This non-technical course will help students understand how others think about technology and then use this knowledge to make better choices when designing, specifying, choosing and implementing technology. The course includes topics such as: meanings of design and their implications; designed in/designed out analysis; reductionism and integration in design; the limits of objective thinking; alternate ways to define function; content and context; “we/me/them/it” analysis; redefining what constitutes acceptable technology; learning from the margins; reading design and understanding system boundaries as being defined by what we do rather than what we say. [Offered: W] Prereq: 2A Systems Design Engineering. Antireq: STV 202
