New Package for Teaching Design Students about Materials and Processes

Software-based package is a new aid for professors of Industrial and Product Design

Cambridge-based software company, Granta Design, has released a Design Edition of its successful materials education product, CES EDUPACK (V4.5). More than 400 professors worldwide already use CES EDUPACK to teach engineers about materials and processes in manufacturing. Now, for the first time, the new Design Edition brings EDUPACK's powerful teaching resources into a new focus for students of Industrial and Product Design.

For professors, CES EDUPACK Design Edition provides a complete and authoritative course package, including not only the EDU software but also a web-based teaching resource site with downloadable lecture notes, handouts and exercises, and the textbook Materials and Design by Mike Ashby of Cambridge University and Kara Johnson of the design house, IDEO. With different levels built in, the CES EDUPACK is suitable for use throughout the undergraduate curriculum and into graduate study.

For students, the CES EDUPACK introduces the world of materials and processes with clear and engaging examples and information, in the context of typical, familiar products. As students advance through their years of study, CES EDUPACK guides their progress into a world of creative investigation backed by CES's renowned wealth of data and selection methods.

Methods to select materials and processes on the basis of technical function are made accessible to design students. The CES EDU software is exceptional in its illumination of the critical relationship between materials and processes. Students can ask -- and answer -- questions such as:

“ My design isn’t working – is there a better material?”, “ABS seems good for my design, but how can it be molded cheaply?”, “How can I join plastic to aluminum?" or “On what materials can I silkscreen print?”

The Open University, a world leader in distance learning, has adopted the Design Edition for the materials learning element of its courses Design & Designing and Designing for a Sustainable Future, for use by an estimated 10,000 students. Dr Steve Garner, Course Chair at Open University, says CES is ideal even for students without a technical background: “They need a transparent learning resource. The software introduces the idea of material properties in a way the student can relate to everyday objects.”

Designer Kara Johnson says, “This software provides a good database for students to explore new ideas in materials and manufacturing without crossing the line to infeasibility.”

Chris Lefteri, Senior Lecturer in Product Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London explains: “The CES software provides designers and engineers from all levels of experience with a highly sophisticated yet straightforward to use tool that puts them in touch with an incredible wealth of data on thousands of materials. The software prevents design students being swamped with an information overload, while at the same time giving experienced designers a more thorough technical knowledge and a higher level of data. “