Post on 17-Mar-2018
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para a inovação Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro, 2012
TEACHING INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AT FEUP
CARLOS AGUIAR1, JORGE LINO2, XAVIER CARVALHO3, ANTÓNIO TORRES MARQUES4
1Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, Portugal, aguiar@fe.up.pt
2Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, Portugal, falves@fe.up.pt
3Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, Portugal, xavierc@fe.up.pt
4Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, Portugal, marques@fe.up.pt
Abstract: The teaching of Industrial Design at the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto (FEUP) started in the academic year 2000/2001, with its first Industrial Design Master Program, sponsored by the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management. This degree was the result of a partnership with the School of Arts and Design (ESAD) in Matosinhos. It was a course meant to join designers and engineers, supported by a syllabus sought to "transfer" know‐how between those two backgrounds. In 2008, under the EDAM (Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing) frame, the MIT Portugal Program at FEUP hired a teacher with effective training and professional practice in Industrial Design, a background so far non‐existent in the Institution. This contract allowed the strengthen and structuration of the activities carried out by the Design Studio and FEUP´s subsequent release, in the academic year of 2010/2011, of both a Specialization and an Advanced Studies Courses in Product Design and Development, which were based on assumptions somehow opposite to the previously existent degree. This paper presents the experiences that occurred during this process as well as the reached conclusions. Moreover, FEUP´s vision concerning today´s Industrial
Design teaching will also be addressed, from a scientific, educational and economic perspective, regarding the methodological options behind learning by projects (project‐based learning) and strategies for continuous connection to business and industry. We will also address the different lines of research that have enabled both the creation of a theoretical core and professionals more engaged with an Industrial Design´s vision that meets the real needs of society, emphasizing the respect for the human being rather than the mere economic function of the consumer´s. Keywords: design, project‐based learning, product design and development, teaching.
1. Introduction
In 2000, the launch of MDI ‐ Master in Industrial Design,
developed in partnership by the Department of
Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management
(now Department of Mechanical Engineering ‐ DEMEC),
FEUP (Porto, Portugal), and the School of Arts and
Design (ESAD, Matosinhos, Portugal), resulted from the
realization by both schools that the given training in the
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para inovação- IDEMi 2012 Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro , 2012
field, until then, was not professionally fulfilling the
desired expectations for designers graduating in
Portuguese schools. The more or less consensual
difficulty in integrating these graduates in industrial
companies and the evident lack of good practices´ and
success cases in the launch of innovative products with
relevant design, led to consider additional training to
remedy the gaps that were thought to be causing this
situation.
It was clear, at that time, that this situation stemmed in
part from poor training in matters related to a certain
ability to realistically address the pragmatic aspects of
production and that this resulted from a deficit of
"technical" knowledge by the designers. This implies
that the solution would be to give them additional
training in the engineering field. The designed syllabus
reflected this option, devoting a total of 45 ECTS to
technical matters of engineering, while
"complementary" knowledge in design courses only
numbered 12 ECTS. The Project course represented 21
ECTS and Dissertation 42 ECTS. Table 1 shows the
curricular plan of the program (two years).
Table 1: Curricular plan of the MDI program
FEUP
Project Design Engineering
Design and Communication 3 3
Design Management 3 3
Materials and Manufacturing Technologies 6 6
Product Developments Methods I 4,5 4,5
Project I 9 9
Hystory of the Design (for Engineers) or
Resistance of Materials (for Designers) 4,5 4,5 4,5
Design Culture 4,5 4,5
Ergonomics and Interface 4.5 4,5
Marketing Elements 3 3
Models and Prototypes 6 6
Project II 12 12
Information Mnagement 3 3
Product Developments Methods II 4.5 4,5
Psichology and Sociology of Product
Development 4,5 4,5
Materials Selection and Technology
Development 6 6
Thesis/Project 12 12
4,5 4,5
21 12 40,5
4 Thesis/Project 30
2nd Semester
3rd Sem
ester
Total ECTS without Dissertation
Opcional
1st Sem
ester
ESAD
ECTSCurricular Unit
This Master´s degree had several editions until 2012,
and from the students who attended it, a total of 70 got
a master's degree, having the majority of the students a
previous degree in Design. With some frequency, and
despite the commitment and work of students and
teachers, the fact that students had a non‐technical
scientific background together with a lack of certain
knowledge, namely in the area of mathematics, the
results obtained by this master did not reach the
expected depth. This fact somehow corroborated the
fears of those who regard knowledge and the training
process as a specially holistic and mature one, being
impossible to merely complement it on a sporadically
basis, by practices and models of reasoning, if not
referred to the student´s structural, cultural and
projectual approach matrix.
