SoE Senior Design Thesis Research Assistance

The final step in the engineering design process is to communicate your solution. This step is more than just presenting your finished work—it’s about making sure your design can be understood, applied, and further developed by others. Engineers rarely work in isolation, and a design is only as strong as its ability to be shared and adopted by the community it serves.

When you first identified the problem in step one, you defined who was experiencing the problem and why it mattered. That original framing now guides how you communicate the solution. The way you explain your design should directly tie back to the initial problem statement:

• Does the solution meet the needs of the end users?
• Does it address the technical requirements and constraints you defined earlier?

By showing this connection, you demonstrate not only that your solution works, but that it is meaningful and justified.

Understand Your Audience

Communicating the solution can take many forms, depending on your audience:

• Technical audiences (such as other engineers, professors, or industry professionals) expect detailed design documents, data analysis, CAD models, test results, and specifications. These audiences need to understand how your design functions and how it can be replicated or improved.
• Non-technical audiences (such as clients, stakeholders, or the general public) benefit from visuals, simplified explanations, prototypes, or demonstrations that highlight the problem being solved and the impact of the solution.
• Academic or professional settings often require reports, posters, or presentations that combine technical accuracy with clarity and accessibility.

This step also teaches you how to be a translator of engineering knowledge. The ability to adapt your communication style for different audiences is a critical skill for your future career. If you can’t clearly explain why your design matters and how it addresses the original problem, it will be harder for others to adopt or support your work.

Finally, remember that communication doesn’t mark the “end” of the design process. Instead, it often sparks feedback and collaboration that loop back into iteration. Just as identifying the problem initiated the process, communicating the solution ensures the cycle continues—allowing others to build on your work, apply it in real contexts, and possibly identify new problems worth solving.