Influential Design and Creative Engineering

The minor Influential Design & Creative Engineering offers a dynamic and challenging learning environment where you will:

• Take ownership of your project—decide what you create, and how to approach it.
• Or collaborate in design teams, on real-world assignments for actual clients.
• Think creatively and act boldly, to find solutions and execute the design process.
• Acquire new knowledge and skills, by (guest) lectures and workshops.
• Organize and attend student-to-student workshops, sharing your own expert skills, and acquiring new skills from your fellow students.
• Specialize in aesthetic design, knowledge and skills for the aesthetic design of products.
• Research, develop, and test innovative technologies to push boundaries.
• Join our unique Testlabs, where fellow students help you to test and evolve your project/product. Make a positive impact, using the Sustainable Development Goals as your starting point.
• Have a break, and get to know each other, in our multidisciplinary “pressure cooker”

This exchange programme takes a different approach to learning.
Instead of traditional lectures and exams, you’ll join a dynamic learning community filled with hands-on instructions, interactive workshops, inspiring guest lectures, creative pitches, expos, and personalized coaching from experienced designers. You’ll also have access to professional prototyping facilities and the academic resources of the university to bring your ideas to life.

Type of assessment

Assessment focuses on learning and growth through:

• Formative feedback from peers and coaches during workshops and expos.
• Summative evaluation based on:
• A Design Project Report/Journal, documenting your project progress, results and feedback.
• A Knowledge and Skills Report, describing how and what knowledge and skills you acquired, and what/ how you shared knowledge and skills to your fellow students
• An Impact Evaluation Report, discussing the societal, environmental, or technical impact of your project/product
• A Final Expo Presentation showcasing your poster, prototype, and video.

Upon successfully completing this exchange program, you will be able to:

• Proactively explore and apply new activities, methodologies, and strategies to advance and complete a product design.
• Engage stakeholders, including end users and experts, incorporating their insights to refine your product.
• Assess your product’s impact, maximizing its benefits while minimizing any negative effects.
• Identify, evaluate, and integrate new knowledge and skills from various sources.
• Share your expertise to support and collaborate with others.

The exchange program is structured around five key design phases: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. Each phase begins with guest lectures, and student workshops, and concludes with an exhibition where students present their posters and prototypes.

A typical week starts with a kick-off and lecture, followed by coaching or design sessions in the middle of the week. Within the program, students also participate in a Pressure Cooker week, where they work together on a client assignment. Most activities are held offline, encouraging hands-on collaboration and engagement.

After completing your exchange programme at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, you will receive a:

• Transcript of Records

The primary language of this minor will be English, provided that at least five international students are enrolled in the minor. If fewer than five international students participate, plenary sessions will be conducted in Dutch. Individual coaching, however, will always be available in English.