THE IST DESIGN STUDIO: a plan for action… by Manuel ... - In+

IST Design Studio October 2003_____________________________________________________________________________1. Mission StatementThe mission of the IST Design Studio is to promote engineering design competenciesthrough collaborative research and education programmes, with the ultimate goal ofimproving the competitiveness of firms through the integration of collaborative productdevelopment routines. This encompasses the desire to expand the awareness ofengineering design through education, the development of new teaching curricula andmaterials for use in engineering and business education, and the establishment ofpublic-private partnerships and industry-science relationships aimed to improveindustrial competitiveness.Our vision for the coming decade is the establishment of routine procedures ofcollaborative product development in Portuguese manufacturing, allowing theincorporation of design competencies in industry in a way to increase product value andreduce product development lead times, while simultaneously reducing life-cycle costs,improving quality and satisfying the general design requirements of minimum energyconsumption, recycling capability and environmental friendliness.2. ObjectivesEnabling the future of engineering design for human development through discovery,learning and innovation.At the onset of the 20th century few could have guessed the importance that the thennascent engineering and technological disciplines would have in the improvement of thequality of life over the ensuing century. As we enter the 21st century the promise offurther improvements based on new and deeper applications of engineering systems is areason for optimism. While it is difficult to forecast the exact shape and form that theengineering disciplines of the future will assume, it is safe to say that there are a numberof problems to which engineering design can provide, at least partially, a response. Thevision supporting the IST Design Studio is based on an identification of some of theseproblems that, although specific to the Portuguese reality, must be understood in acontext in which the integration of the country in an increasingly open andinterconnected world cannot be ignored.The Design Studio is aimed to promote new engineering design competencies in a wayto increase the Portuguese innovative capacity, through the development of research andeducation programmes directed to contribute extending the enterprise value chain inemerging and traditional sectors by incorporating the necessary design skills for newproduct development practices.The ultimate goal is to affect the product development programs of manufacturingcompanies located in Portugal by establishing a sustainable research and educationprogram to develop and transfer knowledge of engineering design, which will enablethese companies to continually:• integrate design competencies• improving product quality, and• significantly reduce leadtime in product development, while• increasing performance/cost ratio.___________________________________________________________________www.istdesignstudio.net 5