Curriculum
Our curriculum was first developed in 1999 with a grant from the National Science Foundation and is administered by an interdisciplinary committee led by the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) within the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). The Department of Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering, the School of Management and Technology, and the Department of Communication and Media in HASS also contribute to the curriculum.
We operate under the assumption that students benefit from understanding different "cultures" of design and innovation:
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A technical option (4 courses) or dual major in a field that allows students to gain technical expertise, such as in engineering design, graphic design, software design, or the management of product innovation.
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Social science, historical, and policy perspectives on design and innovation, as represented by the STS curriculum.
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A design professions field as represented by some of the studio experiences, which also integrate the design professions perspective with that of engineering, management, and/or the social sciences.
A hallmark of the curriculum is that students learn to synthesize approaches from engineering, the social sciences, and the design professions. The B.S. degree in Design, Innovation, and Society involves a studio experience each semester, design-related courses in the humanities and social sciences offered by the Science and Technology Studies Department, and a four-course cluster of courses in a technical area, such as management, computer science, engineering, or graphic design. The studios create unique opportunities for students to work with faculty from diverse disciplines to understand multidisciplinary design, the product development process, industrial design and aesthetics, the nature of design in specific fields like engineering, user-centered design, the role of markets and customers, and the patent process. We also help students to understand how design and innovation can help address significant global problems, such as sustainability and poverty.
Students may opt to major in Design, Innovation, and Society and pursue one or more minors. They may also pursue a dual major in four years, so that they graduate with two majors listed on their diploma. The dual major options are referred to as the "Interdisciplinary Programs in Design and Innovation" (also known as "PDI").
The curriculum for the B.S. in Design, Innovation, and Society is flexible enough to allow students to tailor their program to their own interests. In addition to the studio sequence and the social science and humanities courses oriented toward design, technology, innovation, and society, students also take a four-course "technical option." This is the equivalent of a minor in a field that allows students to develop an additional technical area of expertise. Often students use the technical option to gain a minor, and sometimes they opt to get two minors, such as a minor in management and a minor in computer science.
Many students build out the technical option into a full-fledged dual major. This means that the diploma will read "B.S. in Design, Innovation, and Society and in Mechanical Engineering" or "B.S. in Design, Innovation, and Society and Management." The dual majors are highly valued on the job market, plus they have excellent skills if they wish to start their own companies. However, in pursuing a dual major students also surrender some flexibility. Currently, about 80 percent of the students in the Interdisciplinary Programs on Design and Innovation (PDI) are pursuing dual majors in DIS and Mechanical Engineering, which was the historic core of the program. However, each year we get more students who are pursuing new options.
The Rensselaer course catalog has curriculum templates for the B.S. in Design, Innovation, and Society; the dual major of DIS and Mechanical Engineering; and the dual major of DIS and Management. In addition, we have worked out templates for other dual majors, including DIS and Communication/Graphic Design and DIS and Computer Science. There are many possible options. Not all dual majors can be completed within four years unless the student has AP credit. This is particularly true of biomedical engineering and chemical engineering. Also, students cannot combine the BS in DIS with the Bachelor's of Architecture degree (due to state law, which only allows a BS to be combined with a BS degree).
