Interdisciplinary product design education

An approach to experimental education is presented that has succeeded at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in motivating both engineering and management students to orient their academic studies and career plans towards design activities. The course emphasizes that product development is an interdisciplinary function requiring skills that span traditional departmental boundaries. The authors consider the demands of modern design practice in order to specify a model for educating design professionals. They describe the motivation for a new way of teaching design, and outline some of the difficulties in meeting this challenge. The course taught at MIT is described, and some related issues are addressed. The information distributes the results of experience in product design education to educators and practitioners