The master program aims to prepare you for a career as a self-directed industrial design engineer with a unique competency profile. You are able to integrate ASK from all expertise areas (on an FBP level) and are specialized in the integration of ASK from two expertise areas (on an FMP level) relevant for the design of systems with emerging technologies in a societal context.
Tracks
Tracks were implemented to support students in preparing themselves for the job-market after graduation. Following an analysis of our alumni, we identified three models of graduates:
- Industrial designers that work in industry; typically, at the R&D department of a company or as a design consultant within a consultancy, their vision is closely related to the vision of such a company;
- Industrial designers that develop a start-up; based on a product or a service or aim at implementing a design vision within companies and organizations, they need to take the lead to implement their vision;
- Industrial designers that are well-versed in both making and conducting research; i.e., doing research-through-design, and acquire a PhD position at a research group, these students are driven by a better understanding and foundation for their vision.
Based on observing these graduates, we learned that students that use their master to develop their vision and develop ideas on how to implement their vision after graduation early on, are more successful in finding a matching job. For example, graduates that aim for a career in industry R&D can develop a portfolio of projects relating to the industry in which they intend to work, graduates that aim for an entrepreneurial or leadership role, develop their product/service further and/or start working on a portfolio of clients, and graduates that aim for a career in research already start training themselves in research methods, writing scientific publications as published work increases their chances of getting accepted to a PhD position.
To support students in becoming a professional in one of the fields as described above, students can specialize and direct their development by choosing one of the master tracks. A master track defines a student’s professional focus after graduation and are derived from the three models of graduates described above. Each master track focuses on (implementing) specific competences to support the transition from education to employment:
- Constructive Design Research (CDR)
- Design Leadership and Entrepreneurship (DLE)
- Research, Design and Development (RDD)
The tracks are not mutually exclusive, and students can always change throughout the master but the more students focus, the better their chances on the job-market. A diversity of Track courses that connect to a track is offered (e.g. courses related to user experience design, IoT design or other relevant R&D topics, entrepreneurial and innovation courses, and design research courses). Furthermore, tracks support the development of a community in which students can support and learn from each other.