Observed practices of design engineers

While there are numerous studies documenting the skills and abilities of experienced designers and engineers, research is needed to document the specific practices or behaviors of design engineers, a subset of creative engineers who solve complex problems. To document observed practices of design engineers, twelve experienced engineers were asked to describe an expert design engineer, someone who always has the solution when others do not. Using inductive thematic analysis, nine observed practices with 30 subtopics were identified from 186 data points. The observed practices of design engineers include being collaborative, confident, creative, independent, intuitive, inquisitive, motivated, systematic, and versatile. Eight additional data points document varying observations of design engineers’ interest in mentoring or management. While participants spoke with reverence about the design engineers, some observed practices could have a negative connotation, such as being egotistical, conservative to a fault, and not good at public speaking. One realization from this paper is that studies generally report admirable practices to replicate, when potentially negative practices can help engineering educators to better prepare students for industry. Lastly, this article provides engineering educators with a mapping between the observed practices of design engineers and the graduate attributes used in accrediting Canadian engineering programs.