Are you currently a student at a university of Applied Sciences? Do you have a background in Industrieel Product Ontwerpen or Mechanical Engineering and want to deepen your knowledge with a scientific approach? Then the minor Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Twente may be an interesting option for you.

The minor Industrial Design Engineering is meant for students from universities of Applied Sciences who would like to continue their education with an academic master’s programme in Industrial Design Engineering. If you have finished the minor successfully, you will be admitted to the master’s programme after graduation from your bachelor’s programme.

You will be taught various scientific skills and your skills in Mathematics will be improved. You will also attend several courses related to industrial design engineering. After successfully completing this transfer minor and having  obtained your degree from a University of Applied Sciences you will be able to immediately start the Master's programme Industrial Design Engineering. 

Topics which will be addressed in this minor:

• Mathematics
• Academic and research skills emphasizing writing a research proposal and scientific paper.
• Industrial design courses, these may differ depending on your previous education

The programme you need to follow depends on you educational programme.

 

Programme for students with a background in Mechanical Engineering

Quartile 1  
Calculus 1A (ME-B1)                            2,5 EC
Design Ideation & Visualisation            2 EC
Design of Data Acquisition Systems     5 EC
Data-driven Product Development &
Interaction                                             5 EC
Academic Research Skills                    2 EC
TOTAL EC 16,5

Quartile 2
Calculus 1B                                            3 EC
Project Multidisciplinary Prod. Devel.     5 EC
Market Research                                    2 EC
Value Proposition Design                       3 EC
Academic Research skills (continued)   2 EC 
TOTAL EC 15

 

After successfully completing this transfer minor, depending on his previous education, the student is able to:

With respect to Mathematics

• Formulate definitions and properties of functions or variables.
• Solve first and second order differential equations
• Work with complex numbers
• Integration and optimisation of functions of two or three variables

With respect to Academic Research Skills

• Review scientific literature
• Plan & design scientific research
• Systematically process the results of scientific research
• Write scientific documents
• Orally present and discuss scientific research

With respect to Design of Data Acquisition systems

• Design and implement data acquisition systems
• Understand the logics of computer programming, electronics and sensor technologies
• Apply basic electronics principles to sensor-data acquisition systems
• Perform data analysis tasks (cleaning, manipulation, visualization)
• Applying knowledge in small similar projects
• Identify the need for data from a designer perspective

With respect to Data-Driven Product Development & Interaction

• Assess the implications data has on the design process
• Calculate (or rationalize) the effects of data driven design on user and/or environment behaviour.
• Know the limits and barriers of use of data in industrial design engineering (sky is not the limit)
• Illustrate the design aspects that might make the result vulnerable (e.g., security/privacy issues)
• Justify the use of data for changing the human behaviour/environment responsibly
• Distinguish the (negative/positive) impacts of data to the (anticipated) product use and the design process)

With respect to Project Multidisciplinary Product Development

• Design, by collaborating and communicating in a multi-disciplinary group – a design agency – a common identity and vision for that agency.
• Design a feasible, valuable and founded product, that fits both a realistic need & portfolio and a design agency’s identity & vision, by applying integrated product development and concurrent design methods.
• Analyse and interpret multidisciplinary, incomplete and ambiguous (complex) information and use this to make underpinned decisions in relation to a product-in-design.
• Design a complex product that integrates knowledge from multiple disciplines, within a limited amount of time, by applying project management techniques to set priorities in a plethora of relevant design aspects.
• Reflect upon the integration of knowledge in the product and the process.

With respect to Market Research

• Appraising the need for market research, its rigorous execution and ethical conduct, and utilize the comprehensive analysis of the market research as a foundation to develop a robust new value proposition that addresses identified market needs and aligns with organizational goals.
• Recognizing the critical role of customer insights in crafting valuable offerings for customers by identifying unmet customer needs using qualitative research techniques, conducting and interpreting the outcomes of conjoint analysis to break down consumers’ value calculus and measuring and visualizing consumer perceptions of products and brands.
• Develop the ability to generate valuable insights by strategically choosing and employing diverse research methodologies and techniques tailored to the project's context. This involves conducting comprehensive research to understand customer preferences, societal needs, organizational capabilities, and competitor activities, enabling informed decision-making and innovative problem-solving.
• Planning and executing experiments, particularly A/B tests, to evaluate product concepts in the market place and determining the demand for a product offering and dealing with the uncertainty involved .

With respect to Value Proposition Design

• Understanding the different aspects of value (perceived and delivered value, costing) and applying these different aspects to the context of the project.
• Analysing the customer perspective, the organization perspective, the industry perspective and the societal perspective in relation to the value of a product
• Designing a product with the intention to create value using framing and value engineering techniques
• Communicating value by means of branding and marketing communication 
• Translating the Value Proposition Design into the tactical elements of the marketing mix and make a plan how to deliver and communicate value.

This transfer minor is recommended only for those students of Universities of Applied Sciences (HBO) who have obtained good grades throughout their educational programme. The transfer minor is designed for students who have the motivation and capacity to obtain an academic degree from an English-taught Master's programme.

Only students enrolled in a related educational programme such as Mechanical Engineering or Industrieel Product Ontwerpen are admissible to this transfer minor, see also www.doorstroommatrix.nl.  In some cases where the students prior education is not related to the Master's programme, the Examination Board can make an exception. An individual request for this must be submitted to the contact person below.

The University of Twente assumes that all students who sign up for a transfer minor have a minimum level of English and Mathematics (VWO-level English and Mathematics B). This is the student's responsibility. Previous experiences have shown that hardly any students manage to successfully complete the transfer minor if they do not comply with these requirements. If necessary, additional courses are available at Boswell-Bèta or the Open University.

Also students must have obtained at least 120 ECTS at their University of Applied Sciences in order to be admitted to the transfer minor.

The books used for each course can be found in the course descriptions of the individual courses in the course catalogue. Please note that this information is often only available a few weeks before the course starts.

The transfer minor is a full time programme of approximately 30 ECTS. The programme starts on Monday, September 1, 2025 and ends on Friday, January 30, 2025. However, some resits might be scheduled in the third quartile (February 4 till April 17). An introduction period for prospective students takes place in the week before the programme starts.

Assessment of the study results with a grade will happen during each individual course. After each examination one resit is available in case of failure. The minor programme can only be finished successfully (implying admission to the master’s programme) if all individual courses have resulted in a sufficient mark. The minor programme should be finished successfully within a year after the start in order to get admission to the master’s programme.

The programme is entirely in English, as is the required literature.

For more information, please contact the premaster coordinator: premastercoordinator-et@utwente.nl