Professor P John Clarkson PhD, BA(Eng)
Professor of Engineering Design
Director, Cambridge Engineering Design Centre
John Clarkson returned to the Cambridge Engineering Department in 1995 following a seven-year spell with PA Consulting Group's Technology Division where he was Manager of the Advanced Process Group. He was appointed director of the Engineering Design Centre in 1997 and a University Professor in 2004. John is directly involved in the teaching of design at all levels of the undergraduate course.
At PA John gained wide experience of product development with a particular focus on medical equipment design and projects for the Ministry of Defence. In both cases, clients required a risk-based systems approach to design to ensure timely delivery of safe equipment. He also undertook risk assessments for a wide variety of clients in other industry sectors.
His research interests are in the general area of engineering design, particularly the development of design methodologies to address specific design issues, for example, complex systems design, medical equipment design, inclusive design and the use of knowledge-based systems in design. As well as publishing over 250 papers, he has written a number of books on medical equipment design and inclusive design.
Selected Publications
- ALEXANDER, K.L. and CLARKSON, P.J. 'Good design practice for medical devices and equipment, part I: a review of current literature.' Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 24 (1), 5-13, 2000.
- ALEXANDER, K.L. and CLARKSON, P.J. 'Good design practice for medical devices and equipment, part II: design for verification.' Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 24 (2), 53-62, 2000.
- CLARKSON, P.J., BUCKLE, P., COLEMAN, R., STUBBS, D., WARD, J., JARRETT, J., LANE, R. and BOUND, J. 'Design for patient safety: a review of the effectiveness of design in the UK health service' Journal of Engineering Design, 15 (2), 123-140, 2004.
- CLARKSON, P.J. and HAMILTON, J.R. 'Signposting': a parameter-driven task-based model of the design process.' Research in Engineering Design, 12 (1), 18-38, 2000.
- CLARKSON, P.J., SIMONS, C.S. and ECKERT, C.M. 'Predicting change propagation in complex design' ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 126 (5), 788-797, 2004.
- CRILLY, N., MOULTRIE, J. and CLARKSON, P.J. 'Seeing things: consumer response to the visual domain in product design' Design Studies, 25 (6), 547-577, 2004.
- ECKERT, C.M., CLARKSON, P.J. and ZANKER, W. 'Change and customisation in complex engineering domains' Research in Engineering Design, 15 (1), 1-21, 2004.
- KEATES, S. and CLARKSON, P.J. 'Countering design exclusion: bridging the gap between usability and accessibility' Universal Access in the Information Society, 2 (3), 215-225, 2003.
- WARD, J.R. and CLARKSON, P.J. 'An analysis of medical device-related errors: prevalence and possible solutions' The Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology, 28 (1), 2-21, 2004.
