Education guide 'Eindhoven designs' - Technische Universiteit ...

Eindhoven designs / volume two
15
Organisation: education and
research integrating network
Competency-centred learning is applicable not
only to students, but also to all staff members.
We want every individual as well as the entire
department to develop their expertise and
identity, to go beyond interactive products
and move towards really intelligent systems by
growing together as a community. Therefore,
we emphasise the importance of expertise
building, identity building and community
building. This process of building refers to an
individual level (student and staff) as well as
to the departmental level (we as the Industrial
Design department). We believe that it is only
possible to handle the complexity, and design
for intelligent systems, products and services
at the intersection of design, engineering and
science, if we use and share the expertise of
the entire ID community. We need integration
in several ways.
Within our department we use the concept
of ‘themes’ for this integration. Themes are
fields of interests within the design & research
area, which focus and cluster ID Bachelor and
Master projects, create links to other learning
activities such as assignments and modules,
and are closely connected to research areas
and projects within the department. Examples
of themes are Wearable Senses, Health Care
and Playful Interactions. We have developed
themes in order to strengthen the link between
research and education, between the different
research groups with their own expertise,
between Bachelor, Master and PhD students
and employees, as well as the link between
the university, industry, commerce and other
external partners. For example, since we want
an authentic learning environment, almost
40% of our coaches are professional design
practitioners and well over 60% of all projects