Introduction to Engineering Design

This book is the sixth edition of the ninth textbook in this series dealing with Introduction to Engineering

Design. Jim Dally, working with College House Enterprises, has prepared eight previous books in this

series—a new one almost every academic year—for the first-year engineering students of the University of

Maryland at College Park. Several other Colleges of Engineering have adopted one or more of the books in

this series to introduce design and engineering skills for their first or second year students.

The book is organized into parts to present many topics that first year engineering students should

understand as they proceed through a significant portion of the product realization process. Product and

system development processes are introduced in Part I. Information on team skills and the importance of the

product development process is covered in Chapter 1 and 2. The hovercraft missions are also presented in

Chapter 2 together with a description of the design concepts involved in hovercraft development. By

assigning a demanding project, a holistic approach is employed in the student’s first engineering experience

that motivates them. Design of a hovercraft enables the instructor an opportunity to integrate a spectrum of

knowledge about many topics. The student’s hands-on participation in design, building and testing a

hovercraft significantly enhances their learning process. The theoretical background needed to conduct design

analyses for the hovercraft is presented in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 describes basic electric circuits to provide

technical background helpful for the design of the hovercraft. Sensors used to provide feedback signals for

control of the hovercraft are discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 introduces the fuel cells that will be used or propulsion of the hovercrafts, and finally, an extensive and detailed description of programming in LabVIEW

is included in Chapter 7.

Part II treats the very important topic of communications in engineering. This starts with a relatively

complete treatment of three-view drawings in Chapter 8 and an introduction to pictorial drawings (including

isometric, oblique, and perspective drawings) in provided in Chapter 9. The use of tables and graphs in

communicating engineering information using Microsoft Excel is presented in Chapter 10. Finally, Chapter

11 focuses on technical reports and describes many aspects of technical writing and library research. 



Part III introduces the students to engineering as a profession. A historical perspective on the

role engineering played in developing civilization and on improving the lives of the masses is presented in

Chapter 15 where we move from the past into the present and indicate the current relationships between

business, consumers and society. ...