Work in progress - a Master of Design program collaborating with Electronic engineering and technology

Like most postgraduate programs at design, the Master of Design in Unitec New Zealand is a multi-disciplinary programme that gives students the opportunity to sharpen their skills in collaboration with other design professionals. The degree is ‘by project’, which means that the student undertake a project based on an aspect of their design practice to date. There is no coursework, although the design project will be supported by a strong contemporary theoretical framework, which teaches students to design products in support of human activities and interactions. Normally, such an academic program intends to produce so called Industrial Designers, who are a cross between an engineer and an artist. The students study both function and form, and the connection between product and the user. Therefore, they do not need to design e.g. the circuits that control a motor. Since Electronic engineering and technology has been introduced to this program, questions have been asked: Is a student’s scientific research background useful in designing? This paper analyses three Master of Design students’ projects as examples to discover an innovative uses of Master of Design for Electronic engineering and technology graduates to acquire what industries needed.