Renewable energy is increasingly used and promoted. In the UK, for example, large scale renewable energy farms have been used to supply electricity with great effect. Given the large number of homes, there is considerable impact to be made by small scale residential renewable energy systems. Despite solar panels being the most common form of residential renewable energy technology, only 4% of buildings in the UK support solar technology of any kind. For direct electricity generation, silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) arrays are the most utilised, and when used in a residential setting, they are typically mounted on the sloped roofs. This is where the problem lies. The technology comes with a high cost, and there is further financial burden of installation and maintenance, making solar energy inaccessible for many UK homeowners. This paper presents a research and design innovation project to make PV technology more accessible in the UK. Edge Solar, the innovative, affordable, new PV system concept for UK homes may become a promising solution to significantly improve the accessibility to the PV technology and renewable energy at the household level in the UK and beyond with further development and commercialisation.

The remote management of equipment is part of the functionalities granted by the design principles of Industry 4.0. However, some critical operations are managed by operators, machine setup and initialization serve as a significant illustration. Since the initialization is a repetitive task, industrial robots with a smart vision system can undertake these duties, enhancing the autonomy and flexibility of the manufacturing process. The smart vision system is considered essential for the implementation of several characteristics of Industry 4.0. This paper introduces a novel solution for controlling manufacturing machines using an embedded camera on the robot. This implementation requires the development of an interactive interface, designed in accordance with the supervision system known as Manufacturing Execution System. The framework is implemented inside a manufacturing cell, demonstrating a quick response time and an improvement between the cameras.

Performance assessment plays a crucial role in engineering education. Yet most instructor assessment focuses on student outcomes to analyse achievements. Although there is extensive research analysing student productions, however, few studies have explored assessment from instructor perspectives, especially when reporting their assessment practice. This study examines instructors' assessment of student performance through the lens of course review reports (CRRs). The CRRs were collected from 5 core undergraduate courses submitted for annual review and were related to the mappings of the measurable outcomes to performance indicators, assessment methods, and level of engagement. Regardless of the variability in reporting the student design experience, instructors' assessment and potential gaps, as well as strong existing correlations between some indicators and associated assessment methods, the study showed that the CRR may be a powerful and complementary approach to investigate the complexity of multidisciplinary design and design assessment.

A digital twin is the mapping of a physical twin between hybrid spaces. The lifecycle of digital and physical twins occurs through the concepts of foetal, child, and adult twins. This technology can be used to assist clients and designers with real-time data. The use of digital twin technology in architectural design can be realised at various stages, from design to operation. Designers will be able to gain knowledge of the past, present, and future using this technology. This will reveal possible design scenarios. In this study, a hypothetical scenario is designed, in which designers build a building while already having a digital twin template. To do this, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is used as a reference model for digital twins, along with the fidelity levels of digital twins and the level of detail-development of BIM. When designers want to design a new project related to their predecessors, they already use the same type of digital twin-building portfolio they can use for their new design. A digital twin will help optimise the new process. Therefore, the digital twin of a building with a similar building type can be used to extract relevant data for the design process.

This paper explores the assessment of Critical and Creative Thinking skills among Product Design and Engineering (PDE) students, whose profession holds significant potential for addressing the complex challenges facing global societies. In today's globalized world, higher education institutions must equip students to solve both local and global problems. The lack of emphasis on assessing critical problem-solving skills has led to growing concerns among employers and organizations that graduates may not be adequately prepared to meet the demands of the 21st-century workplace, including PDE.

This paper uses a case study approach to evaluate the performance of final-year PDE students, specifically their Critical and Creative Thinking abilities. The study assesses two groups, Group A and Group B, which produce solutions focused on the marketplace and design sustainable solutions, respectively. The study concludes that solving wicked problems that require sustainable solutions demands a higher level of these skills. The study's findings are consistent with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2022 report, which also highlighted low levels of CriT and CreT in students at the same level studied for this paper.

