Masters Degrees (Industrial Design)

Introduction

MA Industrial Design applies intellectual development directly to design practice, empowering you take on a strategic role, to identify and respond to trends, to initiate new design approaches, and to thrive in multidisciplinary teams.

Content

Flexible, imaginative, innovative and collaborative, industrial designers must respond to rapid commercial and technological change. Increasingly, designers are called on to take a proactive role in industry and to get involved in strategic decision-making.

This course is part of the Ceramic, Industrial and Product Design programme. MA Industrial Design students anticipate and initiate change in all areas of industrial design - in consumer-durable and capital goods, in transport, packaging and sanitary ware, in furniture for private, corporate or public environments, in architectural space, in interface design and design management, and in strategies for corporate and governmental development.

The relationships between industrial designers, manufacturers, retailers, purchasers and users are constantly being renegotiated, demanding greater flexibility and wider knowledge of industry and commerce. Against this backdrop, managerial skills are often as important as the engineering and creative skills required to develop design concepts. MA Industrial Design emphasises self-directed and peer-group learning, benefiting hugely from the range of cultures and backgrounds represented by our students.

Structure

MA Industrial Design lasts 60 weeks structured as two consecutive periods of 30 weeks each (i.e. two academic years) in its 'extended full-time mode'.

MA Industrial Design is credit rated at 180 credits, and comprises 2 units. Unit 1 (60 credits) lasts 20 weeks. Unit 2 (120 credits) runs for 10 weeks in the first year and 30 weeks in the second year.

Both units must be passed in order to achieve the MA, but the classification of the award of MA derives from your mark for Unit 2 only.

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The MSc Industrial Design programme within the Contemporary Dialogues portfolio offers an exciting and innovative re-thinking of the Postgraduate provision that reflects the strategic thinking of Swansea College of Art. The portfolio facilitates migration between diverse thematic disciplines, exploring new ideas and conceptual approaches that confront us in society today and that of the future.

Course Overview

The MSc Industrial Design programme is about pushing the envelope of design ideation by giving students the freedom to challenge current conventions through collaborative experimentation and design thinking that reflects and addresses environmental, economic and technological challenges present in today’s society. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted, giving the students the opportunity to realise a design outcome, through analytical and practical investigation. You will have the opportunity to immerse yourself in the virtual environment to validate a design direction, considering both an intellectual and technical argument to your outcome conclusions. The modules focus on design thinking and the development of your technical and philosophical perspectives, acting as a platform to design for manufacturing reality.

This programme is delivered in the newly refurbished Alexandra Road building in the Swansea Arts Quarter, and during the course of your studies you will be supported by specialist staff, leading professionals and practicing artists through lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. We have exceptional traditional and digital facilities, housed in spacious purpose-build workshops. Through these, we encourage creative freedom within all of our students and support you in challenging conventional thinking and established practices and facilitate new technological advances across a broad range of disciplines. We have found that through collaborative experimentation and innovative design thinking our students are able to produce work that meets the challenges and respond to the demands of the 21st century. This ensures that the course delivers a qualification and experience that is highly relevant to the changing needs of the industry.

Modules

Core Modules
-Collaborative Dialogues (20 credits)
-Co-Existent Perspectives (20 credits)
-The Thought Experiment (20 credits)
-Explorative Research Praxis (60 credits)
-Confirmative Praxis (60 credits)

Key Features

The MSc Industrial Design programme within the Contemporary Dialogues portfolio offers an exciting and innovative re-thinking of Postgraduate provision that reflects the strategic thinking of Swansea College of Art. The portfolio facilitates migration between diverse thematic disciplines, exploring new ideas and conceptual approaches to allow young artists and designers to confront the issues that face society today and into the future.

The portfolio’s ethos of collaborative dialogues through material practices provides an innovative model of design, fine and applied arts education. This development allows students from all pathways to experience and share creative practices and innovative mind-sets through inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary dialogues. This ethos is enhanced within each programme to stimulate ‘collaborative’ practices and experimentation across a broader spectrum of specialist fields, developing graduates with the contextual awareness, creative thinking and technical skills to operate at the forefront of their discipline.

During the course of your studies you will be supported by specialist staff, leading professionals and practicing artists through lectures, seminars, workshops and tutorials. We have exceptional traditional and digital facilities, housed in spacious purpose-build workshops. Through these, we encourage creative freedom within all of our students and support you in challenging conventional thinking and established practices and facilitate new technological advances across a broad range of disciplines. We have found that through collaborative experimentation and innovative design thinking our students are able to produce work that meets the challenges and respond to the demands of the 21st century.

