The Bachelor's program of Industrial Design (ID) is part of the TU/e Bachelor College. The Bachelor’s program of ID consists of diverse learning components:
- ID core courses – these form the basis for the ID major and include engineering courses and design courses to provide for solid foundations of knowledge to help define your learning objectives.
- Electives – choose the subjects in the direction you want to develop as an industrial designer.
- ID Professional Identity & Vision (PI&V) - get the tools to develop your own vision and develop professionally and personally (reflecting, giving and receiving feedback, presenting,...).A strong emphasis on Self-Directed Learning (SDL), integrated as part of the different study components. You decide what you want to learn, and what you need to achieve your learning goals. PI&V appears throughout your studies.
- Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) – design projects with a technical and a social or societal aspect. You will learn to collaborate and communicate in multi- or interdisciplinary teams. During the projects, you will integrate approaches, skills and knowledge from different areas of expertise, learn about design and research processes and develop your professional skills.
- An Impact of Technology (ITEC) program – Program consists of study sections Engineering Ethics, Engineering for Society and Studium Generale activities. Students are introduced to normative skills that help engineers, designers and researchers make decisions on ethical issues in developing and designing technologies. Consider sustainability, the privacy aspects of smart systems, health and risk issues, etc.
- External learning activities – an internship; or a minor at another TU/e programme, or a Dutch university; or participation in an exchange programme.
First year
The first year introduces you to the four areas of expertise that contribute to the field of Industrial Design. These are:
- Creativity and Aesthetics (CA)
- User and Society (US)
- Technology and Realization (TR)
- Mathematics, Data and Computing (MDC)
You will take three compulsory basic courses on Calculus, Applied Physics and Data Analytics for Engineers and two major design courses on TR and MDC. You will choose two design projects to learn to apply competencies from CA, US, TR and MDC and take the basic ITEC course on Engineering Ethics. In total, you spend just over a third of the academic year on design projects in a societal context. You choose projects that match your own learning objectives and present your results in a public interactive presentation, the "Demo Day", at the end of each semester.
You take the PI&V 1 course and start developing your own professional identity as a designer. You also begin to develop your vision of the future and how you as a designer or researcher contribute to shaping society.
Second year
In the second year, you choose a design or design/research project within one of the squads' social themes. Your projects align with your own learning objectives and, again, present your results in a public interactive presentation, during the "Demo Day", at the end of each semester.
You also take three design courses, linked to the areas of expertise CA, BE and US. In addition, you choose a multi-departmental CBL course in the last quartile of the second semester. You choose a total of four electives.
You also take the PI&V 2 course to further develop your professional identity and vision.
Third year
The third year is dedicated to strengthening your vision and professional identity and demonstrating your design competences in an independent design project.
In the first semester you gain experience outside your program. Where you go depends on your personal learning goals. The options are:
- An exchange program with an international university affiliated with the Department of Industrial Design.
- An internship at a design agency, a research department or design department at a Dutch company or abroad.
- Taking electives at another TU/e program or university in the Netherlands (minor).
In the first semester, you complete your PI&V Learning Line by taking the PI&V 3, which also clearly defines your learning goals for your Final Bachelor (graduation) Project (FBP). In the second semester, you take the ITEC advance course on Engineering for Society, one elective and complete your bachelor's degree with the Final Bachelor Project.
Do you want to know more about the curriculum of the Industrial Design bachelor's program or the Final Bachelor Project? Check out the education guide or download here the curriculum brochure.
Please note: the education guide is a document that is used as a source of information by current TU/e students, containing detailed, practical information that is important during the current academic year.