Product design engineering: interdisciplinary pedagogy integrating engineering science with 'designerly ways'

Product design and development teams are now multidisciplinary environments which require designers and engineers to collaborate harmoniously. This integrated approach enables new synergies and an extension of service provision, which leads engineering into fresh areas of professional activity but challenges traditional engineering education. The characteristics of product design and development have also changed. There is greater focus on sustainable design, socially responsible design and design for need; opportunities exist for designers to make a positive contribution to the welfare of global communities whilst advancing technologies that support sustainable development. In this changing environment, design engineers must assume new responsibilities and a greater role to achieve successful product realisation. However to be effective, they require new skills including creative design ability and a human-centred approach. These are not attributes commonly addressed by engineering curricula, but are evident in an emerging paradigm; Product Design Engineering (PDE) which integrates industrial design and mechanical engineering curricula. These interdisciplinary engineers are proficient in both design and engineering roles and make valuable contributions to more integrated product design and development environments. This paper investigates the emergence of this paradigm and the innovative curricula developed though collaboration between the design and engineering faculties at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.