case Study Research Using Senior Design Projects: An Example Application
Jonathan R. A. Maier,
Jonathan R. A. Maier
General Engineering Program, 105 Holtzendorff Hall,
e-mail: jmaier@clemson.edu
Clemson University
, Clemson, SC 29634-0902
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Timothy Troy,
Timothy Troy
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
e-mail: ttroy@clemson.edu
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921
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P. Jud Johnston,
P. Jud Johnston
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
e-mail: jud.johnston@gmail.com
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921
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Vedik Bobba,
Vedik Bobba
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
e-mail: vedikb@clemson.edu
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921
Search for other works by this author on:
Joshua D. Summers
Joshua D. Summers
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
e-mail: jsummer@clemson.edu
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921
Search for other works by this author on:
Jonathan R. A. Maier
General Engineering Program, 105 Holtzendorff Hall,
Clemson University
, Clemson, SC 29634-0902e-mail: jmaier@clemson.edu
Timothy Troy
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921e-mail: ttroy@clemson.edu
P. Jud Johnston
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921e-mail: jud.johnston@gmail.com
Vedik Bobba
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921e-mail: vedikb@clemson.edu
Joshua D. Summers
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research (CEDAR) Laboratory,
Clemson University
, 250 Fluor Daniel Building, Clemson, SC 29634-0921e-mail: jsummer@clemson.edu
J. Mech. Des. Nov 2010, 132(11): 111011 (8 pages)
Published Online: November 15, 2010
Article history
Received:
October 28, 2008
Revised:
March 29, 2010
Online:
November 15, 2010
Published:
November 15, 2010
Citation
Maier, J. R. A., Troy, T., Johnston, P. J., Bobba, V., and Summers, J. D. (November 15, 2010). "Case Study Research Using Senior Design Projects: An Example Application." ASME. J. Mech. Des. November 2010; 132(11): 111011. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4002291
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