Saturday 11 December 2010

Sunday 24 October 2010

Psicologia e Sociologia do Design de Produto – Resumo das sessões dos dias 5 e 12 de Novembro


O design é um poderoso instrumento táctico ou cosmético de marketing que permite diferenciar, identificar, baixar custos, acrescentar utilidades, aumentar eficiências, facilitar usos, inovar e criar formas e cores.
O design, quando bom, deve motivar os consumidores e deve criar afectividades.
Sendo o design uma ponte instrumental entre bens e consumidores ficará bem ao designer saber catalogar os bens nas suas terminologias de economia e nas suas terminologias de marketing e deverá saber catalogar os consumidores no âmbito dos mesmos critérios.
Um bem económico (mercadoria ou serviço), é sempre um bem de marketing e vice-versa que tem características intrínsecas e extrínsecas e que serve para satisfazer necessidades.
No estudo teórico do bem económico, necessariamente leve e breve, abordaremos os conceitos de elasticidade preço da procura e à elasticidade procura/rendimento que em minha opinião são instrumentais para quem trabalha no processo de marketing, como é o caso de um designer.
A capacidade para satisfazer necessidades humanas significa que o bem económico é dotado de utilidade. Utilidade objectiva mais uma subjectiva? Ou basta só uma?
As necessidades humanas são da mais variada índole, são dinâmicas e não dependem só do ser humano individual.
As necessidades estão também ligadas ao ambiente externo envolvente.
No ambiente externo envolvente há o mais contactante que é a família, a escola, a igreja e os amigos, por exemplos, e há um macro ambiente igualmente influenciador onde residem as forças socioculturais, as político/legais, as ético/legais, as tecnológicas e as histórico/religiosas, por exemplos.
Por isso é que o conhecimento de um consumidor exige simultaneamente conhecimentos do foro da psicologia individual e de massas e conhecimentos do foro sociológico e antropológico.
Os consumidores são seres humanos individuais e ao mesmo tempo grupais e gregários e que são influenciados simultaneamente por características genéticas e pelos ambientes externos - o específico e o macro ou contextual.
Referindo-nos a este meio envolvente, cumpre-nos dizer que pese a globalização, os povos e nações continuam a ser substancialmente diferentes devido às diferentes dimensões culturais que dele emanam.
Num exemplo extremado e grotesco, mas elucidativo, diria que não haveria sucesso de vendas de biquínis fio dental na Arábia Saudita, nem de vendas de burcas em Cuba!
O conhecimento mais rigoroso de um grupo consumidor exige que se estudem as suas dimensões culturais.
Para este desiderato, e de uma forma ligeira, achei bem vir a aludir as dimensões culturais que Geert Hofstede releva no seu livro “Culturas e organizações”.
As necessidades ligam os produtos aos mercados e são uma das motivações principais para a compra.
A tentativa de análise e explicação para o fenómeno da motivação deu origem a várias teses por pensadores credenciados (Faremos uma ligeira incursão histórica).
Umas teses focalizam mais aspectos psicológicos subjectivos, outras relevam mais as motivações de ordem externa/social.
Ainda hoje há espaços livres para tentar acrescentar explicações e debater hipóteses de forma eclética, porque a motivação tem fontes subjectivas/genéticas e objectivas/sociais.
Falaremos de vários pensadores mas destacaremos Marlow e a sua pirâmide porque foi a primeira análise eclética muito bem concebida e que ainda tem hoje muita actualidade, pese alguns pontos fracos.
Um designer completo, enquanto elemento incontornável do processo de marketing, deve conhecer o ciclo motivacional e as motivações que levam à compra.
De facto o designer integral deve, para além dos saberes técnicos, ser culto, crítico e aberto de forma a compreender e captar motivações subjectivas e objectivas.
O marketing é hoje uma fonte de criação de motivações através do mix de comunicação e propaganda, através da marca e da percepção dos factores críticos de compra, que integram os factores críticos de sucesso.
A fidelização de clientes, que perante uma oferta crescente face à procura se tornou no objectivo prioritário, exige a abordagem e o conhecimento de conceitos de psicologia e sociologia nas suas vertentes ligadas às motivações para consumo e na sua contribuição para o ciclo motivacional.
Das teses em confronto, como em todas as áreas de conhecimento, umas mais individualistas/subjectivas, outras mais sociais/colectivas, surge-nos uma última questão que antecederá o último debate, no final da 2ª sessão:
- Compra por impulso e comprador compulsivo – doença ou motivação? 