Facilities include:
-Firing kilns for glass and ceramics
-Printmaking, Screen Printing and Digital Textile Technologies
-Traditional and Digital Stitch
-Wood, Metal, Clay
-Cutting Etching and Engraving Technologies - Waterjet, Laser, Plotter
-3D Printing and CNC
-Chemical and Digital Darkrooms
-Specialist computer facilities with commercial standard software

Assessment

The main modes of assessment used on this programme are; studio projects, written assignments and seminar presentations.

Assessment at postgraduate level is reflected by your ability to reformulate and use relevant methodologies and approaches to address problematic situations that involve many interacting factors. It includes taking responsibility for planning and developing courses of action that initiate or underpin substantial change or development, as well as exercising broad autonomy and judgement. It should also reflect an understanding of the relevant theoretical and methodological perspectives and how they affect your area of study or work.

Career Opportunities

This programme is written from an employability enhancement perspective, creating the platform for students to embrace the spectrum of commercial and cultural opportunities available, encouraging real life engagements, networking and other activities.

One of the guiding principles and enhancements of this programme is a commitment to flexible learning, with creative flexible learning and teaching relationships and discourses in order to make sure that the student’s individual needs and projected career opportunities are at the centre of their activities. This flexibility and concentration on individual needs and opportunities within learning is placed primarily at the service of employability.

Students will be encouraged to embrace professional networks and create links with enterprise – locally, nationally and globally, as well as connect with external agencies and organisations. Additionally the postgraduate programme has great potential to contribute to the commercial, academic and applied research aspirations of the University and its desire to contribute knowledge to the field of innovation, product and transportation research and development.

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Objectives

The ID4A Master educational aim is to train professionals skilful at developing high quality projects in the field that ranges over the architectural layout and the efficiency of the building components.

The Master has also the objective of completing the training of designers, extending their expertise and problem solving skills with the culture and tools typical of Industrial Design. This aim is sought through an educational course that integrates theoretical knowledge with design studios, vocational activities such as visits to companies and practices and meeting with professionals, and the mandatory internship in architecture and design practices or companies of the building sector.

Job description

The Master course aims at answering to the ever-changing job market, that demands professionals able to work within contexts where multidisciplinary skills are useful and appreciated. The Master ID4A trains designers able to operate on different canvas and to tackle the challenges of the integrated design into diverse national and international realities of the building sector.

Subject content

The program includes three formative areas dealing with different aspects of Industrial Design:

• Design Culture: history and evolution of design, with special reference to aesthetic developments and to the ever closer relationship that has been developing over the years between product and build up space.

• Design Technology: study of the different technology, materials and tools needed in conceiving and realizing products that combine in a built up environment.

• Design Strategy: study of new construction processes, design innovation management and the introduction of design in the corporate strategies of companies in the sector. 

A fourth area will be added to these: Design Studio, which will include practical work in design on various design themes such as:

• designing finished built-in products, in other words as integratable building components;

• designing electronic consumer products and space saving products that are highly intergratable with building manufacturing;

• designing serial construction products, e.g. for temporary structures and modular building solutions;

Such tasks may be individual or in teams and may envisage the participation of a leading companies in the sector of reference. The assessment achieved will constitute the basis for final marking.

Lessons will be held in English.

For more information: http://www.polidesign.net/id4a

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This programme is designed to improve the effectiveness of Industrial Designers within industry. It is beneficial for both recent graduates and current practitioners in advancing their core design knowledge and specialist skills to a higher level.

It aims to further develop critical awareness of major industrial design practice, increasing your input and value to current and potential employers. You will also develop skills in producing a balanced portfolio of high quality designs and innovative thinking which will enable you to deal with complex and interrelated issues both analytically and creatively.

Areas covered include:
-Sketching, visual layouts, presentation techniques, qualitative and quantitative design research methods, Enterprise & Business, Design for Behaviour Change, Collaborative Design
-Creating product design briefs, project management, advanced CAD application and design practice
-Culminating in a 60 credit Industrial Design Major Project that provides an opportunity to integrate all of the appropriate elements

The programme also provides you with the exciting opportunity to enter an international design competition as well as participation in industry supported projects.

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This masters in industrial design strives to train designers who are capable of conceiving products to address a multitude of markets, while retaining solid design principles.

Students will gain experience in product design, from the preliminary concept to its refinement, to the physical and digital representation of the project.

The program develop an approach which stresses the users' experience, as well as the social meaning of the product, and its relation to the designer.

Students are expected to have an open mind, with an interdisciplinary approach to methodology which values their own cultural background, and emphasizes the role of dialogue and mutual exchange in the creative process.

With close relationships to major industrial partners, SPD industrial design students will face challenging tasks that address the relationships with business and organizations in a mature way. Technical training is particularly emphasized in order to build up solid professional groundings. Students can use modeling and computer design laboratories equipment with the most advanced software to further enhance their skill-set.

The course lasts 15 months (from October until December) and is entirely taught in English language.

QUALIFICATION

After passing the final exam, eligible students will obtain a Master’s Degree from IULM and SPD. The Master corresponds to 60 ECTS credits.

