What is Industrial Design Engineering?

When we consider choosing a career, our mind automatically projects a possible future scenario. To choose an engineering field, e.g. industrial design engineering, is to consider many possible scenarios. Engineering is a discipline associated with invention, science, creation and complex problem solving. Through new industries, it has had a significant impact on society.

In past historical periods, the creation of industry has been driven by engineers, physicists and chemists whose knowledge has transformed our way of life, philosophies, politics, societies and economy.

But what is the relationship between engineering, design and industry when we talk about choosing to study Industrial Design Engineering?

In general terms, design is the professional practice of creating products, objects, spaces and services used by people from formal culture, art and technology. It is considered a creative activity that aims to propose objects that are useful and aesthetic. Whether they are handmade or industrial.

Industrial design aims to focus this discipline on serial production environments, it is the final result of a process, the objective of which is to find a suitable solution to a certain particular problem, determining its functionalities, its formalisation and its industrial production.

Throughout history, engineering has been considered a synergistic discipline of technology and describes engineers as people who develop technology through new materials and their processing. Engineering, in all its specialisations, is attributed with the outstanding quality of systems thinking.

Industrial Engineering is the branch that deals with the optimisation of processes, human resources and complex systems through the development, improvement and implementation of integrated systems with people, economy, knowledge, information and equipment, energy, materials and industrial processes. All with the aim of obtaining products and services of high quality and efficiency, useful and satisfying to society, taking into consideration the environmental impact generated.

With the above two definitions in mind, it is easier to shed light on the definition of industrial design engineering.

Industrial Design Engineering is a specialisation in the engineering discipline in which systemic thinking converges with the creative process.

Industrial design engineers are professionals specialised in applying scientific and technical knowledge to create products, materials or services in a creative way. The main objective is, once a problem has been posed, to investigate in order to devise a proposal that can be put into practice, that works correctly, that is efficient and environmentally friendly and that meets the expectations with which it was projected.

The industrial design engineer, during the design process, makes use of the necessary techniques in ideation, invention, visualisation, calculation, management, design and specification of industrial details that determine the form of an engineering product. At the same time, it combines market analysis with the innovative vision of the proposal made.

The Undergraduate Degree in Industrial Design Engineering provides you with all the necessary tools to understand these changes and turn them into realities, acting as a bridge between society, technology and business. During the four years of training, you will develop your skills and aptitudes to become a professional capable of transforming social and technological trends into design opportunities, ideas into forms, drawings into prototypes, experiments with materials into user experiences, technological prototypes into industrially viable designs, value proposals into economically, ecologically and socially sustainable business models.

The aim of the Undergraduate Degree in Industrial Design Engineering is to provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary for you to be able to develop a creative attitude of experimentation, with scientific and humanistic, relevant and innovative criteria. You will learn to configure new realities in order to interpret the historical, social, cultural, economic and technological context. You will also learn to integrate formal sensitivity as a fundamental part of the project process.

For those students who have already completed the Undergraduate Degree in Industrial Design Engineering, Elisava also offers the Master’s Degree in Industrial Design Engineering.