No final da 1ª sessão lançarei um debate subordinado ao tema:
“ Poder-se-ão criar necessidades artificialmente, de forma absolutamente induzida e exógena?
Ou não há necessidades inventadas e elas apenas estavam latentes, como que adormecidas?

No final da segunda sessão lançarei o debate – O design, motivador intrínseco/psicológico? Extrínseco/social? Ambos? Com quotas de importância iguais?
O designer, um talento especialista? Ou um espírito aberto ao conhecimento, à cultura e à inovação?

RUI ALMEIDA BRANCO. 

Friday 15 October 2010

Palestra dia 15 Out 16:00 Sala B023

Na próxima 6ª feira (das 16:00 ás 18:00 na Sala B023 ), e integrada na Disciplina Psicologia e Sociologia do Design de Produtos do Mestrado em Design Industrial, o Prof. João Figueiredo irá dar uma palestra sobre semiótica dos produtos abordando os seguintes pontos:

1. Nocões Semióticas
- Perspectiva semiótica no Design
- Os três níveis de interpretação semiótica
- Denotação / Conotação
- A semiótica no processo de Design

2. Semântica do Produto
- Definição
- Características de base
- Enquadramento Histórico
- Funções Indicativas
- Funções Simbólicas
- Produto como "mensagem"

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Nick Holland

O Director de Design da Vista Alegre, Designer Nick Holland, acedeu a dar uma palestra, durante o mês de Novembro, sobre o seu trabalho, aos alunos de Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto. Data a anunciar.


Nick Holland is an Englishman, well known in the international design community and now residing in Portugal.  In 1998 he accepted the position at Vista Alegre as Director of Design for the group.  He now lives and works in Vista Alegre.
Nick is a well-known figure in the design world, and has been described by respected journalist Jeremy Myerson as one of the most dynamic figures in contemporary British design.  In addition to his design work Nick has always been a keen photographer and has had many of his photographs published in international magazines and books.  He has a unique ability to see the extraordinary in ordinary subjects and to capture powerful images on film.  His love of design and structure are reflected in his photographic compositions, many based on machines and architecture as well as nature.
Nick studied Product Design at the Royal College of Art in London, the world's most renowned institution for art and design, leaving with the highest qualification possible  -  a Master’s degree with distinction and the rare honour of the College Silver Medal.  On leaving college he won a Leverhulme Scholarship and spent a year in America studying and travelling with his camera.
He has worked in industry in senior positions in design, industries ranging from construction equipment to tableware.  For several years he was in charge of design and marketing for Staffordshire Potteries plc, leaving to set up his own business, Nicholas John.  This innovative company achieved great success and acclaim from both the design and housewares industries.  The company's products won many design awards and are included in the Victoria and Albert Museum's permanent collection of ceramics.
This led to Nick setting up Nick Holland Design Group and his company achieved commercial success as well as critical acclaim and many awards within the design world, working with international blue chip clients throughout Europe and the Far East.
A prominent and influential figure in his industry, Nick has served on a number of professional bodies for design in England in an advisory capacity, including the Design Council, the Royal Society of Arts, the Design Trust, and the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council for Design.  He has also acted as advisor and external examiner for many design courses throughout Great Britain and as a director of the Design Business Association of Great Britain.

Saturday 9 October 2010

Julia Cassim


Academic and Professional background
Julia Cassim studied Fine Art and Art History, at Manchester College of Art and Design and then at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music as recipient of a Japanese Ministry of Education (Mombusho) postgraduate sculpture scholarship. She has an MPhil from the International Centre for Heritage Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
From 1971-1998, Julia was resident in Japan. She was arts columnist of The Japan Times, wrote widely for other publications and founded Access Vision, a non-profit organisation for visually impaired people engaged in research on alternative modes to access and interpret museum collections of art and artefacts. She also curated and designed award-winning exhibitions for audiences with visual impairments and learning disabilities. ‘Into the Light - Museums and their Visually Impaired Visitors’, her book published by Shogakkan in 1998, draws on this experience.
Her activity in this area has continued alongside her work in inclusive design with a further focus on the curation and design of exhibitions of work by visually impaired artists. ‘The Insightful Eye’ - a film she directed on this subject was commissioned for the Singapore Fringe Festival 2007.

