Master of Science in Industrial Design Engineering Technology

Successful completion of the Bachelor’s programme grants immediate access to the Master's programme of Industrial Design Engineering Technology. The curriculum offers a further specialization into the same technological discipline, which then culminates into the Master's dissertation. Successful completion of the Master’s programme will result in a Master’s degree and the title of ‘Industrieel Ingenieur’

Our graduates’ main field of activity is the creation, development and realization of new products or services, or the innovation of existing products. We deliver polyvalent engineers who introduce, strengthen or stimulate technological innovation in a business. Our graduates are able to think about a product - design, choice of materials, technology, production process, ... - in a cross-disciplinary and conceptual manner, while also charting the interaction between product and human and acting accordingly. They do so with a sense of creativity and methodology. After acquiring the necessary competencies to develop products in a creative and methodological manner (‘making the things right’) in the Bachelor’s programme, you learn to develop products, processes and services aimed at a translation of technological innovation into design solutions with an added value for all stakeholders (‘making the right things’) in the Master's programme.

Your competencies at Master’s level are situated in the field of integral product development, systems-oriented and sustainable design, innovation-oriented entrepreneurship, modelling and styling, design-oriented research and a further professional development. A graduate of the Industrial Design Engineering Technology is able to:

• investigate every aspect of industrial design in a systematic manner by means of materialized design solutions in order to examine the behaviour of products and systems;
• deal with change, and use or steer that change as an added value in the development process;
• take on leadership of an innovation project;
• manage all company processes with a sense of entrepreneurship and pluck, all the while adopting a design-oriented and exploratory attitude;
• develop a product vision in a real-life business context;

Throughout the programme you develop various projects in collaboration with and/or commissioned by companies. This ensures that you are at all times working on exiting and specific cases. Feedback on your project is delivered directly by the professional field. Among our regular collaborators are Bekeart, Beaulieu, CNH, Curana, Deceuninck Plastics, Extremis, Glimps, Honda, Kalkhoff, Philips, Pili Pili, Recticel, Ridley bikes, Samsonite, Sioen Industries, Sirris, TEN Engineering, Televic, Twikit, Umbrosa, UZ Gent, Volvo, Procter & Gamble, Daikin, Materialise, Niko, Renson, Thule, Tupperware ...

Our work placement and graduation projects take place at SMEs and multinationals in Flanders and beyond. We occasionally plan company visits or fairs. All Master's students are given the opportunity to participate in international study trips, during which we pay company visits but also embark on a cultural exploration of the destination country.

Throughout the Master’s curriculum we focus heavily on entrepreneurship and marketing. You will even be asked to set up your own fictional enterprise. Ghent University’s DO! is the ideal partner to take the additional step towards an actual enterprise. (Centre for Entrepreneurship). The Master’s curriculum also offers a wide range of electives to broaden your perspective on the world, or to study your Master's dissertation topic in a more in-depth manner. The Master's dissertation is proof that you are able to translate a research question into a product design in an industrial context.

Companies are often on the lookout for creative engineers who can use new ideas to create products that are in line with the prevailing market. This makes for a wide range of career opportunities for our graduates. They find employment in a variety of sectors and positions. A few examples are the interior design, wood, lighting, furniture, automobile and transportation sectors, as well as the CAD/CAM, electronics, machine construction or multimedia design sectors; engineering and design bureaus, consumer goods, plastics, mould-making and stand-building, the education sector and research centres. Positions that are open to you are: Self-employed designer, design engineer, CAD engineer, service engineer, R&D engineer, product developer, technical-commercial staff, production manager, mechanical designer, technical writer, company or project leader.

More information is available at www.ugent.be/campus-kortrijk/nl/opleidingen/industrieel-ontwerpen/overzicht.htm#Jobs.