MIT now offers an Integrated Design & Management (IDM) track. Learn more at idm.mit.edu.
Scheduled to admit its first cohort in September 2015, IDM is the first MIT graduate program to offer a master’s degree that combines industrial design, engineering design, and other design disciplines with management. IDM is offered jointly by the MIT School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management and is targeted at early to mid-career professionals. Graduates will receive an MIT master’s degree in engineering and management.
The backgrounds of IDM’s student body and faculty will be composed of equal parts engineering, business, and design, according to Matthew S. Kressy, the program’s director. “This is critical to achieving balance—through exposure to these different fields, students learn to incorporate the power of the other disciplines into their perspectives,” he says.
“This integrated approach has been shown time and time again to inspire new business paradigms, compelling products, and the creative courage to solve complex, hard-to-define problems.”
IDM’s core curriculum will be taught in the Integrated Design Lab (ID Lab), a design studio environment complete with state-of-the-art tools like 3D printers and robotic arms. Working in interdisciplinary teams, students will practice the human-centered design process on a range of projects. These include: designing and manufacturing high-quality products, creating compelling online customer experiences, and coming up with remedies for societal issues in inner city Boston.
“We’re cultivating an action-based learning environment—where empathy is generated, trial and error is encouraged, failure is celebrated, and the potential for success is realized,” says Kressy.
Throughout the two-year program, students will do internships with top innovation companies, work on design-related consulting projects for firms, and have opportunities to solve real-world societal problems in local municipalities.
Applicants to IDM must be able to demonstrate expertise in design, engineering, or management, as well as a commitment to combining the best practices of these in an immersive, collaborative setting. All applicants are required to submit a portfolio of their work.
“We want people who are driven, disruptive, and entrepreneurial,” says Kressy. “We want people who are risk takers and independent thinkers. We want people who aren’t afraid to question authority. We are now accepting applications for an inaugural cohort for a new way of teaching and learning at MIT that I believe will produce visionary, business, design and societal leaders.”