2020 Faculty Courses School of Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics Graduate major in Engineering Sciences and Design
Design Thinking Fundamentals A
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Engineering Sciences and Design
- Instructor(s)
- Shigeki Saito / Hiraku Sakamoto / Kazuaki Inaba / Yuki Taoka / Masaki Yagisawa / Ryo Terui
- Class Format
- Lecture/Exercise (Zoom)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 5-8 Mon (Ishikawadai Bldg.5 , Desaign Factory and, S323)
- Class
- A
- Course Code
- ESD.A402
- Number of credits
- 110
- Course offered
- 2020
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This class provides students an opportunity to learn the knowledge and the capability needed in "Design Thinking" approach through intensive lectures and practices of a long-term project. The class starts with the question, "What is Design Thinking?". The students are requested to understand and master the way of thinking in "Design Thinking" approach about how to find and solve the problem from the fundamental level. The knowledge and skill obtained in this class is highly related to the following projects related to engineering design. When engineers faces various problems, they must know how to solve them with strong viewpoint of key issues in problems. Therefore, students learn fundamental five steps; Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test, and understand how to use the steps through basic exercises. They also experience the iterating processes from "finding potential user needs" to "ideating as making solutions to problems".
Course description and aims
The goal is to understand fundamental five steps of "Design Thinking" approach; Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test, through lectures and practices of a long-term project.
Keywords
Design Thinking, Project-Based-Learning (PBL)
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Students are supposed to have a group work under instructors' supervision. The class style is Project-Based-Learning (PBL).
In the Design Thinking Fundamentals A, lectures are given mainly in English.
In the Design Thinking Fundamentals B, lectures are given mainly in Japanese.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Each instructor specifies her/his class schedule. Design Thinking Fundamentals Course Structure Module 1: Introduction to Design Thinking Module 2: Research & Inspiration Module 3: Synthesis & Opportunity Areas Module 4: Ideation & Concept Development Module 5: Prototyping Module 6: Storytelling Module 7: Final Presentation | Each instructor indicates assignment. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Each instructor specifies textbooks.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Each instructor specifies materials.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Each instructor specifies criterion and methods for assessment.
Related courses
- ESD.A501 ： Engineering Design Project A
- ESD.A502 ： Engineering Design Project B
- ESD.A503 ： Engineering Design Project C
- ESD.B401 ： Engineering Design Advanced
- ESD.B402 ： Engineering Design Project
Prerequisites
Each instructor specifies requirements for her/his class.