The development of pharmaceutical drugs follows many of the steps of the design process. It is important for students to understand the engineering design process in order for them to complete the student activities in this unit. The engineering design process is a series of steps that starts with identifying a problem and ends with developing a solution to that problem
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. This section will outline the steps of the engineering design process. When using the engineering design process it is not necessary to move in a linear way; researchers and engineers may jump back and forth between steps until they reach a solution
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. This is important to note for students when they begin using the engineering design process in their research.
The first step in the engineering design process is to define the problem. The problem is something that needs solved and students should ask themselves questions such as, "what is the problem or need?" "who has the problem or need?" and "why is it important to solve?"
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. Once the problem has been identified, it is important for engineers to do background research in order to understand the work that has been done before them and to learn from previous researchers
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. Next, a person must identify the requirements for the solution they are going to create, which can be determined from previous projects or research. Once background research has been conducted, solutions are brainstormed. These are all of the possible solutions that meet the requirements for solving the problem identified in step one. An engineer then chooses the best solution from the list and creates a prototype
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. A prototype is a model that may or may not be made of the same materials that the final product will use, and does not need to be a refined product. The prototype is then tested to see if it will work to solve the problem. Engineers will then continue to test and redesign their prototype until they have a final product that is a solution to the identified product
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. When a final design is developed, engineers will communicate their findings and results with the global community and will often move into the manufacturing process
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. The engineering design process is made up many steps that do not necessarily need to be followed in an exact order. In fact, engineers go back and repeat steps in the process until a final design is created.