Robust Design offers a coherent and widely appreciated approach for the parametric exploration of the design space by means of simulation or experimentation, which is well-established in the quality-by design domain. From the perspective of design research, however, this only addresses a relatively narrow part of the design process and is not fully integrated with other design decisions such as concept exploration, the suitable configuration of system elements, or the design of interfaces. Particularly in light of the growing importance of developing technologically advanced and “smart” systems, it seems that a new methodical perspective on Robust Design is needed. Against this background, this paper consolidates knowledge and insights from different research fields and industry sectors. On this basis, new angles to the discussion on product robustness in different domains are explored in order to suggests directions for action and new research areas, both with respect to a methodical RD approach as well as the question of systematic research procedures.

Real vehicle usage rarely matches the predictions made during early phases of vehicle development and sales processes at commercial road vehicle manufacturers. The automotive industry needs multidisciplinary vehicle design methods to predict real-world vehicle operations by considering the vehicle level and the transport system level simultaneously, in a more holistic approach. The aim of this study was to analyse how realistic vehicle usage of driverless multipurpose vehicles can be modelled in Vehicle Routing Problems (VRPs) by conducting a systematic literature review. We found that real vehicle usage modelling of driverless multipurpose vehicles in VRPs mainly depended on the following elements: VRP variant, energy consumption model, energy consumption rate class, number of vehicle-specific design variables and transport system-level factors. Furthermore, we identified in the literature five classes of energy consumption rate edge behaviour in VRPs. These findings can support decision-making in the modelling process to select the most suitable combination of elements, and their level of detail for the overall modelling aim and purpose.

Objective of this contribution is to present the use of Model-based Systems Engineering within the engineering design community. Based on a differentiation between SE and MBSE, the definition of three core MBSE elements, namely modelling method, modelling language, and modelling tool as well as the three major aspects of a consistent system model (requirements, behaviour, and structure) a structured review is conducted, focussing on the understanding and motivation as well as the modelling of systems. The review includes 93 publications from Design Society library and proceedings of the CIRP Design conferences during the period from 2011 to 2022. The review points out, that there is an increasing application of MBSE within the engineering design community, mainly focussing on architecture definition or combined engineering activities. Only a small portion of works (16 publications) are providing a consistent approach as these publications link all aspects of the system model and consider all three MBSE elements. It can be concluded, that there is a diffuse understanding of MBSE and different motivations are given to apply more formal system models as well as modelling tools.

Design aesthetics are one of the most important factors affecting the attractiveness of industrial products. Psychological theory suggests that a moderate level of novelty and complexity yields pleasant feelings in users. A design that is initially surprising to consumers and acceptable over time requires aesthetic interest associated with its novelty and complexity. In this study, we formulated the perceived novelty and complexity of a closed contour shape. Based on this formulation, we developed “Hybrid-GAN,” which is a shape-generation system capable of generating a variety of shapes of arbitrary novelty and complexity. In a series of experiment, we obtained subjective evaluations of novelty and complexity, as well as beauty and interest, for the generated shape samples. The results indicated that our novelty and complexity formulations had significant positive correlations with subjective evaluations. The sum of the formulated novelty and complexity also had a significant positive correlation with interest. The results of this study are expected to be used to support the design of attractive shapes by providing feedback to designers regarding the degrees of novelty and complexity that users find most pleasant.

Designers can project their vision of the world into reality and share it. They have, in short, the capability to transmit values and points of view through their products. We believe that engineering culture and tools need to shift from a culture of control to a culture of care. The aim of this paper is to propose and test new engineering practices for strong sustainability. We argue that the role and the shape of engineering in strong sustainability contexts are not explored enough in the scientific literature. We propose therefore a form of strong sustainability practice that we call permaengineering. Permaengineering practices are conceived to be in line with strong sustainability contexts. In other words, permaengineering practices should allow achieving activities upper the social floor and within the planetary boundaries. 4 elements will be studied in permaengineering: the ethics of permaengineering, the goal of the practice, the approach to sustainability, and the expertise needed. Those 4 elements will be tested through an interactive tool embedding perma-engineering principles. A seven-month study was conducted to test this tool.

