Learn how to write an effective memo with our guide on technical formatting for the workplace, including a discussion of headers, the inverted pyramid body structure, and essential writing tips.
Shuffle, Deal, Design: Principles from Card Games
A well-designed card game successfully balances three core elements: progression, randomness, and strategy. This article explores how the interplay and harmony between these fundamental design attributes—which define card games today—can teach us valuable lessons about engineering product development and the continuous process of refinement and trade-offs.
More Than a Profile: LinkedIn Tactics that Get Engineers Connected & Hired
Boost your engineering career with Tony Jewkes! Learn to use LinkedIn as a powerful, keyword-optimized portfolio for discoverability. Tap into your university's influential alumni network to build professional connections and land internships and jobs.
Design Principles Learned From Minecraft
Explore how Minecraft embodies key engineering design principles, including user-centered design, the creative power of constraints, and the importance of iteration and prototyping. Examine in-game experiences alongside real-world examples like the Apollo missions, and learn how players and engineers alike learn to innovate, adapt, and improve through design challenges.
The Evolution of Halloween’s Favorite Tradition
Unlock the surprising design history of trick-or-treating. From ancient rituals to suburban planning and trunk-or-treat, discover how design shapes America's favorite Halloween tradition and its future evolution.
Good Design: Mission Belt v Groove Belt
Mission Belt vs. Groove Belt: discover how these modern designs innovate on the classic belt. Explore the Mission Belt's micro-adjust ratchet and the Groove Belt's simple magnetic buckle with authors John Salmon and Dylan Conover.
Mapping Rick Rubin's "The Creative Act" to Engineering Design
Rick Rubin's philosophy from The Creative Act offers a mindful approach to engineering design, seeing awareness, listening, and constraint as keys to clarity in product development.
Good Design: College Football Edition
Design tells a story! Explore five incredible college football uniforms, from UCF's SpaceU to Navy's Jolly Rogers, and see how great design communicates history and meaning.
From Chaos to Clarity: Modular Design in Programming
Bring clarity to your chaotic code! Learn the three core principles of modular programming (abstraction, encapsulation, cohesion) to build scalable, maintainable, and professional-grade software systems.
Writing Professional Articles: The Little Things That Count
Boost the impact of your professional writing! Learn how formatting and syntax are critical to capturing attention and reducing reader distractions. Follow style guides, master emphasis (use italics and bold, not underlines), and refine sentence structure for clarity and influence.
Exploring the Hype Cycle of AI
Are we nearing an AI winter? Learn about the Gartner Hype Cycle's Trough of Disillusionment, the stage after the peak of inflated expectations where reality tempers the utopian promises of Artificial Intelligence.
Using AI to Study
Harness the power of AI to transform your study habits. Learn how to use artificial intelligence ethically for brainstorming, outlining, summarizing, and editing to achieve academic success.
Good Design from the Summer of 2025
Summer is a time for relaxing but it doesn't mean it's a time to stop exploring innovation. Learn about some good designs that we discovered over the summer of 2025, from beautiful lotus boardwalks and excellent french toast to heatless curls and 3D printing.
Writing Professional Articles: Developing Your Writing
Elevate your professional and academic influence with effective writing. Learn the four pillars of writing — narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive — to communicate with clarity and purpose. Discover how strong writing, even in STEM fields, sets you apart by showcasing your competence and personality. This article by Dylan Conover provides practical tips for finding your style, using tasteful adjectives, and proofreading your work for maximum impact.
Clustering in Design Thinking: Making Sense of Empathy Data
Unlock meaningful innovation with design thinking and empathy. Learn how to use clustering to organize raw, human-centered data, uncover hidden insights, and avoid common biases. Discover the history of this powerful technique, from the KJ Method to modern affinity diagramming, and see how it can reframe problems to create truly impactful solutions.
A Design-Inspired Book Review of Elon Musk
Published in 2015, Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk offers a fascinating look at the tech mogul’s early successes. Rereading it today reveals how his methods, from maniacal attention to detail to an unwavering worldview, continue to drive his companies forward.
Refining the Design: Nintendo Switch 2
Nintendo’s release of the Switch 2, an upgraded version of its predecessor, shows how refining a product is critical to making good designs better. Nicholas Hardman write how the Switch 2's design improvements, like its bigger size, magnetic controllers, and additional charging port, showcase how small changes can significantly enhance a user's experience and improve a product's success.
Why Every Design Should Start with a Question, Not a Solution
Creativity and exploration are essential parts of design, but in engineering, they should be grounded in purpose. Without a defined problem to solve, designs risk being ineffective, unused, or even wasteful.
How to Create a Design Portfolio That Drastically Improves Your Job Prospects
Some things are better shown than said. Professor Chris Mattson explains that a portfolio doesn't just claim you have skills—it makes them obvious through compelling, visual evidence. For engineers, a strong design portfolio can become one of the most powerful tools in your early career.
Wabi-sabi vs Kaizen
Learn about the Japanese philosophies of wabi-sabi and kaizen with Professor John Salmon. Discover how to apply wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in imperfection, and kaizen, which focuses on continuous improvement, to enhance your life and design projects.