Research interests
Julia joined the Helen Hamlyn Centre in 2000. Her main research focus since then has been the development of creative partnerships between people with disabilities and designers; ways to involve them in the design process to encourage innovative, inclusive thinking and the development and dissemination of knowledge transfer methodologies on inclusive design to the design and business communities.
She organises the annual DBA Inclusive Design Challenge, Challenge workshops and Inclusive Design Challenges of shorter duration based on the model. In these, disabled people are partnered with professional design teams in live design projects to develop innovative products and services for the mainstream market. The aim is to develop and disseminate replicable examples of inclusive design and appropriate methodologies to enable designers, design managers, engineers and marketing personnel understand the principles, practice and creative and commercial rationale for inclusive design and readily use that knowledge as a spur for innovation in their working practice.
Julia is visiting professor at the User Science Institute of Kyushu University, is a trustee of the charity Mobility Choice. She serves as a consultant on inclusive design to the Natural History Museum and lectures on inclusive design in the UK and internationally to organisations in the business, academic and voluntary sectors.

Current Projects
Julia organises Challenge workshops of differing iterations and lengths in academic, corporate and design contexts in the UK and overseas. To date, these have been run in the UK in collaboration with the College of Occupational Therapists, and on the theme of rheumatoid arthritis for Roche. In Finland and Denmark workshops have been organised for Nokia, in Japan with the Universities of Kyushu, Kyoto and Tokyo and in Israel with the Holon Academic Institute of Technology with further ones planned in Norway, Jerusalem and Sarajevo in 2009 .
In 2008 she ran three international Challenges - in Oslo, for the Norweigian Design Council, involving teams from Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark: in Hong Kong, with teams from China and the ASEAN countries, and in Tokyo, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of relations between Japan and the UK in collaboration with Nikkei Design, Tokyo University and Cambridge University.
Julia has been a member of the i~design project and remains as advisor. The i~design research seeks to provide tools that enable industry to design products and services that can be used effectively by the population as a whole, including those who are older or disabled. The team includes academic and sector partners including the University of Cambridge and the Design Council.
Julia’s role has involved the writing-up of inclusive design case studies drawn from the HHC Research Associates Programme and the DBA Inclusive Design Challenge. She is co-author with John Clarkson, Roger Coleman and Hua Dong of the book on inclusive design to be published by Gower in 2007. She is also involved in the development of a database of users, user personas and accompanying user-centred methodologies and protocols

Acreditação junto da A3Es

Está entregue o processo para acreditação do curso de Mestrado em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto; 79 páginas mais anexos. Ufff!

Saturday 25 September 2010

Polimi

Está agendada para dia 28 de Outubro (quinta feira de tarde) a palestra "business model design" pelo Professor Cabirio Cautela do Instituto Politécnico de Milão.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

5ª feira - Formação Solid Works + ...

Quinta feira das 09:00 às 12:00 formação livre em Solid Works no Design Studio FEUP
Das 14:00 ás 17:00 aula de Usabilidade e Design da Experiencia
Das 17:00 ás 18:30 Aula de Laboratório de Projecto 1 com lançamento do 1º projecto

Skype conference

Em conferencia hoje à tarde realizada no Skype, com o Professor Henri Christians, reforçaram-se os laços com a Universidade TuDelft na Holanda e em particular com o Laboratório DfS Design for Sustainability. Foram estabelecidas bases para que alunos do Curso de Especialização em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto da FEUP possam candidatar-se via Erasmus a frequentar na TuDelft o 1º semestre do 2º ano, onde iniciariam o trabalho de redacção da dissertação.

Está em avaliação a possibilidade de docentes de Delft realizarem na FEUP em Maio de 2011 um workshop para divulgação de temas de investigação em que estejam envolvidos. Os alunos interessados candidatar-se-iam com base numa proposta de dissertação que favoravelmente avaliada permitiria ter acesso a essa estadia.

CAMPER

Estamos a tentar agendar uma palestra do designer Jimi Borge (http://issuu.com/jimiborg/docs/portfoliojimi/1) da Camper (Palma de Maiorca). Darei notícias.