The International Design Engineering Annual (IDEA) Challenge is a virtually hosted hackathon for Engineering Design researchers with aims of: i) generating open access datasets; ii) fostering community between researchers; and, iii) applying great design minds to develop solutions to real design problems. This paper presents the 2022 IDEA challenge and elements of the captured dataset with the aim of providing insights into prototyping behaviours at virtually hosted hackathons, comparing it with the 2021 challenge dataset and providing reflections and learnings from two years of running the challenge. The dataset is shown to provide valuable insights into how designers spend their time at hackathon events and how, why and when prototypes are used during their design processes. The dataset also corroborates the findings from the 2021 dataset, demonstrating the complementarity of physical and sketch prototypes. With this paper, we also invite the wider community to contribute to the IDEA Challenge in future years, either as participants or in using the platform to run their own design studies.

This paper explores how small-but–detectable changes in manufacturing protocol can alter interaction-design preferences for users. Building on a number of previous studies by the authors, this paper focuses on the manufacture of a set of emotionally attuned pattern-based surface texture designs by means of computer-numerically controlled (CNC) machining. An experiment is subsequently reported that explores how the variations in toolpath rastering approach can affect the visual and tactile qualities of the textures in relation to interaction-design preferences, with a focus on psychological experience. The implications with respect to user-centred design (UX) and manufacturing protocol more broadly are subsequently discussed, with recommendations for a reconfiguration of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) approaches to better encode the diverse preferences that users may have when considering how products are manufactured.

Societies are faced to ecological crises and widening disparities. This has to be integrated in the management of complex projects as they are increasingly complex and impactful. Value Analysis can serve assessing the value of a project i.e. knowing how the project will be perceived by the Stakeholders. It is a collaborative approach that helps make decisions in the early stages of a complex project.

This paper aims at demonstrating that a new “Sustainable Value Analysis” (SVA) provides a decision-making support toward sustainability. SVA uses a new definition of Value and a set of indicators based on the Doughnut.

Methods for the introduction of sustainability in the upstream design phases have limitations, which are highlighted in the literature review. Yet, the potentials of value approaches can be shown. Based on this analysis, an illustrative case is proposed to demonstrate how to integrate the ecological and social dimensions in a classical Value Engineering approach to determine SVA. The article concludes that the SVA allows identifying and characterizing the sustainable dimensions of Value, through a collective approach based on Stakeholders.

Digital Twins are virtual representations of a product-service-instance and, as a technology, represent an important part of the realization of Industry 4.0. They manage data of the associat-ed product instance and can also have functions for simulation to achieve cost and resource savings while simultaneously increasing product quality. In this paper, a need for action for the implementation of a systematic approach for the returning of data of Digital Twins into the product design is identified and a methodology is developed as an answer. This methodology realizes an information management, which supports holistic data and information flows. It de-fines necessary steps for the implementation of data and information transport, starting from a data management up to information provision in product design. Based on a performed potential analysis for the identification of intended uses in the context of product design, the overall ap-plication focus is narrowed down to the development of new product generations to support the requirements development. The concept structure consists of Digital Twins, a data mining sys-tem for the transformation of data into information and a presentation system for managing the information provided.

Packaging of potatoes, vegetables and fruits (PVF) currently deals with the fragile opposition of food waste reduction and packaging resource consumption. In order to understand how designers can rethink this always negative balance and outcome of waste creation, research was done to understand packaging and preservation of PVFs from both a technological and consumer perspective. A mixed research approach was applied, including literature study, expert interviews, packaging analyses, consumer survey and photo study. In sum, we concluded that the main function of packaging is preservation, including both protection from outside influences and conservation in best possible conditions. Optimal preservation should consider each PVF's respiration and transpiration needs, and ethylene sensitivity. Consumers are mostly not aware of correct preservation methods. However, on the other hand, their awareness evokes an important tendency to ban plastics without considering their positive impact on food preservation. In the paper, design opportunities are formulated for new reusable packaging, reducing waste creation and offering higher quality in food preservation and consumer experience.

