Design thinking is widely considered to be an essential skill for twenty-first century leaders and innovative thinkers. Engineering programs should graduate engineers who can design effectively to meet social and environmental needs. However, the role and perception of design across a wide range of educational disciplines has improved markedly in recent years. One of the defining characteristics of design thinking is that there is rarely a single correct answer to a complex problem. Design thinking is an iterative and interdisciplinary collaborative process toward crafting acceptable solutions. This course enables students to exercise and practice different thinking styles, including divergent, convergent, critical, analytical, and integrative. It guides students through the different steps of the design thinking process, starting with empathy, into problem definition, ideation, prototyping, building, measurement, and analysis. On the technical side, this course focuses on teaching systems and system controls to emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations in solving complex challenges. As some students want to bring forward their innovative ideas to the commercialization stage, the course aims to support their aspirations by including aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship in some of the course's hands-on projects.
