Academic and Industry Partners
Academic Partners
ISD’s pedagogical innovation is a vision shared by many other schools, departments and universities around the world. From course collaboration, to co-supervision of design projects, to tailored exchange semester arrangements, our academic partners support ISD students to enrich their learning opportunities and to extend their horizons. In particular, two joint courses illustrate some of the collaborative endeavors.
• ISDN4320 Design Thinking | HKUST ISD x China Academy of Art
• ISDN3350 Global Product Development | HKUST ISD x SNU IdeaFactory x BUAA IDE
Industrial Partnership
ISD works with our industrial partners to provide students with real-world perspective and design and technical skills through projects, internship, and mentorship. ISD students work on industry-related problems and projects throughout the program and along the way, have ample opportunities to meet and consult with our industrial partners. In their final year, our students work on company-sponsored Capstone projects that utilize what they’ve learned throughout the program and challenge them to be innovators, designers and/or entrepreneurs. Students and faculty advisors work closely with the industrial partners having frequent communication sessions, prototyping reviews, and tracking of progress to ensure project success.
Through the interactions with the industrial partners, our students gain valuable knowledge and real-world experience. In turn, our industrial partners gain fresh insights from our students and also project results that can be used in their company. Our industrial partners can also have opportunities to recruit excellent students into their company.
Project Mentors
As part of the industry partnership program, two representatives from each company are invited to serve as industry mentors. Within the theme-based cornerstone projects, many design reviews and participation in competitions will be required to bring together students with mentors for understanding the real-world problem in the design process. Mentors are also invited regularly to give share in lectures or seminars; allowing students to keep up-to-date with the new landscape in design and engineering.
ISD hopes to foster closer mentorship between the project mentors and students. Students will communicate with their mentors via email or over the phone for no more than two hours per week. An in-person or online meeting will be scheduled once per month.