THE ACADEMIC-ENTERPRISE EXPERIENCES FRAMEWORK AS A GUIDE FOR DESIGN EDUCATION
Year: 2016
Editor: Erik Bohemia, Ahmed Kovacevic, Lyndon Buck, Christian Tollestrup, Kaare Eriksen, Nis Ovesen
Author: Martins, Joăo Carlos; Pereira, Joăo Luis; Oliveira, Marcelo; Coelho, Cristina
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1Polytechnic Institute of Viseu (IPV), 2Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, 3Center for Studies in Education, Technology and Health (CI&DETS), IPV
Section: Building Capacity
Page(s): 601-606
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract
The establishment of support platforms for the development of a new culture in design education, in
order to achieve both research exploitation and its results, as an approach to the industrial community,
challenges higher education institutions to rethink their functioning, divided between investigation on
their own initiative or on demand, and its usefulness / practical application. At the same time, through
design education, how can they be the engine that aggregates all these frequently antagonistic
interests? Polytechnic institutes are predisposed to collaboration and interdisciplinarity. In our course
of Technology and Design of Furniture, the availability of a production unit, testing laboratories, and
expertise in engineering, design and marketing, encourage the development of a holistic project. In
order to develop such knowledge, we adapt three important ways of thinking in designing interactions
influenced by the traditional approach, namely, 1) identifying and understanding a design problem, i.e.
a market need, 2) defining the design process and knowing what can be used for design education, i.e.
opportunities for design education, and 3) sustainability of this framework and design projects'
alignment with education in the same field. We explain our approach by arguing from the academicenterprise
experiences perspective. This concept is proposed as a way to achieve those three ways of
thinking in design education. Then, a set of interaction attributes is defined to explain how engineering
and product design education can enhance meaningful relations with manufacturers, stakeholders and
society in general. A final discussion is presented with the implications and benefits of this approach.
The results suggest that through academic-enterprise partnerships in design, several goals such as
students' motivation, product design innovation and potential for knowledge transfer to industries can
be achieved.
Keywords: Design, education, collaborative, research, industry.