Instalações do Curso de Especialização em DDP no Design Studio FEUP

Os alunos queixam-se de não terem instalações. Quando tem.. ficam em casa. O modelo é de presença em atelier... Quinta feira começa o 1º projecto vamos ver o que acontece.




EDDP - Primeira tarefa: montar a mobília...e testar os produtos IKEA



Monday 20 September 2010

Curso de Especialização em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto

A sessão de abertura do curso de Especialização em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto decorrerá no Auditório do Inegi/Idmec, no campus da FEUP segunda feira dia 20 de Setembro pelas 09:00.

Monday 10 May 2010

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Informações no Sitio da FEUP


Já está disponível informação no sitio da FEUP (para quando uma revisão de cima abaixo da estratégia de navegabilidade dessa plataforma? Será que na FEUP nunca ninguém ouviu falar de usabilidade?)
O melhor mesmo é munir-se de alguma paciência, muita calma para tentar encontrar o que quer que seja nesta confusão gráfica.
Ir a: 
> http://www.fe.up.pt, depois á esquerda picar em...
> cursos (perece óbvio)
e agora na página que surge não fazer o que parece obvio (procurar na lista disponivel) mas sim ignorar essa lista e....
> picar no esquema da direita sobre o rectângulo azul > ESPECIALIZAÇÔES (ena ena! quem se ia lembrar disso!)
Na pagina respectiva usar os links da coluna da direita para aceder à restante informação (note que alguma só estará disponível no decorrer desta semana, mas já pode ir vendo as questões relativas às candidaturas e plano de estudos - em breve as fichas de cada disciplina estarão disponíveis)

Em alternativa pode, a partir da página "cursos" picar directamente em "candidaturas" na coluna da direita e escolher a especialização em DDP.

obrigado e boa sorte

Monday 22 February 2010

Novos Cursos 2º e 3º ciclos

O Mestrado em Design Industrial (MDI) ministrado pela FEUP entre 2000 e 2010 vai evoluir para duas novas ofertas formativas de 2º e 3º ciclos de Bolonha (MSc e PhD) em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto.

O processo de transição passa pela oferta no ano lectivo de 2010/2011 de dois cursos de Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto: um de “Especialização” e um de “Estudos Avançados”, já aprovados pela Reitoria da Universidade do Porto.

Os primeiros anos curriculares destes dois cursos são idênticos, respectivamente, aos dos futuros Cursos de “Mestrado em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto” e “Programa Doutoral em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto”, cuja acreditação pela A3ES será solicitada durante o ano de 2010.

Face a este processo de transição, não serão abertas vagas para o MDI no ano lectivo de 2010/11, mantendo-se este em funcionamento apenas para conclusão das formações anteriormente iniciadas.

Os novos alunos interessados em formação nesta área (a nível de 2º ou 3º ciclo) deverão assim inscrever-se nos referidos cursos de “Especialização em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto” ou “Estudos Avançados em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto”, a partir dos quais terão acesso, respectivamente, aos de “Mestrado em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto” e “Programa Doutoral em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto” (após a acreditação destes), por atribuição de equivalência às disciplinas entretanto realizadas.

Tuesday 26 January 2010

New FEUP Product Design and Development MSc and PhD Programs

Product Design and Development  (Project Based Learning)

Introduction

Product Design and Development (PDD) maintains and conditions the competitiveness of industrial activity related to goods production, which is everyday more global and more dependent on the fast integration capacity of continual scientific and technological development.

When FEUP decided to study the possibility of creation of new MSc and PhD degrees in Product Design and Development following a model of Project-Based Learning, it has been carried out a double study of the market comprising the analysis of:
a) Design programmes in Portugal in first, second and third cycles (Bologna) and
b) UP offer in the spectrum of Fine Arts - Design - Engineering, coordinated by FBAUP and FEUP.

This survey showed very clearly the nonexistence of an updated approach to PDD at third cycle level, as well as an inadequate approach to it of the second cycle level offer, mainly if we consider the most recent theoretical developments in scientific areas of Design, Engineering and Management, which emphasise the need of very interdisciplinary approaches.

