Problem Solving and Design in an Engineering Environment

Problem Solving and Design in an Engineering Environment (9.5 PDHs)

Series topics:

Project Management and Techincal Skills (college credit)

Surface Water Hydrology

The Environment

Engineering Ethics

Water Resources Modeling

Problem Solving and Design
in an Engineering Environment

Engineering Failure Case Studies

Earthen Dam Inspection

Hazardous Waste Engineering

EPDS 6-A Introduction and History of Engineering Design 1.5 PDHs $83
Engineers and other professionals who routinely work in the problem solving and design environment will benefit from this seminar and will gain fundamental knowledge of the need and utility of a structured design process. Specific topics covered include the definition of engineering design (and how it compares to analysis, invention, and discovery), the history of the engineering design process, and the identification and development of the steps involved in a structured engineering design process.

EPDS 6-B Problem Solving 1.5 PDHs $83
Engineers and other professionals who deal regularly with solving all sorts of problems will benefit from this seminar and will receive instruction on structured problem solving techniques. While the overall focus of this seminar series centers around engineering design, this seminar in particular is much more broadly applicable.

EPDS 6-C Team Dynamics .5 PDHs $28
Engineers and other professionals who work in teams to solve problems or to carry out design tasks will benefit from this seminar and will gain useful insight into how individual's unique problem solving "personalities" can be taken into account to "get the most out of" the overall team performance. In this seminar, four critical problem solving "personality traits" are introduced and discussed. Guidelines are suggested for how to use each of these traits to produce a synergistic problem solving/design environment within the team. Discussion is then presented on topics including the make-up of a successful design team, characteristics of a "good" team member, and characteristics of a "disruptive" team member.

EPDS 6-D Project Planning 1.5 PDH $83
Engineers and other professionals who coordinate all sorts of projects will benefit from this seminar and will receive instruction on structured approaches to planning projects, including a justification for the planning process, the role of planning in a project's success or failure, and use of three fundamental planning tools: the Gantt chart, the Critical Path Method of project planning, and the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT).

EPDS 6-E The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) Technique--A Systematic Approach to Problem Specification Development 2 PDHs $110
Engineers and other professionals who routinely tackle open-ended "design-type" problems will benefit from this seminar and gain general knowledge of the need for structured definition of problem specifications and specific knowledge on the utility of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) technique in carrying out this phase of the overall problem solving process. Specific topics covered include the significance of Problem Specification Development in a structured design process, history of the QFD technique, step by step coverage of the application of the QFD technique, and avoiding obstacles in the implementation of the QFD process.

EPDS 6-F Concept Generation 1 PDH $55
Engineers and other professionals who face all sorts of problems for which innovative solutions may be sought will benefit from this seminar and will receive instruction on generating creative ideas during the problem solving and design process. Several specific techniques will be presented, including Brainstorming and a derivative thereof termed Brain-writing, Bionics, Checklisting, Functional Decomposition, Morphological Charts, and many more.

EPDS 6-G Concept Evaluation Approaches 1.5 PDHs $83
Engineers and other professionals who face all sorts of problems for which innovative solutions may be sought will benefit from this seminar and will receive instruction on how to evaluate competing candidate solutions during the problem solving and design process. Several specific techniques will be presented, including group decision-making tools, steps in a structured concept evaluation process, qualitative and quantitative concept evaluation/selection techniques, and much more.