Product Design Graduate Minor

To receive a minor in product design, a student should experience at least one team-based product design process wherein they take an original concept to a working prototype stage with some level of customer involvement. The student should be capable of coming up with creative product concepts, visualizing these concepts, and making well-crafted purposeful prototypes. Ideally, this student will also have exposure to and an understanding of a variety of manufacturing processes and materials, and have a general knowledge of human factors, marketing and intellectual property.

Classes have been selected from across the university that will provide a student with a strong introduction to many of the skills needed to pursue a career in product design. Product Design Minor courses are grouped into the following categories:

• Product Design Process
• Creativity and Innovation
• Drawing and Visualization
• Prototyping, Manufacturing and the Environment
• Human Factors
• Understanding the Consumer and Market

Admission to the Product Design graduate minor is contingent upon prior admission to a master's or doctoral degree-granting program within the Graduate School that logically relates to the field. You must be in good academic standing with a minimum 3.00 cumulative University of Minnesota GPA.

• Master's students are required to take 11 credits to fulfill the minor.
• Doctoral students are required to take 12 credits to fulfill the minor.
• All students must take PDES 5701 Creativity, Idea Generation, and Innovation, and one of four core product design process options.
• A minimum of two PDES courses must be taken to fulfill this minor.
• Remaining credits to meet the credit minimum are to be selected from the categorized list of electives.
• Courses that meet the core requirement can be used as additional courses if they were not taken to meet the core option.

Students are held to the course requirements in place at the time of their admission. As requirements may change in the future, students should refer to their minor GPAS for the requirements applicable to them.

Indicate Your Interest

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