The evolution of design education will take another step forward in the fall of 2016, when Harvard University will begin offering a Master in Design Engineering. The two-year program—which will be taught by faculty from both the Graduate School of Design (GSD) and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)—has its origins in a lunchtime conversations series called "Now?" which, over the course of several years, brought together people from throughout the campus to discuss their work with a focus on problem-solving in the present, rather than the past or for the future. 

GSD's dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, spoke in a recent interview about how the new program fits into the current discourse around design thinking, while highlighting its emphasis on "preparing individuals to take a multidisciplinary mindset into a project environment and work across fields." 

[Editors Note: For more on interdisciplinary design programs, see Matthew Kressy's piece on MIT's Integrated Design and Management program's approach to engineering, business and design.]

The goal is not to turn designers into engineers or engineers into designers, but rather to foster a "genuinely collaborative" environment where students develop a robust, multi-disciplinary toolkit. The curriculum will emphasize the studio model and include four classes per semester, culminating in a design project during the second year. The types of real-world questions that the students will tackle will ring similar to these:

• What would it take to convert the U.S. transportation system from its almost total reliance on gasoline to more stable, economical, and environmentally friendly alternatives?

• How could the health care delivery system be transformed to yield better outcomes at lower cost?

• What steps can cities take to adapt to rising sea levels and other climate change-induced environmental impacts with minimal disruption to society?

• How can homes be designed to consume zero net energy by minimizing year-round heat transfer and incorporating on-site generation of electricity?

• In developing products that integrate into the Internet of Things, how should companies design devices and services that balance individual privacy and security with the benefits of networked intelligence?

Initially, the program will look for candidates with backgrounds in design, architecture and engineering. But will ultimately extend their reach to people of different backgrounds including, "urban planning, the various fields of engineering, industrial design, manufacturing, even the arts." 

Mostafavi also underlined the entrepreneurial dimension of the program, noting that "the combination of design and engineering needs to be understood in the broader context of how future leaders will realize projects." Regarding potential career paths after the program, the Deans believe "there will be a lot of possibilities for people who don't want to work for anybody else, who want to start their own companies to develop their own ideas, people who really want to be innovative entrepreneurs."