Courses

Design and Manufacturing III (Capstone Design in Mechanical Engineering)

Typically offered in Fall semesters

ME 450-008, 4 Credits

Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00-4:00 pm,

Description

In this capstone design course, students will apply mechanical engineering design principles to real-world design challenges. Working in teams, students will navigate the engineering design process from initial problem definition and contextual research to prototyping, testing, and verification. In Fall 2026, teams in my section of ME 450 will work on developing medical device concepts to address sexual and reproductive health challenges in low-resource settings. Through hands-on development, student teams will:

  • Identify and translate clinical needs into system requirements and technical design specifications

  • Utilize iterative concept development, prototyping, and benchtop testing to develop functional proof-of-concept medical device prototypes

  • Integrate past mechanical engineering course material to support all design decisions by defensible engineering analysis and reasoning

Prerequisites and Eligibility

Students need to have taken ME 350, ME 360, and ME 395. ME 450 may not be taken concurrently with ME 455 or ME 495.

Registration

Enrollment in my section of ME 450 is dependent upon students being placed into teams that will tackle projects in my section. Interested students should first enroll in any section of ME 450 and then attend the introductory lecture to receive more information on how to request project team placement.

Foundations in Design Research

Typically offered in Winter semesters

ME 499/599-005 / DESCI 599-022, 3 Credits

Tuesdays 2:30-5:30 pm

Description

This course dives into the core areas of design theory and research: design methods, design cognition, decision-based design, computational design, ‘beyond-the-artifact’ design, and design justice, exploring how the study of design has evolved and how research informs the practice of design today. Through reading, discussing, and exploring design literature, students will:

  • Gain an understanding of why design is essential to engineering 

  • Learn about research driving design practice from its historical roots to emerging applications

  • Place their own interests -- whether in academia or industry-- within the broader context of design theory and practice

Prerequisites and Eligibility

There are no prerequisites for the course, though students are encouraged to have prior experience in hands-on design work (e.g., MEX50). The course will be taught from a lens of engineering design research and assumes students have research interests in design.

Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines are welcome to enroll.

Translational Design for GLboal Health

*New offering* for Winter 2027

DESCI 599-00X, 3 Credits

TENTATIVE: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:00-1:30 pm

Co-instructed with Dr. Dhanu Thiyag

Description

This course prepares students to advance health technologies from promising prototypes to sustainable implementation while generating reusable design knowledge that can inform future innovations. Through a design science lens, the course explores implementation-aware design, translational engineering, and systems-oriented technology maturation, challenging students to consider not only whether a technology works, but also whether it can be integrated into clinical workflows, supported by health systems, manufactured, maintained, scaled, and sustainably adopted. Students will learn to move beyond solving a single design problem to identifying transferable design principles, methods, frameworks, and implementation strategies that can inform future global health innovations.

Working on authentic global health design projects, students will apply principles of stakeholder engagement, implementation planning, human factors and usability engineering, evidence generation, regulatory and ethical planning, manufacturing, and supply chain design to advance technologies toward implementation. Emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration and reflective practice, the course will equip students with the knowledge and tools to develop technologies that are technically rigorous, contextually appropriate, and positioned to create lasting health impact while contributing reusable knowledge to the field of Design Science.

Prerequisites and Eligibility

There are no prerequisites for the course, though students are encouraged to have prior experience in hands-on design work and/or interest in global health design.

Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines across campus are welcome to enroll. Stay tuned for more information on which section number to enroll in, or email me to note your interest in registering (kramerju@umich.edu).