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READY FOR THE FUTURE OF DESIGN

Understanding collaborative engineering design work

Our research aims to discover how engineering design teams can collaborate more efficiently and effectively using modern design tools, in the context of new product development and systems engineering. We use an interdisciplinary approach that combines our engineering design knowledge with concepts from psychology, software engineering, and management science. We extend the implications of our findings to engineering education, where we recommend updates to curricula to better prepare our students for an impactful future!

Professor Alison Olechowski

Alison Olechowski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) at the University of Toronto.

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Improving engineering design process and methods

We seek to answer questions such as: what are best practices for collaborating in modern Computer-Aided Design? Do effective engineering teams communicate differently than ineffective teams? How can teams reach reliable decisions when assessing new technologies? How should Model-Based Systems Engineering tools be integrated with existing methods and analysis? How can we improve productivity and attitude on distributed engineering teams while working-from-home? Why are some identity groups under-represented in the engineering profession?

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