Integrating Design Heuristics in an Environmental Engineering Course

Although design courses are mandatory requirements for all accredited engineering schools in the United States, in many cases these courses have become a technical exercise with little integration of management and innovation. As a result, current engineering educational strategies produce technicians lacking the advanced critical thinking and management skills required in the 21^st century business environment. This paper presents a first approach to integrating modules on design heuristics into a mid-level environmental engineering design course. The goal is to facilitate students' skills in both understanding the mechanics of design and gain practice in research oriented design.