Examination arrangement

Course content

The course introduces Design Thinking as a human oriented approach to develop innovative products and systems. The course provides a research and practice-oriented view towards design thinking, and introduces students to the basic of design research, designing and reflections, as to design related topics linking technology and operations.

Thematically, the course focusses on design thinking, where students will be exposed to strategic and human-centred methods and processes, as well as taking into considerations the digital tools introduced in the program. In the second part of the course the students will work with a design challenge within their specialisation.

Learning outcome

Learning outcomes - Knowledge:

The candidate has developed basic understanding of the designers´ mindsets, and inherently their processes and methods. The candidate should be able to understand relationships between technology development, system design and operations including the human aspect. Use of digital methods and techniques and tools taught as a part of the core of the program into a design framework.

Learning outcomes - Skills:

By applying design thinking in an interdisciplinary team the candidate is capable to address debate on, and solve specific design issues, anticipate future needs, solve these needs in a creative and designerly manner by introducing value at different levels: human, organisation, business ecosystem, social.

Learning outcomes - General qualifications:

The candidate has learned: (1) basic user centered methods, (2) basic visualization, representation and communication techniques.

Further on evaluation

Project deliveries.

Hans Petter Hildre

Specialisation issues:

• Naval architecture: Karl Henning Halse
• Mechatronics: Houxiang Zhang
• Smart Water Technology: Razak Seidu
• Sustainable Energy Systems: Vilmar Æsøy

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

The following one course is required System Engineering.​

Required previous knowledge

The following one course is required System Engineering and Life Cycle Management and Sustainability.

Course materials

The course is project based. Students will be working in groups of 3 - 4. Several generic design tasks will be used as mandatory assignments the first third of the semester. This is mandatory assignments. Then a major project within each specialization. A series of lectures, discussing a wide variety of design thinking topics, pertaining content and process complement the project work. The aim of these lectures is to challenge students to think and reflect about social and technological aspects. Moreover, 3 times two-day workshops will be conducted. Through pre-defined cases, the purpose of these workshops is to equip students with research and design methods and tools to address contextual problems.

The first 2-days workshops centers around the "Emphatise"-"Define" - "Ideation" phases of the of the Design Thinking Process. They aim to train students to work with research methods, such as observations, interviews, personas, user journeys, scenarios, storytelling, etc. Moreover, students will also learn how to consolidate data and findings into a problem and requirement list. The second two 2-days workshops centers around the "Ideation"-"Prototyping"-"Testing" phases of the of the Design Thinking Process. Methods and tools, such as "Sketching", "Service Blueprinting", "Paper Prototyping", "Participatory Design", "Future Stakeholder Mapping" etc. will be discussed. The third 2-dya workshop introduce the specialisation and final project delivery. On a weekly basis student groups will meet with their respective project supervisors to discuss the progression of their projects.