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The Product design Department provides a professional education for those wishing to bring order, utility, aesthetics, and appropriateness to the products, contents, and processes of our modern global society. The program prepares students for careers in the design of products, integrating the design of communications, furniture, equipment, and interfaces. Also addressed are issues of human factors research, computer-aided design, product development, manufacturing, business, and a host of other considerations related to the humanistic uses of technology. The department emphasizes the development of graphic, sculptural and spatial design skills as a complement to creative problem solving, technical innovation, and effective communications during the solution of actual problems of design. After initial coursework to introduce basic design, communication, and collaboration processes, including computer-aided design and model making, students develop and apply theory, skill, and knowledge to functional design problems, many brought into the studio by industry. Visiting designers also bring knowledge of current design, manufacturing and professional practices into studio and lecture courses, while visits to industry provide opportunities for direct observation and firsthand knowledge of design and manufacturing processes. Based on this foundation of skills and experience emphasis in the final semesters shifts to the responsibility for integration of the total design process by the individual students on a thesis project prior to graduation. During the final semester, the instruction focus shifts to career planning, portfolio preparation and the development of information-gathering and business communication skills to better prepare the student to enter the profession.
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Professors