Based on the experience provided by the various
editions of this master's degree, the results of other
Design degrees available in Portugal and abroad, and
especially the experience in the project field of one of
the authors (Carlos Aguiar), it was proposed to FEUP the
reformulation of the design education, taking into
account a whole systemic framework that intends to
frame this type of degree. It is precisely on this topic
that this article focuses.
2. Today’s industrial design
Portugal is a country with little tradition in launching
products with innovative design and quality. The
Industrial Design (ID) and subsequent product
development (PD), upholds and determines the
industrial activity, at the beginning of the entire
business strategy, in the production segment of
consumer goods, daily more difficult at the local level,
due to the hegemonic presence of globalized products,
often produced in a minimization logic of prices as an
almost single strategy of increasing sales.
Despite all this, teaching this activity often remains
hostage to myths and preconceived ideas, resulting
from insufficient information from media, which only
value elite and expressionless practices at the expense
of recognizing the design of everyday products that
actually consubstantiates the presence of persons.
Many of the available courses in Portugal are still built
on these values, which has led to backgrounds and
professionals that hardly integrate the national
industrial sector that, as it is well known, lacks dynamics
and has very limited market horizons.
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para inovação- IDEMi 2012 Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro , 2012
The urgent consideration of environmental factors,
social and human rights in the design of products to
meet the needs of populations and streamline both
economic activity and employment, means that it is
urgent to reinvent this model disseminated by the
consumerism societies´ media. In these, the design is
mainly linked to image and branding strategies aiming
to increase the added value of products, without
necessarily contributing to an overall systemic
improvement of neither people’s lives nor the social,
environmental and productive sustainability. Besides,
the teaching models beneath this reality must be
questioned, reinventing processes, methodologies and
values, to face a new economic and social reality that is
no longer possible to hide (Aguiar and Carvalho 2010).
Aware of this scenario, FEUP decided to start, in
2010/2011, in the Design and Product Development
field, two new degrees (Specialization Course and
Advanced Studies) taking into account a strong
approach to project‐based learning, but encompassing a
close integration of all the valences at stake, within a
cooperative and complementary knowledge approach
and not on the additional training of designers (Aguiar
et al. 2011, Lino and Duarte 2011).
This commitment stems from the understanding that
the design of new products, from capital goods to
consumption ones, the so‐called tradable goods, is a
cooperative project‐oriented business that must
emerge from the intersection of three cultures:
Engineering, Design and Management.
For a new product to born and then survive in the
market, it needs to contain values of attractiveness
(emotional), viability (economic) and feasibility
(technical).
In the project‐oriented process model that we
advocate, the actors from these three cultures
cooperate from the beginning of the process and, if
possible, in real time, ensuring the products, the values
of Feasibility and Performance (Engineering),
Profitability and Logistics (Management) and Usability
and Meaning (Design). Figure 1 shows the cooperative
vision of the courses that were implemented.
Figure 1: Overview of cooperative industrial design and development
In the Portuguese context, where the offer of 1st and 2nd
cycles in Design is wide and varied, and 3rd cycles very
limited, FEUP chose to focus its activity in a
Specialization Course and in the Advanced Studies
Course in Design and Product Development, that would
allow to develop increased professional know‐how,
especially in the area of cooperation, according to the
paradigm above, aiming at graduates from other
training paradigms.
3. New courses of FEUP in Design and Product Development
The training is based on a core unifying Course,
Laboratory Project, where students, under the
workshop frame (extended stay in school that can go, in
total, up to 40h/week, between tutorial hours and
individual work) successively developed several
products, process in which other teachers from
converging courses also participate, reflecting the
aspects that relate to their subjects.
