Success by Design

Success by Design Richard J. Puerzer, PhD (Industrial Engineering) Department of Engineering Chairperson and Associate Professor Richard.J.Puerzer@hofstra.edu “Luck is the residue of design” is a phrase that Branch Rickey, who was the General Manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team back in the 1940s, was fond of using. Rickey believed that if he and his organization went to great efforts to ensure that the baseball team and the management approach that they used were designed well, success would follow. One famous example of this approach was the signing of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the twentieth century in what had been the White Major Leagues. By bringing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers, Rickey was bringing the best available player and improving the design of the team. Of course, success did follow for both Jackie Robinson himself and for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In the engineering programs here at Hofstra, we stress the importance of design across all of the programs. In the first-year of the engineering curricula, we have two courses that focus upon the engineering design process. In the first semester, students take ENGG 15: Designing the Human Made World, where students learn the basics of the engineering design process and develop their problem-solving skills. They eventually put into practice what they learn in the culminating event in the class, the Grand Design Challenge. In ENGG 16: Comprehensive Engineering Design, students learn more about the complexities of design. Included in this instruction are the engineering specifications required when designing for such objectives as safety, durability, human factors, efficiency, material selection, sustainability, maintenance, and cost. These two courses serve to provide all engineering students with an understanding of the design process as they move into their specific majors.

Then in the senior year, all engineering students complete a major-specific capstone design experience. This project serves as both a connection back to their first-year engineering design education and the culmination of their study of the many courses specific to their major. Depending on their major, students design a solution or construct, based on a design, a physical product that addresses a technical challenge by using the engineering knowledge they have developed over the previous few years.

It is always fascinating and inspiring to me to see the breadth of senior design projects that students present on “Senior Design Day” at the end of the fall and spring semesters.

This emphasis on design in the engineering curricula empowers our Hofstra engineering students and graduates. With a great deal of hard work our graduates, Hofstra engineers, are able to build upon the engineering design knowledge and experiences that they acquire in their time at Hofstra and achieve success in their careers. It is very fulfilling for me to look at the many Hofstra engineering alumni in my LinkedIn network and see so many success stories and so much achievement – success by design.