ABOUT THE SCHOOL

Founded in Milan in 1954, SPD Scuola Politecnica di Design is the first postgraduate school for design disciplines in Italy. Situated in Milan, the capital of design, Scuola Politecnica di Design pioneered design education thanks to its solid grounding and to its peculiar approach integrating different domains: ergonomics, art, perception studies, semiotics.

Today, SPD is an international laboratory for the exchange of ideas, experience and creativity in order to develop projects. Since its foundation the school has welcomed an extraordinary community of students from various countries and backgrounds.

All courses are taught in a personalized and small learning environment promoting easy contact with the faculty and the staff. Indeed, at SPD every student is followed individually by a faculty formed by designers, professionals from different fields and visiting tutors.

The masters programs offered by SPD are organized in collaboration with IULM University, and award academic degrees recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education, The University and Research MIUR, corresponding to 60 credits under the ECTS system.

The teaching method at Scuola Politecnica di Design is arranged into intensive workshops, studio classes, theoretical lectures, seminars and visits. Research work is carried out in collaboration with leading companies such as Volkswagen, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Heineken, IKEA, Artemide and Poltrona Frau Group among the others.

These projects are deveopped according to an interdisciplinary approach which is a testing ground for the student’s skills, from the concept idea to its execution.

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The Specializing Master in Industrial Design Engineering and Innovation, directed by Prof. Matteo O. Ingaramo, was created to mold capable designers who can manage the entire development of a new product from the initial concept to the manufacturing stage.

This program aims to train professionals to manage the design and production processes for both small- and large-scale manufactured items, with an expert eye on issues of technology, manufacturing, and cost but without sacrificing features of quality of expression.

Please visit: http://www.polidesign.net/en/industrialdesign

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The master of fine arts degree in industrial design is for career enhancement or redirection. The educational experience is project-oriented, requiring research into design methods and technologies. Cross-disciplinary collaboratives provide an experiential dimension.

The first year of study includes seminar courses in design history and research, which are common to all graduate students in the School of Design. In addition, studio courses involve extensive design work with respect to sustainability, design process, the meaning of artifacts, and critical analysis. Additional course work using three-dimensional software for modeling and fabrication fills out the program.

In the second year students conduct research and develop a thesis project, which is presented in a graduate thesis exhibition or presentation, and is documented in a written thesis report.

Curriculum

- First Year

Design Laboratory I
Function of Form
2D Ideation and Visualization
Design History Seminar
Design Laboratory II
Form of Function
Integrated Design Visualization
Design Research and Proposal

- Second Year

Free Electives
Art History Elective
Thesis: Research and Planning
Thesis: Implementation and Evaluation

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This course will prepare you for the creative industries, to become strategic with your visionary approach, capable of formulating inspired, creative designs based upon sound design strategy and research methodology. You'll be able to lead the creative design direction with flair and precision, to provide successful designs through discerning analysis and synthesis of human needs and design form. You may have come from, or have a wish to enter, a broad and diverse range of creative design industries: from graphics and packaging to product, exhibition and furniture, or to transport and spatial design.

Core units:
Design Aesthetics
Design Interaction
Business Innovation & Enterprise
Design Management
Materials Optimisation for Sustainability
Research Methods
Individual Master's Project

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About the course

The MSc in Integrated Product Design course focuses on the design of innovative products, emphasising the balance between the interest of users, industry and society. It covers the whole design process, integrating all aspects relevant to product development, in particular global new product design.

It meets industrial demand by integrating technology, management, aesthetics, environmental sustainability, ergonomics, marketing, business and design methods – to produce highly qualified and sought after designers able to cope with the challenges the global economy presents.

Specifically, the course aims to:

Provide an integrated programme of study across a broad range of knowledge and skills in product/industrial design
Develop design and technology research skills related to the design process through practicing applied research
Develop advanced design skills, enabling graduates to practice as an independent design professional and to further develop design and professional skills in product/industrial design engineering
Nurture scientific rigour as well as creativity to enable graduates to follow a successful career in product/industrial design and assume leadership roles in national and international companies and institutions.

Aims

Students master all aspects of integrated product design advancing their design skills and knowledge by applying systematic state-of-the-art theories and methodologies, and by integrating user, technology and business aspects. This not only opens up dynamic career options, but equips students with a comprehensive skillset to take into the commercial world.

The primary aim of this programme is to provide students with the practical knowledge and transferable skills required to be at the forefront of global product and services design research and development, in either an industrial or academic environment.
Graduates of this MSc will also have the independent learning ability required for both continual professional development and the acquisition of new skills at the highest level.

The course provides an integrated approach and promotes advanced studies in design theory, creativity and aesthetics, innovation methods, advanced design techniques, human factors and applied ergonomics, engineering, material and production science, sustainability and research methods.