The evaluation of these courses takes into account a
portion resulting from the application of knowledge
acquired to the projects developed.
Each project has the cooperation of a partner company
that launches, monitors and validates the results
obtained, however without participating in the
assessment, which remains the sole responsibility of the
Faculty.
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para inovação- IDEMi 2012 Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro , 2012
In the first semester, "Laboratory Projects I",
sequentially addresses three projectual exercises (for 4,
6 and 10 weeks) of increasing complexity, and it focus
on products that can be developed to the real scale,
with a strong link with the hand and ranging from
something like "single piece", "single‐material" to a
system with a very limited set of components (<5).
In the second semester, in "Laboratory Projects II", with
an interval of 15 days, three projectual exercises are
placed simultaneously (lasting 20, 18 and 16 weeks), of
greater complexity, and focusing on products that need
development at scale, connected to the body, the
housing space and the public space, formed by systems
with a larger number of materials and components.
In the first edition of this course (2010/11) we found
that, despite the generally positive results, the ECTS
assigned to each UC were not matching the actual
volume of work required for students, which distorts an
equal weighting of the average ratings and introduced
some deviation from the model of project‐based
learning.
It was therefore requested and approved a change in
the curriculum, with an increased relevance given to
project, occupying 15 of the 30 ECTS available each
semester. This option forced slight rearrangements of
other fields in order to give a greater importance to
subjects previously addressed only by cycles of
conferences (like the Semantics of Products
Development and Products Certification and
Validation). Table 2 shows the curriculum of the
Specialization Course in Design and Product
Development (EDDP) and the new syllabus started in
the academic year 2011/12.
The 2010/2011 edition of the course tried to
immediately put into practice the pedagogical model
and the outlined relationship with the companies. These
were contacted and selected depending on the
suitability of its manufacturing range to the topics
intended to address at all times.
Students visited their plants and contacted with
manufacturing processes and installed capacities (Figure
2). The company made them acquainted to their market
and more relevant needs. During the project (held at
FEUP), companies technicians monitored twice the
results under development. At the end of each
semester a public presentation of the work was made.
Table 2: Specialization Syllabus
Totals Contact Week
Product Design and Development 3 81 28 2
From Market to Design 6 162 56 4
Materials and Processes 6 162 56 4
Project Lab. 1 9 243 84 6
Usability and Experience Design 6 162 56 4
Design Detail 6 162 56 4
From Design to Business 6 162 56 4
Introduction to Design Research 3 81 28 2
Project Lab. 2 9 243 84 6
3D Digital 6 162 56 4
Totals Contact Week
Project Lab. 1 15 405 126 9
Materials and Processes 4 108 42 3
Advanced Modelling and Prototyping 4 108 42 3
Semantics of Product Development 3 81 28 2
Usability and Experience Design 4 108 42 3
Design Detail 4 108 42 3
From Market to Design and from Design to
Business 5 135 56 4
Introduction to Design Research 3 81 28 2
Project Lab. 2 15 405 126 9
Validation and Certification of Products 3 81 28 2
Specialization in Design and Product Development
Actual Curricular Plan, started 2011/12 ECTS
Hours
1st Sem
ester
2nd Semester
2nd Sem
ester
Specialization in Design and Product Development
Hours
1st Sem
ester
ECTSCurricular Plan for 2010/11
Figure 2: Visit to Cifial, sanitary appliances factory (Santa Comba Dão)
Six projects have been developed following this
approach:
1st Semester (sequential projects):
• Range of accessories for cookware (Silampos and
Eumel);
• Kitchen knife (Sicoeste);
• Door hardware (Cifial)
2nd Semester (parallel projects):
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para inovação- IDEMi 2012 Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro , 2012
• Toaster (Flama);
• Classroom furnishings (Nautilus);
• LED base system for outside illumination (Cleverbox).
Figures 3‐6 presents a few examples from 134 projects
implemented throughout the year by the 24 students
enrolled, from which one can assess the answering level
achieved and the effort to adapt to the productive
reality of companies and their specific needs that
guided exercises.
