Engineering Design Project

Academic unit or major

Graduate major in Engineering Sciences and Design

Instructor(s)

Shigeki Saito / Kazuaki Inaba / Hiraku Sakamoto / Wataru Hijikata / Daisuke Kurabayashi / Yuki Taoka / Masanori Kado / Takumi Ohashi / Yuval Kahlon / Momoko Nakatani / Shoichi Hasegawa / Masaki Yagisawa / Miho Tanaka

Class Format

Exercise/Experiment

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

Class

-

Course Code

ESD.B402

Number of credits

022

Course offered

2025

Offered quarter

3-4Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 19, 2025

Language

English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

The aim of this class is to provide students an opportunity to exercise the design of user experience, software, and hardware that can solve the problem given to individual groups on the basis of the "Design Thinking" approach. Each design prompt for the problem comes from an inspiration from the real world. The students are supposed to work as groups consisting of 4 or 5 members having different expertise. In solving the problem, the students are requested to learn the viewpoint of human-centered design using "Design Thinking". The way of ideation is typically unlike the viewpoint of technical-seeds oriented. The students are also supposed to learn the fundamentals of project management in order to lead the project, of which members have different backgrounds.

Course description and aims

The goal is to obtain the capability of designing and presenting the solution that can solve the problem given through the use of the "Design Thinking" approach as a group. The problem is typically provided on the basis of inspiration from the real world. The outcome of the project should include a functional prototype that can give people the real user experience which will be designed in this class.

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).

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend a certain length of time outside of class on preparation and review (including for assignments), as specified by the Institute of Science Tokyo Rules on Graduate Learning (東京工業大学大学院学修規程), for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course materials.

Textbook(s)

Each instructor specifies textbooks.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Each instructor specifies materials.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Interviews & meetings during lectures (30%), team presentations (30%), reports (25%), and contributions to the team (15%). Students who are willing to practice "empathizing with users through producing prototypes" and "overcoming the diversity of students with different backgrounds” are highly evaluated.

Related courses

• ESD.A402 ： Design Thinking Fundamentals
• ESD.B401 ： Engineering Design Advanced

Prerequisites

Each instructor specifies requirements for her/his class. The class will be conducted on the assumption that students have already taken Design Thinking　Fundamentals (& Engineering Design Advanced).

Other

＃This lecture restricts the number of students based on the maximum number of project groups. The enrollment of the following students will be preferentially accepted.
(i) Students in Engineering and Science Design Graduate Major. Students who do not belong to this category must contact the instructors in advance to ask for the vacancy.
(ii) Students who are willing to practice "empathizing with users through producing prototypes" and "overcoming the diversity of students with different backgrounds." These are evaluated by enrollment experiences of the related courses and interviews with the instructors.
＃This lecture requires students to agree to a separate written pledge of confidentiality.