Program Overview

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Industrial Design Bachelor of Science

The Industrial Design program at Wentworth Institute of Technology leads to a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design. This four-year program is fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).

Program Overview

Professional industrial designers (product designers) work at the intersection of art, business, and technology to provide innovative vision for companies, services, and individuals. Using research and experience as catalysts, designers translate our psychological, social desires and aspirations into improved products and systems for better enjoyment of our world.

Program Details

As a graduate, you will have opportunities to create products for all levels of production. Areas of possibility include consumer electronics, education, toys, sports, medical equipment, footwear, housewares, furniture, and exhibit design. Many graduates begin their careers immediately, designing either as a consultant, or as an in-house designer for some of the nation's leading brands. As they continue to grow professionally, graduates often end up in leadership roles within their respective companies, making top-level decisions as a design director or creative manager.

Much of your educational experience will consist of experiential project-based studios, as well as courses in drawing, model making, manufacturing technologies (such as computer-aided design and rapid prototyping), user research, and design history. Classroom and studio experiences are complemented by two required cooperative work experiences. The co-op experience reinforces curricular goals and accelerates an understanding of professional practice. A one-semester study abroad program in Europe is offered in the junior year, which includes all courses to continue on track for graduation. Students apply for study abroad in the fall of the junior year (the program accepts a limited number of students).

Industrial Design

Industrial designers create and develop concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value, and aesthetics of products, environments, systems, and services for the benefit of user, industry, and society. Industrial design involves combinations of the visual arts disciplines, sciences, and technology, and requires problem-solving and communication skills.

Context

The role of the designer is not only to achieve the goodness of fit between form and context, but also to determine how much of the surrounding context will be considered as a specific design problem is addressed and solved. Basic competence in both framing and solving design problems is essential for graduates. In all design specializations, this competence includes knowledge of and ability to address the following:

• The value of communication, objects, environments, or services to persons and society.
• The cognitive or physical ease, efficiency, and satisfaction of people as they learn and use communication, objects, products, environments, systems, or services.
• The perceived emotional, social, or cultural benefits of communication, objects, products, environments, systems, or services.
• The consequences of design in interdependent systems, lifespan of designed objects, and use and disposal of resources.
• The technological ability to produce and/or disseminate and/or distribute communication, objects, environments, or services.
• The economic potential and consequences, for example, for return on investment, economic sustainability, and growth.

Program Educational Objectives

NASAD Essential Competencies, Experiences, and Opportunities for Industrial Design:

1. Ability to design products and systems including, but not limited to a foundational understanding of how products and systems are made; what makes them valuable; how they are developed, realized, and distributed; and how they are related to environmental and societal issues and responsible design.
2. Ability to use technologies and tools associated with multi-dimensional design representation, development, dissemination, and application.
3. Foundational knowledge of the history of industrial design including, but not limited to the influences of works and ideas on the evolution of design study and practice over time and across cultures.
4. Fundamental knowledge of user experience, human factors, applied ergonomics, contextual inquiry, user preference studies, and usability assessments.

BIND Sophomore Review

A portfolio is not required for admission into the Industrial Design Program (BIND). However, BIND students must maintain a minimum program GPA of 2.5 for all DSGN and INDS courses (49 credits) by the end of the sophomore year (spring semester) in order to advance into the junior year. Students who do not meet this requirement can either transfer to a different degree program or repeat selected courses from the BIND program sophomore year.

To assess student accomplishment during the freshman and sophomore year, each student will take part in a comprehensive exhibition of design projects (in DSGN and INDS courses) at the end of each spring semester. The intent of the exhibit is to gauge students' success in their respective classes for student advising and program assessment.

Plan of Study Grid

The program consists of the following courses:

Freshman Year

• Fall Semester:
  • DSGN1000: VISUALIZATION I/DRAWING I (3 credits)
  • DSGN1100: DESIGN MAGIC (2 credits)
  • INDS1000: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN STUDIO 1 (4 credits)
  • INDS1750: VISUAL COMMUNICATION (4 credits)
  • English Sequence (4 credits)
• Spring Semester:
  • DSGN1200: COLOR & COMPOSITION (4 credits)
  • INDS1500: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN STUDIO 2 (4 credits)
  • INDS1850: VISUALIZATION 2: ADVANCED PERSPECTIVE (3 credits)
  • MATH1020: PLANE & SOLID GEOMETRY (4 credits)
  • English Sequence (4 credits)

Sophomore Year

• Fall Semester:
  • INDS2000: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN STUDIO 3 (4 credits)
  • INDS2300: 3D REALIZATION I (4 credits)
  • INDS2350: VISUALIZATION 3: DRAW & THINK (3 credits)
  • PHYS1010: CONCEPTUAL PHYSICS (4 credits)
  • HSS Elective (4 credits)
• Spring Semester:
  • INDS2500: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN STUDIO 4 (4 credits)
  • INDS2600: CAD 1: SURFACE MODELING (3 credits)
  • INDS2800: 3D REALIZATION 2 (4 credits)
  • INDS2850: VISUALIZATION 4: PRESENTATION & ILLUSTRATION (3 credits)
  • HSS Elective (4 credits)

Junior Year

• Fall Semester:
  • INDS3000: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN STUDIO 5 (4 credits)
  • INDS3100: CAD 2: SOLID MODELING (3 credits)
  • INDS3200: HUMAN FACTORS IN DESIGN (3 credits)
  • INDS3300: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE 1 (3 credits)
  • HSS Elective (4 credits)
• Spring Semester:
  • COOP3500: COOP EDUCATION 1 (0 credits)
• Summer Semester:
  • INDS3500: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN STUDIO 6 (4 credits)
  • INDS3600: MANUFACTURING IN DESIGN (3 credits)
  • HSS Elective (4 credits)
  • Technical Elective (3 credits)

Senior Year

• Fall Semester:
  • COOP4500: COOP EDUCATION 2 (0 credits)
• Spring Semester:
  • INDS4000: INDUSTRIAL DESIGN STUDIO 7 (4 credits)
  • INDS4011: DESIGN PERSPECTIVES: TOPICS IN HISTORY OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN (4 credits)
  • INDS4300: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE 2 (3 credits)
  • INDS5000: RESEARCH: SENIOR STUDIES (3 credits)
  • HSS Elective (4 credits)
• Summer Semester:
  • INDS4500: BUSINESS IN DESIGN (3 credits)
  • INDS4750: SENIOR SEMINAR (3 credits)
  • INDS5500: SENIOR STUDIES (4 credits)
  • HSS Elective (4 credits)

Total Credits

The total credits required for the degree are 136.

ENGL/HSS Note

Day program students are required to complete:

• At least one course in Humanities
• At least one course in the Social Sciences
• The remaining courses from either the Humanities or Social Sciences category. Students with a three English course sequence may use the third English course to satisfy a Humanities requirement. A minimum of 28 credits total, including English, humanities, and social science credit, is required to complete the humanities and social sciences graduation requirement. Of the six humanities and social science electives, BIND students must include the following HSS Directed Electives:
• A Design History Elective
• An Art History Elective
• PSYC/SOCL Elective