Course Content

The first term includes three taught modules worth a total of 45 credits plus one double module of 30 credits which continues into the second term alongside three further modules. The thick module, Professional Design Studio, will include guest lectures, research seminars and group or individual project. The projects can be based on design research or product/industrial design.

The ‘Design Futures’ module will introduce the importance and potential value of future foresight techniques and develop a vision of the future and critically evaluate its implications for design, innovation and enabling technology.

The ‘Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing Techniques’ module will introduce CAD and graphics based design modelling, rendering techniques and tools, product design simulation techniques and tools, rapid prototyping and manufacturing techniques.

For the final four months of the programme (June to September), students can either continue their projects to greater depth as their dissertation project, or undertake a new subject. Students are encouraged to form industrial links as part of this project.

Typical Modules

Sustainable Design
Design Creativity and Aesthetic Awareness
Human Factors in Design
Professional Design Studio
Design and Innovation Futures: Seminar & Workshop
Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing Techniques
Strategic Design Management and Research
Dissertation Project

Assessment

Work in each module is predominantly assessed through practical project assignments including both individual and group work. The dissertation makes up a third of the overall degree and may include a substantial practical design element, but in all cases will be assessed through a final 20,000 word submission.

Special Features

High league table standings: Our courses are among the highest-ranking for Product and Industrial Design in the UK. In all the most recent university guides, as well as in the National Student Survey, Brunel Design is placed in the top four out of all UK Art and Design courses.

High employability: Design graduates enjoy excellent career prospects – see student graduate articles.

Accreditation

Brunel's Integrated Product Design course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED).

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Study interaction design at an advanced level and explore new approaches to design creating dynamic proposals that respond to the needs of our rapidly changing society.

At Sheffield Institute of Arts interaction design is cross-disciplinary and investigates human-technological futures via design related interactions that lie between the digital and the physical. Using a practice based approach you explore the designing of interactive digital products, environments services and systems.

Interaction design is most often studied by graduates from a variety of backgrounds including • interaction design • digital media • fine art • product design • graphic design • furniture design • architecture • computer science. Your projects are supported by lecturers who are design specialists, researchers and practitioners. Modules are supported by lecturers who are design specialists in areas as diverse as • exhibition design • HCI • medical products • materials development • design thinking • social design • design anthropology.

During the course you work with experts in other departments as well as outside of the University.

As a postgraduate design student you join an established network of creative people that encourage and support you to drive your studies to the next level. Our postgraduate framework of design courses has been designed to allow you to come together with students from different disciplines, backgrounds and cultures to share teaching and learning experiences and explore your creative identities through dialogue and practice.

The primary intention of the programme is to allow you to achieve your personal employment ambitions, whether as a design professional in the creative industries, or in related areas such as marketing or research. You are also well placed to go onto further study at PhD level.

Employability

The course has a strong vocational focus to prepare, encourage and develop your confidence for employment.

The MA/MFA programme has a strong relationship with the University’s Art and Design Research Centre (ADRC), who take an active part in engaging MA Design students in research, knowledge transfer and live projects. You are also encouraged to seek industrial sponsors or collaborators for your individual project work and are given advice and support in doing this. This long established link with our Research Department supports a continuing tradition of graduates from the MA/MFA working as research assistants and/or continuing their studies to PhD.

If you are a part-time student in relevant employment or on sabbatical, you have the opportunity to plan course projects based in your workplace and relevant to your own and your employer's aims. This brings real-world experience to the course. You may go on to work as a professionally employed designer or design manager, work independently as a designer/producer or work as a researcher in design or new product development. You may also wish to go into teaching design in further and higher education.

Project-based course

You choose your own project content and this is supported by lectures and seminars dealing with professional practice issues and reviewing your progress. You also take part in regular group and individual tutorials.

Your final major project is the culmination of your research and studio-based design practice. It demonstrates that you can deal with difficult contemporary questions and take a leading role as a design professional.

Research-led expertise

We are one of the oldest established art and design institutions in the UK, renowned for producing internationally recognised research. Your projects are supported by lecturers who are design specialists in areas as diverse as medical products, materials development, furniture and sustainability.

Vibrant and supportive learning environment

During the course you regularly take part in constructive critical debates about your own work and that of your peers. You need to communicate your research, ideas and designs in ways that are appropriate to professional leadership.

You study alongside MA and MFA Design students for part of your course and benefit from a vibrant, international, collaborative and supportive postgraduate environment.

Excellent facilities and creative resources

You have access to a huge range of creative resources to experiment and engage with including • 3D printing for rapid prototyping • state-of-the-art hardware and software • photography studios • a creative media centre • a gallery • well-equipped workshops.

You also have access to our award-winning learning centre featuring a specialist art, design and media library and extensive online resources.

