Industrial Design: Transportation Track
The goal of undergraduate design education in the School of Design is to provide a foundation that will allow graduates to deal with diverse professional challenges appropriately and to master tools and media of the future. This foundation has three components:
- an integrated twelve quarter curriculum, rather than a collection of courses, concentrating on the design process rather than product
- one and one-half years of supervised experience in the design field through the professional practice (co-op) program
- a structured liberal-arts education
About the Program
Transportation is a track within the Industrial Design program focusing on the design of vehicles and transportation systems. The Transportation Design Track has a very rigorous curriculum with high standards of quality and excellence, focusing on innovative solutions for transportation design in the broadest sense. This track educates students to contribute to local and global transportation markets that respect diversity in the human community and maintains considerations for the environmental community. This track utilizes new developments in computer technology and provides opportunities to integrate technology as a means of advancing design. Students solve problems as they relate to transportation and are challenged with developing innovative solutions. Considerations are given to aesthetic appearance and the usefulness of transportation products, with attention to the customer: comfort, functionality, safety, brand identity, and overall impact on the environment.
The curriculum for the Industrial Design: Transportation Track satisfies all requirements of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. The curriculum parallels that of the Industrial Design Program, so that students have the opportunity to specialize and master principles and techniques relevant to the transportation design area, while at the same time participating in core design courses and technological advances.
The objectives of this track are to provide students with a clear understanding of transportation design processes and developments. Creativity and critical thinking, combined with a strong drawing ability form the basis of important skill sets. Students learn to conceptualize new solutions and to visually and verbally communicate them. While developing these skills, students gain insight into the transportation industry and develop professional portfolios.