Program Overview

Second Major in Innovation & Design

The Second Major in Innovation & Design consists of a series of project-based courses that run throughout a student’s candidature. Students are expected to develop their knowledge, skills, and abilities in innovation and design in a cumulative manner through these courses.

Program Requirements

The requirements of the Second Major in Innovation & Design are as follows:

Compulsory Courses (24 units)

• Design project: CDE3301 Ideas to Proof-of-Concept (12 units) or CDE3301C Complex Systems Design: From Mission to Prototype (12 units)
• Final year project: CDE4301 Innovation & Design Capstone (12 units) or CDE4301A Ideas to Start-up (12 units)

Notes on Compulsory Courses

• CDE3301 replaces the design project course in Biomedical Engineering and Engineering Science.
• Students should clear at least one elective course from List I prior to CDE3301.
• CDE3301 must be completed during either of the following windows:
  • Year 2 Semester 2 to Year 3 Semester 1
  • Year 3 Semester 2 to Year 4 Semester 1
• CDE3301C is a variant of CDE3301 that is offered for selected competition projects and can be completed during one of the following windows:
  • Year 2 Semester 1 to Year 2 Semester 2
  • Year 3 Semester 1 to Year 3 Semester 2
• CDE4301 and CDE4301A can be used to fulfil Integrated Project for Engineering majors.
• Subject to approval from their own majors, students from non-Engineering majors may seek permission to double-count CDE4301 or CDE4301A towards the honours thesis course in their majors.
• CDE3301, CDE3301C, CDE4301, and CDE4301A cannot be read concurrently with credit-bearing internship.

Elective Courses (16 units)

Complete 16 units of elective courses from List I, List II, List III, List IV, and/or List V, subject to the following conditions:

