M.Sc. in Engineering Design - IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology ...

It should be noted that major changes are currently taking place in industry all around the world.
Changes in products, the design process, the market place, relationships with business partners and
environmental demands have placed new demands (both managerial and technological) on the entire
product development process. Following other international practices, the importance of integrating
advanced methods and tools from the field of engineering design with the management of engineering
(i.e., adopting a holistic approach to the product development process) has become apparent.
Efficient product development could open up new mass-markets where Portuguese companies have
not traditionally been competitive. Manufacturing companies where mechanical, electronic, computer
and software solutions are integral to the product development process will use engineering design
tools and methods to achieve the stated vision and resulting competitive advantage.
Current problems in industry clearly include lack of design capacity, beyond lack of accessibility and
difficulty in testing results in an industrial setting. Furthermore, new engineering graduates are poorly
trained in design and often lack experience in teamwork. As a result there is a real need for new
approaches to research and education in engineering design. The M.Sc in Engineering Design at IST
has been created to meet these demands by emphasizing a holistic view in the development process
and by providing the university with contents and opportunities to transfer knowledge to practicing
engineers.
It should also be noted that our vision for the next decade is the establishment of routine procedures of
collaborative product development in Portuguese manufacturing, allowing the incorporation of design
competencies in industry in a way to increase product value and reduce product development lead
times, while simultaneously reducing life-cycle costs, improving quality and satisfying the general
design requirements of minimum energy consumption, recycling capability and environmental
friendliness.
To achieve these objectives, the M.Sc in Engineering Design at IST has been implemented together
with a Research Agenda including the following topics:
o Autoparts for the future
o Reliable and sustainable mobility
o Exploring traditional Portuguese products engineered
o Smart capital goods
o Medical devices
o Design for citizenship
o Collaborative design and multimodal interaction for new product development
o Miniaturized equipments and systems
o Human - body interfacing and interaction
o MIMICS – configurable and adaptive surfaces