SIMPLIFIED: "Iterative process in engineering: Benefits of pivoting, resetting, or starting fresh"
Link to article: https://engineerscanada.ca/news-and-events/news/iterative-process-in-engineering-benefits-of-pivoting-resetting-or-starting-fresh
The article linked above talks about iteration, which in my opinion, is probably the most important concept in all of engineering. Iteration means repeating specific steps in the design processes so that you can improve your design. Oftentimes, you will be going back into previous steps of the design process because you learned from testing that your previous design would not work. That is iteration; learning from failures, repeating the design process, and making your design better.
Here is an example: let’s say that you want to design a brand new water bottle. You want this water bottle to be very light while holding more water, cheap, and easy to hold. While you test your first prototype, you might find that the water bottle actually leaks! Therefore, you have to go back in the design process stage and research ideas to reinforce the outside of the water bottle. When you test it again, you find that the bottle is too heavy to hold. You will have to find a way to fix that again. All of this is iteration, because you are repeating the design process after learning from your failures.
If it was not clear already, iteration is vital to engineering because almost nobody is going to come up with the most optimal and best design on their first try; they will have to continuously test and test until they get the results they are looking for. The article mentions something that Thomas Edison, the inventor of electricity, said. He stated that if you fail 10,000 times when designing something, you have not failed. Instead, you have simply found 10,000 ways that something will not work. Ultimately, failure will inevitably come with engineering, and continuing to iterate will drive you to create new solutions to problems.
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