Abstract:

The benefits of close collaboration with industry for undergraduate design students have been repeatedly emphasised in the literature. This paper describes the running of a design competition as a collaborative project between the DIT School of Manufacturing and Design Engineering and an external company. Small groups of design students were set a design brief and guided through the year by company representatives and by their academic supervisors. As well as showing an example of problem-based learning and showing how academic projects can remain relevant to the commercial design field, this paper gives an account of what approaches can be taken to ensure that the industry-institute collaboration proceeds smoothly and produces effective learning and results for all concerned.

DIT Product Design is a relatively new programme, having been established in 2002. It aims to address the traditional divide between the design engineer and the industrial designer, giving graduates the skills to develop products both from an aesthetic and engineering background. One of the drivers behind the establishing of the programme was to address Ireland’s future needs as a knowledge economy based on innovation and development of intellectual property. At the time of writing, two cohorts of students had graduated from the program. As a consequence, the program is being developed from year to year on the basis of input from the various stakeholders: the institute’s academic staff, professional bodies (the programme is accredited by the IED), industrial partners, external examiners and the National Qualification Association of Ireland. An issue which has been raised by both external examiner and industry partners is the necessity for close ties to industry for the course to ensure that it remains relevant to the needs of industry. For this reason it was decided to embark upon a collaboration with an external partner. This paper describes the results of that collaboration.

Tidi Solutions Ltd. are an Irish-owned company specializing in the design, manufacture and distribution of innovative products for the home. They have offices in Shannon, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The design team are based in the company headquarters in Shannon. This paper describes progress in the first and second years of the Tidi Design Competition, a national competition which the company plans to sponsor on an annual basis, between students in product design programs in colleges around Ireland.

Keywords:

Industry-Academic collaboration, problem-based learning, group project, product design, design engineering.