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Wolfgang Ernst Eder

Ernst Eder was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1930. During the second World War he was resident
in England. On returning to Vienna in 1946, he attended the founding Advanced Technical
College in Austria, Technologisches Gewerbe-Museum, graduating in 1951 with distinction. He
was awarded the state-registered title of Ingenieur (Technologist) in 1957. Ten years of
industrial experience in Austria and England consisted of employment in design offices of
companies making forestry equipment, power transformers and switchgear, and steel processing
plant.
His first academic appointment was at the University College of Swansea in 1961, where he
started his involvement in teaching engineering design. Here he published his first papers, and a
book [Eder 1965]. In 1968 he was admitted to the degree of MSc in Engineering from the
University of Wales, of which Swansea was a constituent college. Further appointments took
him to The University of Calgary (1968-77), Alberta, Canada, to Loughborough University of
Technology (1977-81) and finally to the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), Kingston,
Ontario (1981-2000), continuing part-time teaching to 2007.
Ernst Eder was invited by Peter Slann to join as founder member of the Design Research Society
(UK), 1966, and acted on the Committee for nearly one year until moving to Calgary. Ernst
joined the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in 1968, has since then been
member of both the Educational Research and Methods (ERM) Division and the Design in
Engineering Education Division (DEED). He received the 1990 Fred Merryfield Design Award.
Ernst is now a Life Member of ASEE. Consequently, one of Ernsts contributions to Hubkas
work was to include consideration of educational theories, e.g. [Hubka 2003, Eder 2005a].
Ernst first met Vladimir Hubka in 1967, at the 12
th
Scientific Colloquium of the Technical
University of Ilmenau, then in the German Democratic Republic chairman of this conference
was Prof. Friedrich Hansen, who had invited Ernst on the basis of his attendance at the second
Scarborough Conference on Teaching Engineering Design, 1966.
He again met Vladimir at a Symposium of the Internationale Gesellschaft fr
Ingenieurpdagogik (International Society for Engineering Education) in Graz, Austria, 1976,
where they held some interesting discussions.
From Loughborough in 1980, Ernst offered three papers to a new conference, ICED 1981 Rome,
had two accepted, and was contacted by Vladimir to translate the book WDK 1 [Hubka 1980a].
Ernst was co-opted onto the organizing committee of ICED 1981, and started his closer
collaboration with Vladimir within the organization WDK Workshop Design Konstruktion.
In July 1981, when Ernst moved to the Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario, he
introduced the concepts of Theory of Technical Systems (TTS) and rational systematic design
processes into the undergraduate curriculum for mechanical engineering. The relevant course is
still being taught according to the course material, problems and principles based on Hubkas
concepts, as prepared by Ernst.
Attending the annual Rigi/Hotel Alpina meetings of WDK, Ernst enjoyed the ambience of
Vladimirs hospitality, including extensive walks in the woodlands around his home at
Greifensee, swimming with him in the lake, and exploring Rigi (of Mark Twain fame) and its
surroundings, cross-country skiing, and so on. Collaboration with Vladimir was close, Ernst
made regular weekly trans-Atlantic telephone calls. Two of the books [Hubka 1992a, 1996] were
prepared in camera-ready form by Ernst.
Ernst was effectively in charge of the first ICED to be held outside Europe, ICED 87 Boston
[Eder 1987]. In the regular Rigi/Hotel Alpina meetings, Ernst presented various viewpoints from
other authors, including Ropohl [1979] and Nezel [1942], to attempt to integrate their outlook
into the Hubka scheme. Ernst studied several other theories, including theories and experiences
of education acquired through his membership of ASEE. With the translation and editing of TTS
into English [Hubka 1988a], Vladimir invited Ernst to become co-author. Several co-authored
books, case studies and papers followed, including Design Science (EDS) [Hubka and Eder
1996].
Ernst retired from full-time employment in 2000, and was still involved in design teaching until
2007. In 2005 he was awarded the status of Professor Emeritus from RMC. Ernst was also
acknowledged by the Scientific Board of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, being
admitted to the degree of Doctor honoris causa in November 2005. Even after retirement, Ernst
has continued his interests and publications in the field, e.g. [Eder 2008d].
From 2002, Ernst led the work started by Vladimir in 1996, on the proposed book to extend and
clarify EDS, jointly with Stanislav Hosnedl, but now without Vladimir as co-author. The book
was finally issued in July 2007 [Eder and Hosnedl 2008a], and followed by a more specialized
book extending the design process [Eder and Hosnedl 2010]. Three further case studies were
published in each of these books: [Eder and Hosnedl 2008] the tea machine revised to current
systematic procedures showing enhanced engineering information; re-design of a water valve;
and an electro-static smoke gas dust precipitator, with rapper for dust removal; and [Eder and
Hosnedl 2010] portable trapeze frame; automotive oil pump re-design; and hospital intensive
care bed, with tilting compensation.
In April 2007, Ernst contributed his collection of books on design engineering to The Vladimir
Hubka International Library of Engineering Design Science in Pilsen, Czech Republic see files
cVHL-EDSCovLet.pdf and cVHL-EDS-RulesEN.pdf.
Collaboration between Ernst and Stanislav continues to date, with some substantial
improvements in understanding and definitions, e.g. [Eder 2007,2008a,2008b,2008c, Hosnedl
2008]. The University of West Bohemia in Pilsen is thus at present the only active school of
engineering using the full concepts of EDS and TTS as its foundation.
(NOTE: for references, see reviewed paper R29, in files aPublist13.pdf and WEE2011-R029).