MA and MFA study

MA and MFA students complete the same modules during the course except that MFA students complete an extra project module. The MFA project encourages you to develop professional skills that help you to identify, instigate, and deliver projects with external partners, such as communities, galleries or businesses. You find a project partner, agree a brief and then deliver the project to a professional standard.

This course is part of the Sheffield Institute of Arts (SIA), an amazing, diverse community of makers – where staff, students and partners work as equals to deliver real innovation and creativity. SIA opened in 1843 and is one of the UK's oldest Art and Design Schools. We have recently moved into the Head Post Office, a redesigned Grade II listed building. It includes state-of-the-art workshops which provide you with a unique studio-based learning environment in the heart of the creative community.

Course structure

FULL-TIME STRUCTURE

Semester one

• project 1 • theory supporting practice

Semester two

• project 2 • negotiated project

Semester three

• major project

Semester four – MFA students only

• MFA project

PART-TIME STRUCTURE

Semester one (year 1)

• theory supporting practice • negotiated project

Semester two (year 2)

• project 1 • project 2

Semester three (year 3)

• major project

Semester four – MFA students only (year 4)

• MFA project

Assessment

Assessment and feedback are vital parts of the learning process in creative disciplines. Most assessment is through individual project work which combines research and creative practice. Assessment calls for both excellent creative work and well-documented research. 

Employability

As a graduate from this course you might become a • creative technologist • experiential marketer • interaction designer • artist • designer • maker • product designer • design researcher • interface designer • systems designer • UX designer • design academic • PhD student.

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With increasing traffic density of civil aircraft, and the need for increased military precision in conflicts around the world, safer aircraft operations require more sophisticated avionic systems.

This specialist option of the MSc Aerospace Vehicle Design (http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/courses/taught/aerospace-vehicle-design) provides you with an understanding of avionic systems design, analysis, development, test and airframe integration.

Who is it for?

This course is suitable for students with a background in aeronautical or mechanical engineering or those with relevant industrial experience. It provides a taught engineering programme with a focus on the technical, business and management aspects of aircraft design in the civil and military aerospace sectors.

Why this course?

The Avionic Systems Design option aims to provide an understanding of avionic systems design, analysis, development, test and airframe integration. This includes a detailed look at robust and fault-tolerant flight control, advanced 4D flight management and RNP navigation, self-separation and collision avoidance and advanced digital data communications systems, as well as pilot-friendly and intelligent cockpit displays and situation awareness.

We have been at the forefront of postgraduate education in aerospace engineering since 1946. Aerospace Vehicle Design at Cranfield University was one of the original foundation courses of the College of Aeronautics. Graduates of this course are eligible to join the Cranfield College of Aeronautics Alumni Association (CCAAA), an active community which hold a number of networking and social events throughout the year.

Cranfield University is well located for students from all over the world, and offers a range of library and support facilities to support your studies. This enables students from all over the world to complete this qualification whilst balancing work/life commitments.

Informed by Industry

The course has an Industrial Advisory Committee with senior members from major UK aerospace companies, government bodies, and the military services. The committee meets twice a year to review and advise on course content, acquisition skills and other attributes are desirable from graduates of the course. Panel members include:

- BAE Systems
- Airbus
- Royal Air Force
- Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
- Royal Australian Air Force
- Messier-Dowty
- Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces.

We also arrange visits to sites such as BAE Systems, Thales, GKN and RAF bases which specialise in the maintenance of military aircraft. This allows you to get up close to the aircraft and components to help with ideas for the group project

Accreditation

Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) - http://aerosociety.com/
Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) - http://www.imeche.org/

Course details

This option is comprised of 14 compulsory modules and a minimum of 60 hours of optional modules, selected from a list of 10 options. You are also required to complete a group design project and an individual research project. Delivered via a combination of structured lectures, industry guest lectures, computer based workshops and private study.

A unique feature of the course is that we have four external examiners; two from industry who assess the group design project and two from academia who assess the individual research project.

Group project

The extensive group design project is a distinctive and unique feature of this course. This teamwork project takes place over six months, usually between October and March; and recreates a virtual industrial environment bringing together students with various experience levels and different nationalities into one integrated design team.

You will be given responsibility for the detailed design of a significant part of the aircraft, for example, forward fuselage, fuel system, or navigation system. The project will progress from the conceptual phase through to the preliminary and detail design phases. You are required to run project meetings, produce engineering drawings and detailed analyses of their design. Problem solving and project coordination must be undertaken on a team and individual basis. At the end of the project, groups are required to report and present findings to a panel of 200 senior engineers from industry.

This element of the course is both real and engaging, and places the student group in a professional role as aerospace design engineers. Students testify that working as an integrated team on real problems is invaluable and prepares them well for careers in a highly competitive industry.