Figure 3: Accessories (Silampos), Cecilia Carvalho, Bruno Oliveira, Bruno Alberto Oliveira, Jaime Sarró, Mariana Rodriguez, Nina Costa,
Pedro Costa
Figure 4: Knife (Sico), Cecilia Carvalho, Bruno Alberto Oliveira, Pedro
Costa, Joseph Bruno Oliveira, Joao Rebelo
Figure 5: Door hardware (Cifial), Bruno Alberto Oliveira, Bruno José
Oliveira, Jaime Sarró, João Rebelo, Cecília Carvalho, Pedro Praça
Figure 6: Toaster (Flama) ‐ Liliana Figueiredo, Sofia Santos, Pedro
Costa
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para inovação- IDEMi 2012 Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro , 2012
Figure 7 presents other type of products developed in
the first semester of 2011/12.
Figure 7: Sanitary products (Cifial) ‐ Diana Santos, Diogo Fula, Duarte
Lima, Tiago Gamboa, Tiago Teixeira
As stated before in the introduction, the teaching of
Industrial Design at FEUP led to an internal reflection to
identify the areas and interventions so that greater
synergies could be created with the national existing
offer, particularly in University of Porto. In this sense, in
2010/2011 a degree for Advanced Studies in Design and
Product Development (EADDP) started, also based on
an approach focused on a strong connection to a
company and a real context of development.
In the first edition (2010/11) three students developed
work in the following areas:
• Composite materials ‐ tradable carbon fibre goods (in
partnership with the company Idea M) (Figure 8);
• Ceramic tiles of porous nanocomposites with diffusing
capacity of flavourings (in partnership with Domino
company) (Figure 9);
• Study of ambulance interiors, in a particularly relevant
partnership with the structure of the INEM (National
Institute of Emergency Medicine), developing Co‐Design
and engaging in a systematic and decisive way the users
of these equipment’s, doctors and other health
professionals, in the definition of fundamental
constraints of the project (Figure 10).
Figure 8: Design in composite materials; Júlio Martins
Figure 9: Porous tiles to diffuse smells; Miguel Pessoa
Figure 10: Interior design for ambulances; Augusto Coelho
This first edition also allowed withdrawing conclusions
that came to be the basis for a readjustment of the
curriculum, like the one for the Specialization Course. In
this case, the UC Research Methodology was
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para inovação- IDEMi 2012 Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro , 2012
anticipated to the first semester, together with
Semantics of Products Development.
The optional courses offered on Design and
Management were eliminated as well as the ones in the
Engineering that proved to be redundant. In the second
semester the Marketing course, replacing the Research
Methodology one. This plan was not tested in the
academic year of 2011/2012 because there weren’t
enough candidates. Table 3 shows the past (2010/11)
and current study plans (2011/12 and subsequent
academic years) of the course.
Table 3: Structure of the Advanced course in Design and Product Development
Totals Contact Week
Seminar/Project I 9 243 86 6
Design and Product Development 3 81 28 2
Criativity 6 162 42 3
Cognitive Psychology 6 162 56 4
Usability and Experience Design 6 162 56 4
Investment Project Analysis 6 162 28 2
From Market to Design 6 162 56 4
Introduction to Entrepreneurship 6 162 56 4
Total Quality Management 6 162 56 4
Materials and Processes 6 162 56 4
Finite Elements Method 6 162 56 4
Research Methodology 12 324 112 8
Seminar/Project II 6 162 56 4
Any CU of UP 6 162 UP UP
Any CU of UP 6 162 UP UP
Totals Contact Week
Research Methods 6 162 42 3
Semantics of Product Development 3 81 28 2
Seminar/Project I 9 243 86 6
Criativity 6 162 42 3
Cognitive Psychology 6 162 56 4
Introduction to Entrepreneurship 6 162 28 2
Investment Project Analysis 6 162 56 4
Seminar/Project II 12 324 112 8
Marketing 6 162 56 4
Any CU of UP 6 162 UP UP
Any CU of UP 6 162 UP UP2nd Sem
ester
Advanced Studies in Design and Product Development
Actual Curricular Plan, started 2011/12 ECTS
Hours
1st Sem
ester
Opcional Design ‐ 1 CU from the list
Opcional Management ‐ 1 CU from the list
2nd Sem
ester
Advanced Studies in Design and Product Development
Hours
Opcional Design ‐ 1 CU from the list
Opcional Management ‐ 1 CU from the list
1st Sem
ester
Opcional Engineering ‐ 1 CU from the list
ECTSCurricular Plan for 2010/11
These two formations provide students with,
respectively, 60 ECTS 2nd cycle Bologna and 60 ECTS 3rd
cycle Bologna, allowing the construction of curricula
cross‐enriched, to be articulated with other academic
degrees from FEUP, including the Master of Design
Industrial and Doctoral programs in various areas such
as Industrial Engineering and Management, Civil
Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, etc.