• At least 8 units must be from List I
• At most 8 units of Level 1000 courses

List of Elective Courses

• List I: Fundamental Electives
  • CDE2300 Product Design and Innovation (4 units)
  • CDE2301 Value Creation in Innovation (4 units)
  • CDE2310 Fundamentals of Systems Design (4 units)
  • CDE2311 Introduction to Space Systems (4 units)
  • ID1121 Human-Centred Design (4 units)
  • UTC2734 Ideas to Pitches: Tech, Innovation & Entrepreneurship (4 units)
  • CDE1301B Conquering the Seas: Fundamentals of Autonomous Maritime Systems (4 units)
  • CDE1301C Dominating the Battlefield: Fundamentals of Combat Robotics (4 units)
  • CDE1301F Fundamentals of Automotive Engineering (4 units)
  • CDE2605R Undergraduate Research Experience (UREx) (4 units)
  • CDE2606B Independent Work (4 units)
• List II: Design and Technology Electives
  • CDE5311 Designing UX/UI for Human-Centred AI (4 units)
  • CDE5312 Beyond the Surface: Exploring Interactive Wearables (4 units)
  • CS3240 Interaction Design (4 units)
  • CS4240 Interaction Design for Virtual and Augmented Reality (4 units)
  • GMS1000 The Duke-NUS Premed Course (4 units) - for students in the Duke-NUS Engineering and Medicine Track only
  • ID2122 Ecodesign And Sustainability (4 units)
  • ID3125 Colours, Materials & Finishing (4 units)
  • ID3126 Motion Design (4 units)
  • IE5301 Human Factors In Engineering And Design (4 units)
  • NM3243 User Experience Design (4 units)
• List III: Business, Management, and Entrepreneurship Electives
  • ACC1701 Accounting for Decision Makers / ACC1701X Accounting for Decision Makers (and other variants) (4 units)
  • ACC3705 Valuation (4 units) – for students from NUS Business School only
  • BSN3701 Technological Innovation (4 units) (and other variants)
  • BSN3702 New Venture Creation (4 units)
  • BSN3703 Entrepreneurial Strategy (4 units)
  • BSN3714 Co-Creating Value (Tools for Collaborative Innovation) (4 units)
  • BSN3715 Digital Strategy (4 units)
  • BSP1703 Managerial Economics / BSP1703X Managerial Economics (4 units)
  • BSN4811 Strategic Innovation for High Performance (4 units)
  • CDE5313 Innovation by Design (4 units)
  • CP2201 Journey of the Innovator (2 units)
  • DAO2703 Operations and Technology Management (4 units)
  • EC1101E Introduction to Economic Analysis (4 units)
  • EC4372 Technology and Innovation (4 units)
  • ETP3321 Summer Programme in Entrepreneurship (4 units)
  • FIN2704 Finance / FIN2704X Finance (4 units)
  • IE5003 Cost Analysis and Engineering Economy (4 units)
  • IE5213 Service Innovation And Management (4 units)
  • IS3150 Digital Media Marketing (4 units)
  • IS3251 Principles of Technology Entrepreneurship (4 units)
  • MKT1705 Principles of Marketing / MKT1705X Principles of Marketing (and other variants) or TR2201 Entrepreneurial Marketing (4 units)
  • MKT2711 Marketing Venture Challenge (4 units) (and other variants) – for students from NUS Business School only
  • MNO1706 Organisational Behaviour / MNO1706X Organisational Behaviour (4 units) (and other variants)
  • MNO3811 Social Entrepreneurship (4 units)
  • MT5001 Intellectual Property Management & Innovation Strategy (4 units) (and other variants)
  • MT5006 Value Creation Through Product Development (4 units)
  • MT5007 Management of Technological Innovation (4 units) (and other variants)
  • MT5023 Technology-Based Entrepreneurial Strategy (4 units)
  • MT5024 Maximising Innovation Value through Patent Analytics (4 units)
  • MT5026 Experiential Learning: Applied Project or MT5902 Management Extended Practicum (4 units)
  • MT5911 Venture Capital Funding for TechVenture (4 units)
  • MT5920 Enterprise Development - Experiential Innovation (4 units)
• List IV: For students in NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programmes
  • ETP3204S Innovation & Enterprise Internship Practicum / ETP3204T Innovation & Enterprise Internship Practicum (4 units)
  • ETP3211 New Venture Creation / TR3002 New Venture Creation (4 units)
  • ETP3222A Topics in Entrepreneurship (4 units)
  • ETP3222B Topics in Entrepreneurship (4 units)
  • ETP3224 Global Entrepreneurial Leadership (4 units)
  • ETP3225A Topics in Entrepreneurship (2 units)
  • ETP3251 Global Entrepreneurial Marketing (4 units)
  • ETP4212 Venture Creation: Process and Mindset (4 units)
• List V: Mapping of courses from student exchange, summer, and winter programmes
  • CDE3361 Innovation & Enterprise Elective 1 (4 units)
  • CDE3362 Innovation & Enterprise Elective 2 (4 units)
  • CDE3363 Innovation & Enterprise Elective 3 (2 units)
  • CDE3364 Innovation & Enterprise Elective 4 (2 units)

General Programme Timeline

Generally, most students will read their first course for this Second Major in Year 1 Semester 2 by choosing one course from the List I electives. They will then read a second elective from List I in Year 2 Semester 1, before embarking on the year-long design project in CDE3301 in Year 2 Semester 2 to Year 3 Semester 1. Those who are unable to read one or both courses from List I may read either or both courses concurrently with CDE3301.

There is no scheduled project course in Year 3 Semester 2 so that students can go for a semester-long internship, student exchange programme, or other programmes. The final year project course CDE4301/CDE4301A will be read in Year 4, while the remaining two electives can be read in any semester but typically in Year 3 and Year 4.

Recommended Study Plans

Click on the links below for more details about the requirements and recommended study plans for various primary majors with the Second Major in Innovation & Design.

Engineering Majors

• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Engineering Science
• Environmental & Sustainability Engineering
• Industrial & Systems Engineering
• Infrastructure & Project Management
• Materials Science & Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Robotics and Machine Intelligence

Other Majors

• Accountancy
• Architecture
• Artificial Intelligence
• Arts and Social Sciences
• Business Administration
• Business Analytics
• Business Artificial Intelligence Systems
• Computer Science
• Industrial Design
• Information Security
• Landscape Architecture
• Nursing
• Real Estate
• Science