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During the lab tours, the Committee became convinced that working prototypes can be tremendously valuable tools in organising and synergising researchers from different design disciplines. They can also communicate and disseminate key insights from the research to a wider audience. 2.5 PHD PROGRAMMES AND GRADUATE SCHOOL The IDE Faculty has had a faculty-wide supervisory support structure for PhD degrees since 2001. This became part of the TU Delft Graduate School in 2011. The Graduate School aims to support the structure, the research culture, and the community of PhD candidates and researchers at IDE. The average duration of PhD projects is 5.8 years. REMARKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The Committee received enthusiastic reports about the Graduate School from research staff and PhD students alike. The Graduate School has a systematic, formal approach to doctoral education and the mentoring infrastructure is extraordinary. In addition to the thesis project supervisor, each PhD has a daily supervisor for personal mentoring and development. This system works very well. The Committee believes that the formal provisions for supervision and mentoring effort are excellent. The number of hours allocated to this work is significant. 200 hours of supervision and mentoring a year for each student involves significant support. The Committee applauds this. The Committee also believes that the courses of the programme are important as the best opportunity to get the “Design DNA” into PhD research. The interviews suggested to the Committee that the transferable skills course could be improved. It is important to note that no feedback mechanisms exist for student feedback about courses except for the PhD day. Feedback mechanisms should be formally organised. Assessment Committee Report on Research in Industrial Design <strong>Engineering</strong> 2007-2012 19
The Faculty seem to run its PhD training programme on a yearly basis. The Committee suggests that it would be better to run the programme more regularly. It might even examine the possibility of starting with a group of PhD students any moment. 19% of the PhD candidates have not finished after seven years. The Committee is convinced that PhD candidates should graduate much faster. The Committee applauds the fact that the Faculty has developed a sense of urgency about this problem since the development of the Graduate School in 2011. The Committee notes that the Faculty has no backup plan if a supervisor withdraws from supervision or leaves the Faculty. The Committee recommends appointing a co-supervisor or second supervisor. This system is in wide use at other universities. IDE should specifically encourage and consider ways to offer financial support for post-doctoral work abroad. It should also consider a proactive job placement programme for graduates interested in working abroad. The international research community has many international placements for PhD students from a top research university. The Faculty should make use of this situation. 2.6 RESEARCH INTEGRITY At the university level, TU Delft has an integrity policy with a Code of Ethics. This includes regulations and committees to support students and staff. These measures include a Roadmap for Matters of Integrity, a Scientific Integrity Committee, and an Administrative Integrity Committee. The university also has new regulations governing research ethics. For example, this now requires professors to report their external activities for transparency about potential conflicts of interest. At the faculty level, IDE and all Delft faculties have a Confidential Adviser to whom integrity concerns can be reported. The Graduate School includes a programme on research integrity and ethics. Ethics has been also been a focus of PhD day discussions, and it is part of the required PhD course at IDE. 20 Assessment Committee Report on Research in Industrial Design <strong>Engineering</strong> 2007-2012
Page 1 and 2: Assessment Committee Report on Rese
Page 3 and 4: Title: Assessment Committee Report
Page 5 and 6: PREFACE The Assessment Committee wa
Page 7 and 8: A short curriculum vitae of each co
Page 9 and 10: 2. ASSESSMENT OF THE INDUSTRIAL DES
Page 11 and 12: IDE faces an important strategic ch
Page 13 and 14: Members of the Faculty have publish
Page 15 and 16: 2.3 RELEVANCE TO SOCIETY While rese
Page 17 and 18: alanced in terms of developing youn
Page 19: TOTAL 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Page 23 and 24: 3. ASSESSMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL RESEAR
Page 25 and 26: The Committee dealt with this dilem
Page 27 and 28: 3.2 RESEARCH PROGRAMME USER EXPERIE
Page 29 and 30: RELEVANCE TO SOCIETY The research o
Page 31 and 32: 3.3 RESEARCH PROGRAMME TECHNOLOGY T
Page 33 and 34: TT recognises that a strategy chang
Page 35 and 36: APPENDIX A MEMBERS CURRICULA VITAE
Page 37 and 38: for Engineering Product Development
Page 39 and 40: APPENDIX B PROGRAMME SITE VISIT Wed
Page 41 and 42: 16.30 - 17.15 - Prof. Patrick Whitn
Page 43: APPENDIX C EXPLANATION OF THE SEP S

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