Design Thinking and Systems Engineering introduces students to the foundational principles and tenets leading to a holistic and empathetic formulation of a problem, need, or opportunity – and the resolution of this via the synthesis of a response system or solution.

This course enables students to more effectively conceive and architect solutions that meet customer needs or respond to market opportunities while reducing validation and verification risk. This is a highly interactive course that leverages engaged lectures and a group project that students pursue in small teams (3 to 5 students per team, as a function of class size). This course provides students with a disciplined approach for formulating a customer or stakeholder need/opportunity and translating this understanding into a solution or response concept through a highly iterative process of prototyping and concept development. Ultimately, the students will translate this solution approach into a set of specifications for a system or service that meets the need/opportunity. The focus initially is on developing an outside-in view that treats the system as a black box, without regard to the components from which it will be built. The course emphasizes the distinction between an operational need/opportunity and a system solution, and stresses the importance of understanding the customer/stakeholder need before converging to a solution. The course helps students understand how to think through the choices at each step of the process. What decisions have to be made? What factors should be considered in making them? It is the answers to these questions that make for good systems thinking when formulating a response strategy to an operational shortfall or opportunity, not just adherence to a standard process.

The primary objective of this course is to achieve a strong foundation in design thinking and systems engineering principles and processes.