This overall picture pointed out the necessity of strengthening the UP offer of post-graduate education in Design, with programmes capable of attracting national and foreign students who have had basic training in other institutions[1], as well as professionals seeking for high level qualification.

One of the approaches to reach this objective is the consideration of present greater ease of mobility of students and teachers, more than ever in Europe, mainly supported by Erasmus program, providing us with the opportunity to consider international partnerships with other institutions of proven experience in some critical areas of the curriculum.  We will capitalize on this to grant our offer real scientific excellence on a broad range of matters.


FEUP approach to PDD

Nowadays, PDD requires a strong capacity for cooperation between Management, Design and Engineering. In many cases, it also requires the need to coordinate research and development in universities, institutes and technological centres with company business dynamics and strategies, within national or international highly qualified teams.

FEUP has a consolidated activity of project development and connection to industrial field, as well as expertise in some the scientific areas involved, particularly in undergraduate, master and doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Management and Industrial Design. In addition, FEUP maintains deep collaboration with Technological Institutes on the Campus, such as IDMEC, INEGI and INESC, making easier to establish join initiatives.

The experience accumulated over a decade of operation of the Master Degree in Industrial Design (public/private model), and the three years association with the program EDAM MIT Portugal (where partnerships with IST and University of Minho, in addition to links to the Department of Systems Engineering of MIT, have been strengthened) is now important to the new approach.

We must also consider that the establishment of the DESIGN Studio FEUP as a transversal infrastructure to support "Project-Based Learning” (PBL) initiatives allowed FEUP to build unique conditions to be a leader institution in this area of education in Portugal, being able to offer the market an integrated and structured sequence of post graduate studies in PDD.

The existence of several research units with an international rating of Very Good and Excellent (FCT standards) and the participation of researchers from FEUP in id+ (Research Unit on Design, Media and Culture, a joint initiative of the University of Porto and the University of Aveiro, which focuses its activity in reducing the symbolic deficit of Portuguese products, systems or services) under a logic of sustainability and user enhancement, are also important factors for theoretical foundation, support of the curriculum structure and doctoral ability to supervise dissertations in the future.

FEUP extensively based its MSc and PhD Product Design and Development proposal on prior teaching experience and applied research led by faculty members[2], who have been involved in several design courses over the past ten years (from public secondary school programmes, to University and Polytechnic BSc and MSc), making possible to identify some of the more important factors to guarantee the success of professional outcomes and student engagement in this project.

According to University of Porto recommendations, Master and Doctoral Programs shall, whenever possible, start full-running only after a one-year trial edition in the form of Specialization Course and Course of Advanced Studies, respectively.

Following these directives, the Specialization Course and the Course of Advanced Studies in PDD (PBL) have already been accredited by the Rectory of the University of Porto, and will start running in September 2010 for the academic year 2010-2011.

After the necessary accreditation from the agency A3ES (which will be meanwhile requested), it is expected that the programmes could become Master and Doctoral Program in the academic year 2011-2012.  Students who enrol in 2010 will be able to simply continue their Master or Doctoral Degree by getting equivalences of the Courses already finished, without any delay.


Product Design and Development (Project Based Learning) MSc and PhD

The programmatic base supporting these MSc and PhD in PDD is the practical evidence that Product Development is a cooperative activity located at the intersection of three cultures: Engineering, Design and Management. These scientific areas deal with the three main goals that any product seeks: Viability (economic viability), Feasibility (materialization potential) and Desirability (attractiveness).









These three vectors are nothing more than an expression of the response to the needs of human values supporting their use, business demands and technology constraints.As a matter of fact we do believe that, Engineers, Managers and Designers contribute to ensure the product “values” and each of them cares for different ones. Engineers challenge Feasibility and Performance; Managers seek for Economical Viability and Profitability and Designers for Usability and Meaning.
Moreover, the approach that FEUP aims to implement is based also on a particular humanistic view of Product Design, that we call "enginium design", which can be characterized by the intersection of four guiding values: Primacy of the User, Cooperative Development, Appropriate Technology and Local Scale Sustainability.

We must also emphasise that both MSc and PhD programmes follow Project-Based Learning methods, with a very flexible modular structure, where the Central leading course is Project and the other ones are articulated around it, assuming, whenever possible, joint evaluations based on practical results.






