WRITING A PHD IN DESIGN AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER - INTERDISCIPLINARY DESIGN EDUCATION (CASE STUDY TEXTILE ENGINEERING + DESIGN)
Year: 2015
Editor: Guy Bingham, Darren Southee, John McCardle, Ahmed Kovacevic, Erik Bohemia, Brian Parkinson
Author: Wachs, Marina-Elena
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Section: Bachelors, Masters and PhD in Design Engineering
Page(s): 336-341
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract
The structure of European doctoral programs in design with international comparison in cooperation programs is focused on creating a structured program for a PhD in design with international academic status. In Germany we saw the interest in writing a PhD in design and the role of design theory and research increasing in the last decade. In case of product design or industrial design, the typical way of engineering is demonstrated by the departments of mechanical engineering. In the last years the interdisciplinary way of working together with designers, engineers, artists, and consumers on technical solutions of the digital world and in the way of creative processing has increased in an enormous number of projects. Product engineering is related to textile educational programs in engineering + design as demonstrated in the following. Smart technologies and smart textiles are more and more linked together in a wider interdisciplinary way of designing, which invites taking a closer look at the question: where do we come from in the field of education of designers? We present interdisciplinary design education in different design fields and with different levels of student BA- and MA-programs. We want to argue for the necessity of PhD programs to be offered at universities, in cooperation with companies to bring knowledge transfer in design to a higher level: intercultural and inter-generational (textile) design education with integrated engineer courses.
Keywords: PhD and doctoral in design, interdisciplinary academic education in EU, transfer in intergenerational education, textile engineering + design, interactive and intercultural design programs.