LEARNING ACTIVITIES TO DESIGN A PARAMETRIC SOLUTIONS SPACE FOR PRODUCTS IN INDUSTRY 4.0
Year: 2024
Editor: Grierson, Hilary; Bohemia, Erik; Buck, Lyndon
Author: Parmentier, Davy; Brosens, Lore; Christiaens, Yannick
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design, Design.Nexus, Ghent University, Kortrijk, Belgium
Page(s): 485 - 490
DOI number: 10.35199/EPDE.2024.82
ISBN: 978-1-912254-200
ISSN: 3005-4753
Abstract
The fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, presents both challenges and opportunities for industrial design engineers. An European Union report on Industry 4.0 identified four main trends that will shape the future of industrial design within this new industrial revolution: new technologies, different user expectations, advancements in industry, and new laws and policies. Among the new technologies, parametric design stands out as a powerful tool for creating complex and customized shapes and structures using computational tools and algorithms. Parametric design also relates to the other three trends, as it enables personalization and customization for different user expectations, supports agile and lean production, digital transformation for advancements in the industry, and by doing so complies with the social, and ethical laws and policies. Therefore, parametric design might be considered a key domain-specific knowledge for future industrial design engineers who want to cope with Industry 4.0. Parametric design of a solution space (i.e., of potential products) and procedural thinking are facilitators to design and produce a unique or small series of products that are tailored towards specific needs and wants of stakeholders and which can be produced by digital manufacturing techniques. However, current engineering and design education often lacks the necessary teaching and learning activities to prepare students for parametric design and procedural thinking in this context in which an algorithm or stakeholder defines the product and the designer the solution space (set of rules). This paper reports on the approaches and development of educational paradigms for a course on parametric design with the Grasshopper plugin, a popular visual parametric programming plugin for Rhinoceros. The course is situated in the third year of a bachelor's program in industrial design engineering at . The course aims to introduce students to the principles and applications of parametric design, as well as to foster their creativity, procedural thinking, and problem-solving skills as industrial design engineers. In this paper we will elaborate on the course structure based on Biggs’ constructive alignment framework, including learning objectives, teaching and learning activities, and assessment means. In this course, the students learn to define a parametric solution space in which valuable instances of the product can be created by the visual programming in Grasshopper. This also demands a mindset shift of these students, in which they design a solution space which allows a stakeholder or an algorithm to define the appropriate instance of the product. Inputs, outputs, and workflows need to be considered and are illustrated in the paper with examples. The paper also illustrates the procedural thinking, feedback statements and outcomes from the students, and discusses the lessons learned and the implications for future courses and research on parametric design education.
Keywords: parametric design, Grasshopper, procedural thinking, learning activities, industry 4.0