Watch past presentation YouTube videos to give you a taster of our innovative and exciting group projects:

- Blended Wing Body Aircraft - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfD0CIAscOI
- A9 Dragonfly Box Wing Aircraft - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4LQzXBJInw
- MRT7 Tanker Aircraft - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNfQM2ELXvg
- A-13 Voyager - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS6Wq7lpmDw
- SL-12 Vimana - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjEEazsVtSc

Individual project

The individual research project aims to provide the training necessary for you to apply knowledge from the taught element to research, and takes place over six months. The project may be theoretical and/or experimental and drawn from a range of topics related to the course and suggested by teaching staff, your employer or focused on your own area of interest.

Assessment

Taught modules 10%, Group project 50%, Individual research project 40%

Your career

The Avionic Systems Design option is valued and respected by employers worldwide. The applied nature of this course ensures that our graduates are ready to be of immediate use to their future employer and has provided sufficient breadth of understanding of multi-discipline design to position them for accelerated career progression.

This course prepares graduates for careers as project design engineers, systems design, structural design or avionic engineers in aerospace or related industries, with the aim of progressing to technical management/chief engineer. Graduates from the MSc in Avionic Systems Design can therefore look forward to a varied choice of challenging career opportunities in the above disciplines.

Many of our graduates occupy very senior positions in their organisations, making valuable contributions to the international aerospace industry. Typical student destinations include BAE Systems, Airbus, Dassault and Rolls-Royce plc

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Course Description

The Aircraft Design option of the MSc in Aerospace Vehicle Design (AVD) aims to provide a comprehensive overview of aircraft performance, structures and systems. A holistic teaching approach is taken to explore how the individual elements of an aircraft can be designed and integrated using up-to-date methods and techniques. You will learn to understand how to select specific systems such as fuel systems, and their effect on the aircraft as a whole.
This course is suitable for students with a background in aeronautical or mechanical engineering or those with relevant industrial experience.

Overview

Modern aircraft design focuses on the integration of new technologies and systems, with current and advanced configurations to lead us towards environmentally friendly and cost effective aviation in the civil arena and high performance and effective aviation in the military arena. This includes new structures, materials and manufacturing processes. New aircraft design is essential to address issues such as carbon footprint reduction, lower noise pollution and improved passenger comfort as well as contributing to national security.

Our work in this field covers all flying vehicles including civil and military aircraft, helicopters, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems (UAVS), ultra-high capacity airlines and space vehicles. Current research being undertaken includes:

Advanced Configurations – such as blended wing and morphing wing aircraft design. This includes both fixed wing and rotorcraft vehicles.

Advanced Systems Integration – such as Distributed Propulsion using hydrogen or alternative fuels for power and high temperature superconducting materials technology.

Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes – exploring the benefits achieved through the application of advanced composite materials.

Advanced Design Methodologies – developing techniques to ensure that optimum designs are achieved.

Airworthiness Compliance – ensuring new designs demonstrate the same safety requirements as traditional aircraft.

Operational Aspects – cost, performance, reliability and maintainability are important features of aircraft design as well as advanced techniques such as Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM). Vulnerability and susceptibility also have a major impact.

Biomimetics – taking lessons from nature for example insects and birds, and their application in aviation such as launch, recovery and flight.

English Language Requirements

If you are an international student you will need to provide evidence that you have achieved a satisfactory test result in an English qualification. The minimum standard expected from a number of accepted courses are as follows:

IELTS - 6.5
TOEFL - 92
Pearson PTE Academic - 65
Cambridge English Scale - 180
Cambridge English: Advanced - C
Cambridge English: Proficiency - C

In addition to these minimum scores you are also expected to achieve a balanced score across all elements of the test. We reserve the right to reject any test score if any one element of the test score is too low.

Structure

The Aircraft Design option consists of a taught component, a group design project and an individual research project.

Individual Project

The individual research project aims to provide the training necessary for you to apply knowledge from the taught element to research, and takes place from March to September. The project may be theoretical and/or experimental and drawn from a range of topics related to the course and suggested by teaching staff, your employer or focused on your own area of interest.

Group Project

The extensive group design project is a distinctive and unique feature of this course. This teamwork project takes place from October to March, and recreates a virtual industrial environment bringing together students with various experience levels and different nationalities into one integrated design team.

Each team member is given responsibility for the detailed design of a significant part of the aircraft, for example, forward fuselage, fuel system, or navigation system. The project will progress from the conceptual phase through to the preliminary and detail design phases. You will be required to run project meetings, produce engineering drawings and detailed analyses of your design. Problem solving and project coordination must be undertaken on a team and individual basis. At the end of the project, groups are required to report and present findings to a panel of 200 senior engineers from industry.

This element of the course is both realistic and engaging, and places the student group in a professional role as aerospace design engineers. Students testify that working as an integrated team on real problems is invaluable and prepares them well for careers in a highly competitive industry.

