Programme aim
The master’s programme in Industrial design engineering is based on industry demand for effective and efficient product development processes with a strong user focus to ensure commercially successful products, as well as societal demands for a transition towards a more sustainable society with regard to environmental impact and people’s well-being.
This means that the programme aims to prepare students for a professional career designing products, product service systems, and interactions in varying contexts. Within the programme, students are given the opportunity to enhance their ability to handle complex design problems and design innovative, user-centred, sustainable solutions. The programme strives for students to develop knowledge of state-of-the-art theories, methods, and tools as well as hone their practical skills through application in hands-on projects. In addition, the programme also aims for students to develop their ability to make informed design decisions, balancing demands from users, industry, society and the environment in an integrated systems perspective.
Who should apply
The programme is suitable for students who are interested in working to make people’s experiences richer and lives better through the technology they use. As the programme offers advanced level education in user-centred design, the programme requires students to be already familiar with the design process, the theoretical basics in industrial design and human factors engineering, as well as traditional technological know-how.
Why apply
The strong focus on the interplay between humans, technology, and design gives you unique competence to work with the human dimension of technology – a highly sought-after quality. This competence is a mix of creativity, empathic ability, deep theoretical knowledge on human preconditions and sense of responsibility for the solutions.
During the education you get to train your ability to see problems from multiple perspectives and work with strategy as well as details which opens up for truly innovative solutions, realised in different mediums from physical consumer products and work equipment, to design of services, interactions, workspaces and processes.
The programme integrates theoretical and methodological studies with applied project work where the acquired knowledge is applied in practice, often in collaboration with companies outside Chalmers. The result is students equipped with a large toolbox full of methods, tools, and theories, as well as knowledge/skill on how to adapt the basic design process to a wide variety of design problems with different focus, resources and scales.
Other Programmes that might interest you
Automotive Engineering
Design and Construction Project Management
Interaction Design and Technologies
Product Development
Production Engineering
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Entry requirements (academic year 2018/19)
General entry requirementsTo be eligible an applicant must either be a holder of a Bachelor's degree in Science/Engineering/Technology/Architecture or be enrolled in his/her last year of studies leading to such a degree.
General entry requirements in detail
Chalmers Bachelor’s degree
Are you enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree programme at Chalmers now or do you already have a Bachelor’s degree from Chalmers? If so, different application dates and application instructions apply.
Specific entry requirements
Bachelor’s degree (or the equivalent) with a major in: Industrial Design Engineering or Product Design Engineering
Prerequisites: Mathematics (at least 15 cr.), Mechanical engineering (at least 30 cr.), Industrial design (at least 45 cr.) (including Design and Development, Design methodology, Form theory), Human factors engineering (at least 7,5 cr.) (including Ergonomics and Human Machine Interaction).
A portfolio of design projects is required. The portfolio should contain at least three examples of projects and the examples must be able to demonstrate the applicant’s proficiency in designing with consideration to technical functionality, user interaction and experience, as well as elements of aesthetics. A portfolio that takes into account all the three aspects as an integrated whole in all the examples is preferred.
English Language Proficiency
The most common and important scores that are accepted are
- IELTS (academic training), 6.5 (with no part of the test below 5.5)
- TOEFL (Internet based): 90 (with a minimum of 20 on the written part)
- TOEFL (paper based): 575 (with a minimum of 4.5 on the written part)
Citizens of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
Chalmers cannot admit applicants with citizenship only of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea due to the European Council Regulation U2017/01157/UH concerning restrictive measures against DPRK. Applicants with double citizenships of which one is of Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the other of another country, the citizenship of the other country has precedence in this respect.
Useful links
You will find the programme content in detail, incl. syllabus and description of the courses for the current year in the Student Portal, the intranet for enrolled students at Chalmers.
Programme content in detail, incl. syllabus and description of the courses
Master's Theses, projects, facilities and more (external website)
Research connections
The field of technology, industrial design and human factors engineering also provides a variety of subjects suitable for research. The combination opens up opportunities for research on issues that are important for the user’s understanding of a product or a system, as well as needs, requirements and safety.
Department of Product and Production Development
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