Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been. — Theodore von Karman

Engineering Thinking 101

4 years ago, I took my older son to a college open day at CEMAST, an engineering-focused campus offering Electrical, Mechanical, Aeronautical, and Motorsport engineering courses. While my son toured the electrical engineering facilities with prospective students, my younger son and I grabbed the nearest table tennis paddles. After I lost badly to a Fifteen-year-old, something caught my eye. The perfect example of Engineering Thinking being demonstrated using paper aeroplanes!

A different group of students filed into the foyer, each clutching a paper airplane. At the lecturer’s signal, chaos erupted—planes looped backward, veered sideways, or travelled straight for varying distances. Then came the brilliant teaching moment.

“What did you notice about the planes that flew straight?” the lecturer asked. “How can we change our designs to copy what worked?” After suggestions flew around, the group returned to their workstations to iterate their designs. Ten minutes later, they were back. Most planes now had tail fins, flaps, and weighted noses. This time, 75% flew far and straight.

I thought: this is engineering thinking in action. And you can do this at home.

The Four Pillars of Engineering Thinking

The students unknowingly demonstrated four essential engineering skills:

1. Requirements – What must the design achieve?
2. Idea Generation – How can we solve this problem?
3. Evaluation – Does our solution work? How well?
4. Iteration – How can we improve it?

Let’s walk through each using a paper airplane project you can start this weekend.

Step 1: Define Your Requirements

Engineers begin by establishing criteria that their design must meet, along with constraints that limit their options. In Formula 1, the FIA changes requirements yearly, driving innovation that eventually appears in consumer cars—like regenerative braking.

For our paper airplane, let’s keep it simple:

These are your design constraints. You can add more—maximum wingspan, minimum flight time, ability to loop—but start simple.

Why this matters: Clear requirements prevent you from building something that doesn’t solve your actual problem. Professional engineers spend considerable time defining what “success” looks like before designing anything.

Step 2: Generate Ideas the meat of engineering thinking

During early stages, engineers test concepts to gather feedback about different aspects of the design. Here’s how to generate your airplane designs:

Research Existing Solutions

Before reinventing the wheel, see what others have done. Search online for:

• Dart planes (speed and distance)
• Glider planes (sustained flight)
• Stunt planes (loops and tricks)

Learning from existing solutions is what engineers do about 90% of the time—taking proven ideas and adapting them to new problems.

Sketch 3-5 Design Variations

Now get creative. Based on your research, sketch out variations:

• Design 1: Classic dart with narrow wings
• Design 2: Wide-wing glider with tail stabilizers
• Design 3: Dart with added weight at the nose
• Design 4: Glider with upturned wing tips
• Design 5: Your own hybrid design combining features

Pro tip: Don’t judge ideas yet. The best innovations often come from combining features of different designs.

Step 3: Evaluate Your Designs (The Engineering Way)

This is where we see how professional engineers really work. It’s not just about testing—it’s about systematic data collection and analysis.

Build and Test

Make all five designs and test each one three times to account for variation. The goal of your experiment is to gather data—identify a question, make a prediction, and make measurements.

Create a data table like this:

How Engineers Actually Evaluate Designs

Real engineers don’t just test and pick a winner. They develop testing processes, gather data, and engage in data analysis to determine how the design solves the problem. Here are methods professionals use:

1. Decision Matrix (Scoring Method)

Engineers assign weights to each criterion based on its importance and score each option against these criteria. Here’s a simplified version:

Design 5 wins! But notice Design 3 isn’t far behind. This systematic approach helps you see why one design is better.

2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

The greatest value of evaluation is identifying the strengths and weaknesses of concepts to create new designs that combine the best features.

What patterns do you see?

• Fewer folds = less drag = better flight (Designs 2 and 5)
• Weight needs balance: Too light (Design 4) = poor flight; moderate weight (Design 5) = optimal
• Tail stabilizers matter: Designs 1, 3, and 5 all had them

This analysis is pure engineering—finding relationships between variables to understand what drives performance.

Visualise Your Data

Engineers love charts because patterns jump out. Create a simple bar chart comparing average distances, or a scatter plot showing weight vs. distance. A prototype without data is like icing without a cake—no matter how beautiful a design is, it must be tested and evaluated to produce data that proves it works.