Assessment

The taught modules (10%) are assessed by an examination and/or assignment. The Group Project (50%) is assessed by a written technical report and oral presentations. The Individual Research Project (40%) forms the remainder of the course.

Career opportunities

The MSc in Aircraft Design is valued and respected by employers worldwide. The applied nature of this course ensures that our graduates are ready to be of immediate use to their future employer and has provided sufficient breadth of understanding of multi-discipline design to position them for accelerated career progression.

This course prepares graduates for careers as project design engineers, systems design, structural design or avionic engineers in aerospace or related industries, with the aim of progressing to technical management/chief engineer. Graduates from the MSc in Aircraft Design can therefore look forward to a varied choice of challenging career opportunities in the above disciplines.

Many of our graduates occupy very senior positions in their organisations, making valuable contributions to the international aerospace industry. Typical student destinations include BAE Systems, Airbus, Dassault and Rolls-Royce.

For further information

on this course, please visit our course webpage http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/Courses/Masters/AVD-Option-Aircraft-Design

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Course Description

Structural Design aims to provide an understanding of aircraft structures, airworthiness requirements, design standards, stress analysis, fatigue and fracture (damage tolerance) and fundamentals of aerodynamics and loading. The suitable selection of materials, both metallic and composite is also covered. Manufacturers of modern aircraft are demanding more lightweight and more durable structures. Structural integrity is a major consideration of today’s aircraft fleet. For an aircraft to economically achieve its design specification and satisfy airworthiness regulations, a number of structural challenges must be overcome. This course trains engineers to meet these challenges, and prepares them for careers in civil and military aviation.

Overview

This course is suitable for students with a background in aeronautical or mechanical engineering or those with relevant industrial experience.

The Structural Design option consists of a taught component and an individual research project.

In addition to management, communication, team work and research skills, each student will attain at least the following outcomes from this degree course:
- To build upon knowledge to enable students to enter a wide range of aerospace and related activities concerned with the design of flying vehicles such as aircraft, missiles, airships and spacecraft
- To ensure that the student is of immediate use to their employer and has sufficient breadth of understanding of multi-discipline design to position them for accelerated career progression
- To provide teaching that integrates the range of disciplines required by modern aircraft design
- To provide the opportunity for students to be immersed in a 'Virtual Industrial Environment' giving them hands-on experience of interacting with and working on an aircraft design project.

English Language Requirements

If you are an international student you will need to provide evidence that you have achieved a satisfactory test result in an English qualification. The minimum standard expected from a number of accepted courses are as follows:

IELTS - 6.5
TOEFL - 92
Pearson PTE Academic - 65
Cambridge English Scale - 180
Cambridge English: Advanced - C
Cambridge English: Proficiency - C

In addition to these minimum scores you are also expected to achieve a balanced score across all elements of the test. We reserve the right to reject any test score if any one element of the test score is too low.

We can only accept tests taken within two years of your registration date (with the exception of Cambridge English tests which have no expiry date).

Core Modules

The taught programme for the Structural Design masters is generally delivered from October to March. After completion of the four compulsory taught modules, students have an extensive choice of optional modules to match specific interests.

Core:
- Fatigue Fracture Mechanics and Damage Tolerance
- Finite Element Analysis (including NASTRAN/PATRAN Workshops)
- Design and Analysis of Composite Structures
- Structural Stability

Optional:
- Loading Actions
- Computer Aided Design (CAD)
- Aircraft Aerodynamics
- Aircraft Stability and Control
- Aircraft Performance
- Detail Stressing
- Structural Dynamics
- Aeroelasticity
- Design for Manufacture and Operation
- Initial Aircraft Design (including Structural Layout)
- Airframe Systems
- Aircraft Accident Investigation
- Crashworthiness
- Aircraft Power Plant Installation
- Avionic System Design
- Flight Experimental Methods (Jetstream Flight Labs)
- Reliability, Safety Assessment and Certification
- Sustaining Design (Structural Durability)

Individual Project

The individual research project aims to provide the training necessary for you to apply knowledge from the taught element to research, and takes place from January to September.

Recent Individual Research Projects include:
- Review, Evaluation and Development of a Microlight Aircraft
- Investigation of the Fatigue Life of Hybrid Metal Composite Joints
- Design for Additive Layer Manufacture
- Rapid Prototyping for Wind Tunnel Model Manufacturing.

Group project

There is no group project for this option of the Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc.

Assessment

Taught modules (20%); Individual Research Project (80%)

Career opportunities

The AVD option in Structural Design is valued and respected by employers worldwide. The applied nature of this course ensures that our graduates are ready to be of immediate use to their future employer and has provided sufficient breadth of understanding of multi-discipline design to position them for accelerated career progression.

Graduates from the have gone onto pursue engineering careers in disciplines such as structural design, stress analysis or systems design. Many of our former graduates occupy very senior positions in their organisations, making valuable contributions to the international aerospace industry.

