The growing interdependence of design and technology is creating a new field of educational and professional opportunities called Design Engineering (DE). 

Design Engineering is often confused with other fields; it is neither the traditional Engineering Design (an essential element of the traditional engineering ScB programs) nor Human-Centered Design or Design Thinking which is mainly focused on ethnographic research to better understand problems before beginning a design process. Whereas teaching in traditional Engineering Design begins with a statement of a problem to be solved, Design Engineering requires the student to discover the problem. Design Thinking, without the depth of engineering training, can lack technical rigor in its approach to solving identified problems. Design Engineering will teach students to understand not just the How and What, but the Why and Why Not, of what is being created, the strategic implications and consequences, as well as the suitability of proposed solutions.

The Design Engineering Sc.B. concentration prepares students to:

• Effectively apply engineering and scientific principles, and quantitative analysis, to make design decisions
• Utilize complementary and conflicting principles from domains other than engineering in design decisions
• Achieve fluency in human-centered and systems design processes and principles, enabling the students to analyze and synthesize responses to complex real-world problems
• Prepare students to engage across diverse teams to identify problems and develop solutions in ways that benefit from distinct experiences, backgrounds and points of view
• Develop approaches to create solutions for selected stakeholders, but which broadly improve outcomes and advance equity, in the latter case recognizing that not all those potentially impacted may have equal voice in shaping the decisions.
• Effectively communicate design analyses and solutions to both expert and non-expert stakeholders
• Demonstrate critical and liminal thinking by creating a pathway to develop expertise in a specific field or domain and then apply design engineering principles to problems in that area