Due to the continuous progress in information technology, complex problems of machine elements can be investigated using numerical methods. The focus of these investigations and optimizations often aims to reduce the stresses that occur or to increase the forces and torques that can be transmitted. Interference fit connections are an essential machine element for drive technology applications and are characterized by their economical fabrication. The transmission of external loads over a large contact surface between the shaft and hub makes it less vulnerable to impact loads. These advantages contrast with disadvantages such as the limited transmittable power, the risk of friction fatigue, and stress peaks at the hub edges, which can lead to undesirable and sudden failure, especially in the case of brittle hub materials. Analytical approaches already exist for optimizing these connections, which are expensive, time-consuming, and complex, so a high degree of expert knowledge is required to apply these methods in practice successfully. This paper presents a novel method using the example of optimizing the pressure distribution in the interface of a shrink-fit connection.

Well-educated engineers are key for successful engineering design in product development. Due to varying school education and technical backgrounds, the students have different prerequisites for the acquisition of competences. Subject of this paper is to show the methodical implementation of the prototype AdE-Le suited to the curriculum at Ruhr-University-Bochum and the open source learning platform Moodle. Aim is to evaluate the didactic potential to support engineering students with heterogeneous competence levels. The general needs and existing approaches for E-Learning environments as a means to individualize learning content in engineering design are discussed. Major aim is to reduce the linkage between the students' technical background and their exam success. AdE-Le as an exemplary application is developed based on the didactical concept of Constructive Alignment. Due to a harmonization of learning methods and contents in Engineering Design across the members of the Scientific Society for Product Development the results of this investigation can be transferred to other Universities.

In order to have a sustainable disassembly process, a successful decision-making based on reliable and up-to-date information should be made while taking into consideration sustainability indicators. In this context, The aim of this paper is to introduce a decision support system based on knowledge based and digital twin in order to help stakeholders to choose the most sustainable disassembly scenario .In this research, firstly, we presented the state of art of disassembly process, digital twin, knowledge based system and the merging of knowledge based system and digital twin for disassembly. Secondly, we presented the knowledge based digital twin (KBDTw) system framework for a sustainable disassembly process. Thirdly, a case study is presented about the use of KBDTw in the end-of-life of internet boxes. Finally, a conclusion and future work are conducted.

The early-stage engineering design activities include conceptualising, identifying, and solving an engineering design problem. These activities are essential and standard roles of a design engineer. However, they seem to lack comprehensive practice within the engineering design community. In this study, semi-structured interviews conducted with 18 participants having engineering design backgrounds are presented. The aim of the interviews is to investigate the awareness and practice of the early stage engineering design activities. The participants interviewed practice in countries including France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Contrary to standard expectations, the results of the interviews show that the early-stage engineering design activities are not comprehensively practised. The results suggest that design engineers' crucial role in identifying unknown problems lacks practice. Also, the data from the interviews provide empirical evidence on the determinants for the lack of comprehensive practice of early-stage engineering design activities. Recommendations on possible interventions to support the practice are presented to expedite innovations and inventions.

The study presented in this paper investigated the impact of embodied and self-reflected virtual reality (VR) experiences on engineering design students' cognition and perception of nature-relatedness during the early conceptual design phase. Results showed that students who explored the design environment as a bird (embodied) or human (self) avatar were significantly more likely to explore a larger design space indicated by more semantically unique design concepts compared to students without the VR experience. Network graphs of the syntactic connection of design concepts revealed notable differences among the three groups. The bird avatar group showed more connections to nature-related and social concepts, while more technical concepts were central for the human avatar group, and concepts about money were more central to the control group. Finally, students who embodied the bird avatar had a significantly stronger perception of connection to nature compared to the human avatar and control group, with a small to medium effect size. The results suggest that embodied (as a bird) and self-reflected (as a human) VR experiences can enhance engineering students' design thinking and perception of connection to nature.