Master in Product Design and Development (MSc PDD)

The
first year of the program (with a total of 60 ECTS) will be divided in two semesters. The first semester will be dedicated to the contextualization of Product Design and Development practice and project and the second semester will be marked by the introduction of a course about research in PDD [Research Approaching], each one with 3 ECTS.

The remaining 54 ECTS correspond to the main core of the students work under a Project Based Learning system. In each semester the courses dealing with Management, Design and Engineering will converge in a unified Project Development course integrating the practical application of information from the three scientific areas.

In the first semester, Project Pack I will give the fundamental knowledge about cooperative project and will be coordinated with the courses: From Market to Design [Management], Usability [Design] and Materials and Processes (Engineering].

In the second semester, Project Pack II will consolidate the project approach, addressing research and subjects of greater complexity and extension. It will be coordinated with the courses: From Design to Business [Management], Product Detail Design [Design] and Digital 3D [Engineering].

Projects in Project Pack I and Project Pack II will be of three types: short (1 to 2 weeks), medium (3 to 4 weeks) and long projects (more than 5 weeks), chaining themselves and overlapping in order to prepare the students for hard project time management, providing him with important skills for their future professional life.

The assessment, which takes 6 out of 20 weeks per semester (leaving 14 weeks for teaching) will be disseminated depending on ongoing projects and will allow, via planned interruption of classes, proper and deeper preparation of requested submissions.

The second year will be dedicated to a more extended overview of higher-level aspects of Product Design Development (3rd Semester), and to drafting and developing the grade dissertation (4th Semester).

On third semester, students must choose one from three different specializations:

The first one - Product Design (typically for students with a background in Design) is intended to prepare the students to work as “designers” on product concept development aspects of the cooperative multidisciplinary tasks in a new product development.

The second one - Product Development (typically for students with a background in Engineering) is intended to prepare the students to work as “engineers” on product technical development aspects of the cooperative multidisciplinary tasks in a new product development.

The third one - Design Development (for any of the backgrounds) is somewhat different from the previous and intends to deal with aspects of design and development less dependent of market and business and more aimed at human development strategies particular low ecological impact solutions or international aid situations and cooperation programs with humanitarian NGOs. This branch is also a national opportunity due to the need of Portuguese help in some Africa and East countries (Mozambique , Timor, etc)

Different courses will be offered for each one:
Product Design courses: [Product Semantics] and [Ergonomics and Interface];
Product Development courses: [Systematic Methods for Product Development] and [Product Validation]
Design and Development courses [Appropriate Technology] and [Local Development].

A third course [Sustainability] will be common to the three branches. At the same time students will begin to prepare the MSc dissertation, task to which will be assigned a weight of 12 ECTS under the Course Graduation Project.

We hope that the possibility of establishing partnerships with three international schools will be a fundamental approach to strength the second year Syllabus and to give particular “identity” to above described 3 branches. Classes are expected to take place mainly at Design Studio FEUP and may have the participation of visiting teachers from cooperating institutions. A strong cooperation with industry is foreseen.

 [Note: The students who choose the mobility model among participating Universities should follow abroad, at this third Semester, a study plan agreed between the host institution, the candidate and the director of the master degree, consisting of total 30 ECTS - 18 obtained by course attendance, the remaining 12 being dedicated to dissertation planning or project preparation].

On fourth semester the students will devote themselves exclusively to prepare the dissertation, corresponding to the remaining 30 ECTS of the curriculum.

The Master thesis, typically developed at FEUP and whenever possible with a external partner (company, industry, NGO, etc), can be oriented (and/or co-oriented) either by teachers from FEUP or from one partner University, particularly in the case of students who had been abroad on a mobility program and have started their work there.





Doctoral Program in Product Design and Development (PhD PDD)

The Doctoral Program in PDD is based on the same conceptual cooperative basis that has been proposed to second cycle training: the need to understand and practice a cooperative approach between Design, Engineer and Management.

On the other hand, the Doctoral Program in PDD will also have a strong research and Project Development component connected to society and will aim to create and spread new knowledge and good practices for companies.

Ideally, all the Program attendants must already have or establish during the first year a link with a company that is faced with a specific Product Design and Development problem and will therefore engage and participate on the research / development process.