Many of our graduates occupy very senior positions in their organisations, making valuable contributions to the international aerospace industry. Typical student destinations include BAE Systems, Airbus, Dassault and Rolls-Royce.

For further information

On this course, please visit our course webpage - http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/Courses/Masters/AVD-Option-in-Structural-Design

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The new master’s programme in Design offers a studio-based, interdisciplinary approach to design, with collaborations tackling societal challenges.

This programme incorporates established and innovative design concepts in a unique interdisciplinary setup. Studio courses form the backbone of the programme, providing the fundamentals of working with societal challenges. The challenges are defined on a yearly basis, ranging from Food Waste and Civility to Nomadic Welfare.

The programme features three design tracks, allowing you to develop your skills within an area of speciality. Current tracks are Sustainable Futures, Transformative Service and Visual Media.

Please be advised that this programme has a multi-campus setup, with courses offered in Linköping and Norrköping as well as online.

Programme Description

The new master’s programme in Design offers a studio-based, interdisciplinary approach to design, with collaborations tackling societal challenges. Established and innovative design concepts are incorporated in a unique interdisciplinary setup across campuses.

Businesses, organisations and government agencies are facing ever more complex challenges that require innovative approaches. Increasingly, the field of design is expected to come up with answers and help achieve progress.

The purpose of this programme is to train qualified and confident designers who can enter these complex contexts, take on a leading role and co-create solid, sustainable solutions. We are reaching out to students with different backgrounds – not necessarily with previous academic design qualifications, but with excellent design abilities and a desire to develop design beyond specific materials and disciplines.

This programme incorporates established and innovative design concepts in a unique interdisciplinary setup. Studio courses form the backbone of the programme, providing the fundamentals of working with societal challenges. The challenges are defined on a yearly basis, ranging from Food Waste and Civility to Nomadic Welfare.

Theoretical courses and design projects run alongside studio work. You develop generic design skills and knowledge of design facilitation, co-creative practices and design history. You learn about designing and change and how to make design a strategic practice that is embedded in organisations.

Projects are carried out in mixed-competence groups, sometimes with students from other programmes, across campuses with blended learning, using physical and digital resources. You interact with companies, organisations and entrepreneurs.

Elective courses are structured into tracks allowing you to develop skills within an area of speciality.

Current tracks offered are:

Sustainable Futures
Design of sustainable systems, with accompanying business models, products and services. Project-based exploration of future solutions that may further a transition to a sustainable society and empower people interacting with those systems.

Transformative Service
Design and innovation for the service sector, including welfare and industrial service. Engaging humans at the centre of design projects and developing service concepts and social innovations to facilitate transformation of practices and co-creation of value.

Visual Media
Design of interactive visual environments, going beyond screens and handheld units towards augmented and immersive approaches. Studio-based exploration of advanced concepts at the intersection of graphic design, interaction design and information visualisation.

For your thesis, you are expected to undertake an individual project that comprises practical design work and writing a thesis.

Linköping University is one of Sweden’s leading design research universities, with world-class research into design for services, a state-of-the-art facility for visual media research, and a strong team devoted to design and sustainability.

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Innovative industrial products are now produced in many parts of the world, and the strategy for originating these products is an emerging area of study.

This MSc in Industrial Product Design covers areas such as branding, the social impact of design, design management, design innovation, design technology and global design issues.

WHY CHOOSE THIS COURSE?

This course has been developed with your future employability as its focus, by choosing to study at Coventry you will benefit from:
-A flexible course structure, whereby modules can be studied in the workplace, others in full-time attendance mode
-The benefit of gaining further education in the structure and business of industrial product design
-Close collaboration with Coventry University's Centre of Excellence for Product and Automotive Design

WHAT WILL I LEARN?

Modules you will expect to take when studying the Industrial Product Design MSc degree:
Term 1
-Creative Studies
-Ergonomics
-CAD Modelling
-Product Design

Term 2
-IPD project
-Product Design
-Professional Practice
-Research Methods

Term 3
-MSc Project

The course covers areas such as branding, the social impact of design, design management, design innovation, design technology and global design issues.

TEACHING CONTACT HOURS

We do not offer a part-time evening or weekend pattern of delivery, but if you wish to study part time during the day, please contact the course director to explore further.

HOW WILL THIS COURSE ENHANCE MY CAREER PROSPECTS?

The course can lead to management of design functions within industry, consultancy roles, work for publicly funded organisations or to research.

GLOBAL LEADERS PROGRAMME

To prepare students for the challenges of the global employment market and to strengthen and develop their broader personal and professional skills Coventry University has developed a unique Global Leaders Programme.

The objectives of the programme, in which postgraduate and eligible undergraduate students can participate, is to provide practical career workshops and enable participants to experience different business cultures.

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