The master's programme in Integrated Product Design teaches students how to create sustainable products, services, systems and business models. In one of two distinct specialisations, students either explore product, service and system design in relation to users and markets, or management of innovation and product development processes. Graduates have the expertise for careers in a wide range of industrial and business sectors.
Integrated Product Design at KTH
Engineers need advanced knowledge and highly developed skills to create competitive and sustainable products, services, and business models in today's fast-changing global market. The master's programme in Integrated Product Design offers two specialisation tracks: Industrial Design Engineering and Innovation Management and Product Development. The programme comprises a mixture of mandatory, track-specific and elective courses, allowing you to select courses that match your interests and career goals. During the programme, you will have contact with industry, and projects are often conducted in cooperation with companies or organisations, providing you with valuable experience from practice.
In the final degree project, you perform in-depth work on a problem from industry, society, or academic research that aligns with your selected specialisation. An experienced researcher supervises the degree project that you carry outin an industrial or academic environment.
The two-year programme (120 ECTS credits) is in English. Graduates are awarded a Master of Science degree. Activities within the programme are mainly held at the KTH Campus in Stockholm by KTH’s School of Industrial Engineering and Management.
The Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) track focuses on the design, functionality, and communicative aspects of products in relation to users and markets. You will study and work with product design and service design as well as system design. You will improve your skills in product development, merging a mechanical engineering point of view with an industrial design point of view. The activities covered in the design process include user insights, ideation, concept screening, form-giving and visualisation, branding, prototyping, overall systems design, choice of materials, manufacturing, and sustainable development.
In development projects throughout the programme track, you will collaborate closely with companies and organisations that have identified a potential development of a new product or service or improvement an existing one. From an IDE perspective, these cases need to include various types of user interactions and technical complexities to ensure that industrial design and mechanical engineering knowledge is required. The result of our efforts should address user needs and be adapted to user behaviour.
As IDE integrates industrial design and mechanical engineering, the teachers at IDE have a background in either of these fields. This also requires that the students who apply have completed both industrial design and mechanical engineering courses in their bachelor's degree.