You don’t need fancy software—graph paper works fine. The point is to see the relationships.

Step 4: Iterate and Improve

Now for the exciting part: can you beat 10 meters?

Based on user feedback and interaction with your solution, you’ll redesign to make it better, repeating this process multiple times until your solution is as successful as possible.

Make Data-Driven Changes

Based on our evaluation:

1. Start with Design 5’s structure (it scored highest)
2. Test weight variations around 65g (try 60g and 70g by adding small paperclips)
3. Add aerodynamic refinements like slight upward wing angles
4. Experiment with tail fin size

Test Again

Build your improved design and test it three times. Record the data. Did your changes work? If not, why? Sometimes iterations make things worse—that’s still valuable data.

Real engineering thinking insight: The design process involves multiple iterations and redesigns of your final solution—you will likely test, find new problems, make changes, and test new solutions before settling on a final design.

Tip: Try to make one or two changes at a time or you won’t know what made the difference.

Your Weekend Engineering Thinking Challenge

What You Need:

• A4 paper (at least 10 sheets)
• Kitchen scales
• Tape measure
• Long hallway or outdoor space
• Notebook and pen
• Family members (optional but more fun!)

The Challenge:

• Day 1: Set your requirements and research 3-5 designs online
• Day 2: Build all designs and test each three times—record everything
• Day 3: Analyse your data using a decision matrix
• Day 4: Iterate on your best design and test again
• Day 5: Present your findings to the family (include charts!)

Make It a Competition

• Everyone designs one plane using the same requirements
• Test all designs together
• Use the decision matrix to find the winner objectively
• The person who learns the most wins (even if their plane didn’t fly farthest)

What You’ll Learn from engineering thinking

By completing this project, you’ll practice:

✓ Defining success through clear requirements

✓ Systematic testing by collecting meaningful data

✓ Analytical thinking by finding patterns in your results

✓ Data-driven decisions using scoring methods

✓ Iteration skills by improving based on evidence

These aren’t just paper airplane skills—they’re how engineers design bridges, smartphones, medical devices, and spacecraft. The same thinking, scaled up.

Share Your Results!

I’d love to hear how your engineering thinking project goes:

• What design worked best?
• Did your iteration improve performance?
• What surprised you in the data?
• What would you test next?

Drop a comment below with your findings. Real engineers share data to help others learn!

And if you’re frustrated with a design, remember: every failed test teaches you something.

That’s not failure—that’s engineering thinking.

Happy building, and enjoy your Weekend project!

Want to Go Deeper?

If you enjoyed this project, try these next:

• Add a requirement: Must carry a small payload (a paperclip)
• Test in different conditions: Indoors vs. outdoors, calm vs. windy
• Explore advanced designs: Canards, elevons, winglets
• Research real aircraft: How do engineers design planes that carry 500 people?

The engineering thinking mindset isn’t about getting it perfect the first time—it’s about getting better each time through systematic testing and learning.

Now go fly something!

Resources – Internal Engineering Projects

Every engineer needs the best start in their career, and even if you’re a seasoned professional, continuous learning remains essential. Here’s a curated list of my engineering project posts designed for students and engineers at any stage who want to expand their skill set. Whether you’re looking to improve your practical experience, develop existing abilities, master new techniques, or simply tackle an exciting challenge, these projects offer something valuable for everyone in the engineering community.

Exciting Personal Project ideas for Mechanical Engineering Students to Tackle Year-Round

Discover eight hands-on project ideas that help mechanical engineering students build practical skills year-round, from 3D printing and CAD design to welding, coding, and Formula Student racing. Each project develops real-world engineering capabilities while keeping you engaged and continuously learning outside the classroom.

Top 6 3D Mechanical Engineering Projects to Develop Your Skills and Knowledge Now

Explore six practical 3D printing projects that teach essential mechanical engineering skills including compliant mechanisms, cam design, tolerance control, and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA). Each project offers hands-on learning opportunities to develop your CAD skills, understand material behaviour, and master reverse engineering—all from your home workshop.

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What are your thoughts? Have I covered everything or is there more you know and would like to share?

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