The curricular approach here presented has major gains
in the "variable geometry", making it possible to adapt
the syllabus to the interests and previous background of
the student besides enhancing the role of the Design
Studio FEUP as pivot infrastructure between courses
and departments, reinforcing the view of cross‐training
less focused on very specific sectorial knowledge and
more in the capacity of integration and cooperative
teams work and knowledge.
4. Core values
Although based in a school of great tradition in
technical courses, both EDDP and EADDP have been
conducted considering as base values of the practice of
design, aspects related to human values, more than
with the excellence of the technology that underlies the
products.
One can summarize in four structuring values the
projectual posture that has been valued, naturally
without disregarding eventual different approaches:
Primacy of the user ‐ as it should be the welfare the
ultimate goal of the product and not the mere
maintenance of the existing economic system;
Cooperative project ‐ to the extent that projecting must
be a team activity in which all partners have equal
value, thus denying the so widespread design idea of
the "copyright work";
Appropriate technology ‐ in that many of the daily life
problems can and must be solved using less devices and
simpler ones, more inclusive and sustainable, having in
mind a less hedonistic society and civilization, adjusting
the technological development to the economic and
social reality;
Consideration of the local scale as a counterpoint to
globalization ‐ to the extent that the promotion of
economic activities for local and small‐scale labour
dimension retrieves the labour human dimension, the
productive ethical and allows dynamic and profitable
cultural community valences.
II Conferência Internacional de Design, Engenharia e Gestão para inovação- IDEMi 2012 Florianópolis, SC, Brasil, 21-23, Outubro , 2012
5. Conclusions
The academic graduation offered in the Product Design
field in Portugal is still under a traditional view that
directs the teaching of all aspects of activities to schools
of Fine Arts (and Architecture) in Public Colleges, to
generalist High Education Institutions (usually named as
Technology and Management), or private institutions
with a strong offering, covering all areas (as IADE, ESAD,
etc.).
The partnerships between the schools of Industrial
Design and Engineering and Management,
complementing their action as part of the Strategic
Design, and the significant gains that it might
encompass, both for the quality of training as to the
operability of the professionals, have been very
punctual and difficult to implement.
If we look to international examples we see that this
approach is spread throughout schools, such as the
Rhode Island School of Design (USA), and the Sloan
School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (USA).
The teaching of Industrial Design in Portugal, in order to
train professionals able to support the national industry
sector in the design of new products and tradable
goods, will only develop more solidly if it begins to have
a greater involvement of schools of engineering and
management in the existing 1st cycles or if it starts new
programs from scratch.
The degrees offered and addressed by this paper go in
that direction, and the results seem to validate the bet
that was in the origin of its creation.
References
Carlos Aguiar and Xavier Carvalho, 2010. “Aprendizagem baseada em projecto”. Tecnometal 188, Maio/Junho, p. 28‐34
Carlos Aguiar, Almeida, Rocha C. and N. Couto, 2011. “Flexibilidade do Design como resposta à variação de condicionantes tecnológicas durante o projecto”. Tecnometal 192, Janeiro/Fevereiro, p. 6‐14.
F. Jorge Lino and Teresa P. Duarte, 2011. “Research skill enhancement in future Mechanical engineers”. International J. Eng. Pedagogy 1, 1, p. 20‐26.