Message from the Head of School

Introduction to the newly created School from Professor Peter Childs

Launching the new MEng degree in Design Engineering was always going to be a challenge. New modules, new staff, new students and every day involving brand new content.

We had pulled together a dream team of academics, teaching fellows and administrators complemented by the best students, each eager to join the start-up school, each aware that this is going to be an adventure where the students will become the pioneers of a new domain.

With design engineering defined as the fusion of design thinking, engineering thinking and practice within a culture of innovation and enterprise, the first term has involved courses in Communication in Design, Design, Engineering Mathematics, Mechanics and Production and Materials.

There has been a balance between a thorough grounding in fundamentals, in the case of mechanics delivered using an inverted lecturing approach where the timetabled sessions were used to review problems tackled by the students, while core material was delivered by videos and rich media, to a wild and wacky induction challenge where students designed and made headwear to carry as much fruit as possible, and a core module in design where the students explored the design of autonomous vehicles.

It has been a very positive experience as our efforts in forward planning have rewarded us with a dream first term. We now have 11 more terms of brand new curriculum ahead of us.

The Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) master's programme is a long-standing collaboration between the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. This term has seen the first year students explore aesthetic and technical function in the Superform module where they have each produced their 21st century take on a seat. The second year group projects pushed the boundaries of innovation through engineering and design, and the term culminated with the final review of the prototypes and propositions, assessed through the time-honoured critique.

All 11 group projects will be displayed at the Work in Progress show at the Royal College of Art on 27-29 January 2016, followed by an exhibition at Imperial on 1-2 February 2016.

The Global Innovation Design (GID) masters, jointly run by the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London was launched in 2012. GID involves in-depth exposure of students to three major cultures of design and innovation through our partnerships with Keio University in Tokyo and the Pratt Institute in New York.

The degree focuses on the generation of creative leaders who are globally aware and enabled by the global network they develop during the degree. Our first graduates completed in July 2015 and have already gone on to positions in companies such as Microsoft, while others have launched their own businesses. During 2015 we were able to announce an extension of the GID partnership to include Tsinghua and new student journeys will be rolled out in 2016 as we grown this exciting programme.