The project / dissertation, as in all PhD studies, naturally occupies a key part of the Doctoral Programme syllabus.

During the first and second semesters the students will attend two courses aiming the enhancement of research skills: Research Project (part I: 9 and part II: 12 ECTS), and during the second semester, a course on Research Methodology (6 ECTS). Those courses are intended to help students to prepare and launch the draft of their thesis to be developed full time during the following two years (third, fourth, fifth and sixth semesters, total of 120 ECTS).





The remaining 30 ECTS, to complete the 180 needed to obtain the grade after Bologna, will be distributed by three thematic optional courses in first semester and two free optional courses in the second semester.

The three optional courses (first semester) have to be chosen from pre-defined sets dealing with Management, Design and Engineering (one of each group) and aim to enhance students' knowledge in these 3 main areas, reinforcing the cooperative central approach that is the basis of this program.
 [Students with prior scientific training in one of these areas will be given a special curriculum with two courses in one of the two other areas]

The two optional free courses (second semester) will be chosen from the list of courses offered by the University of Porto and aim to provide specific additional knowledge for the development of each student the ongoing project.

In the case of candidates who enrol the Doctoral Program without having the Master PDD, it is strongly suggested that the suitable optional topics is chosen from the Master in PDD curriculum; providing a consistent body of knowledge for the remaining training.
Also for this purpose, the generic introductory course Product Design Development (3 ECTS, also common to the Master in PDD curriculum) is included in the first semester.

The choice of optional topics depends on the interests of the student, as well as on the support and approval of the Doctoral Program advisory board - prior experience of the candidate and prospects for research and industry links that the theme of the thesis might embrace will be taken in account.

To emphasize the cooperative spirit that characterizes this Program, a special effort will be made to incorporate representatives of partner Universities (to be defined) in the board of doctorates dealing with thesis proposal evaluation.

Given the possibility of classes taught by foreign teachers, the mastery of this language is essential to their attendance. To facilitate exchange, allow the presence of foreign students, and permit the choice of supervisors or co-supervisors of master's and doctoral thesis coming from other universities, it is accepted that thesis could be done in Portuguese or in English.



Thursday 14 January 2010

Creditação pela UP de novos cursos de iniciativa Design Studio FEUP


Informamos que o curso Especialização Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto (60 ECTS) e Estudos Avançados em Design e Desenvolvimento de Produto (60 ECTS) foram creditados, em 11/01/2010 e 12/01/2010, respectivamente, pelo Senhor Reitor.

Com os melhores cumprimentos,
Águeda Gonçalves
Divisão de Pós Graduação e Educação Contínua da Universidade do Porto

Wednesday 16 December 2009

DESIGN FACTORY


Welcome to Design Factory!

An interdisciplinary product design and learning hub. Uniting students, teachers, researchers and industry. Design Factory is an experimental platform of Aalto University, started in Autumn 2008. The Factory is a constantly developing physical, social and mental environment, aiming to support interdisciplinary and international co-operation between parties interested in design and development. Located in Otaniemi, the Design Factory building hosts a number of courses, research projects and start-up companies, as well as some short-term co-operation projects. You are welcome to join us. The best way to do so is to come and visit (see here)

Tuesday 10 November 2009

New Aalto University in Finland - Where science and art meet technology and business



No dia 13 de Novembro, a sala B016 da FEUP irá acolher a palestra "New Aalto University in Finland - Where science and art meet technology and business", realizada por Tapio Yli-Viikari, vice-reitor da Escola de Design, da TaiK - Taideteollinen korkeakoulu - University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH.


"New Aalto University in Finland - Where science and art meet technology and business"

"Architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898 - 1976) has been the inspiration to new multidisciplinary institution of education and innovation in Finland.
Aalto University is a newly created university resulting from the merger of three Finnish universities the Helsinki School of Economics (founded 1911), the University of Art and Design (founded 1871) and the Helsinki University of Technology (founded 1849) all leading and renowned institutions in their respective fields and in their own right. Aalto University will begin operating in January 2010, and open up a new world of possibilities for multidisciplinary education and research.
The great challenges of our time are the issues of global economy and environment, and the need of a new culture of innovations create the conditions to launch this project. Aalto University is to be one of the leading institutions in the world in terms of research and education in its own specialised disciplines by 2020."