School of Engineering & Design
Course Information for Employers
BSc & BA Courses
Industrial Design & Technology, Product Design,
Product Design Engineering
The undergraduate degrees are offered as full time or thick sandwich mode of study.
Design
The family of Brunel Design degree course now allows young design thinkers to explore
and develop their creative potential, build competence in technological understanding
and apply business knowledge to new product development. We have, over the last two
decades, created a wealth of knowledge and our design programmes constantly evolve
through close working relationships with commercial specialists across the globe. Our
young Brunel Design graduates have the most comprehensive portfolios of transferable
skills.
Our strong relationships with manufacturing and service companies across the globe
enable us to align our teaching to the constantly evolving needs of industry. All the
courses benefit from real projects set by industrial partners and over 90% of our
undergraduate students have gained professional and cultural experience through their
year working abroad and attached to industrial placements. Many of our graduating
students have already been offered jobs with the companies where they worked on
placement; the endorsement of the quality of their work and the value of the industrial
placement scheme.
Brunel Design represents the very best of creative thinking with innovative use of new
technologies, new materials and exciting new manufacturing processes. At the heart of
all of our work is the fundamental need to design innovative new products with empathy
for the targeted users.
BSc (Hons) Product Design
This has become one of the most popular specification subjects for students wishing to
gain a deeper knowledge of design for mass-produced consumer durable products.
This programme shares level 1 studies with Industrial Design and Industrial Design
Engineering. There is a calculated change of programme emphasis at level 2 with
specialised study of Design History and Ergonomics. Final year projects are focused on
consumer durable themes with supplementary work of a more semantic design
philosophy. This is also a four-year thick sandwich or three year accelerated full-time
programme.
Oct ‘07
Academic Subjects
Level 1
Level 3
Design Process 1
Graphic Communication1
Design Modelling Workshop
Mechanics for Design
Electrical Technology
Major Project
Innovation Management
Human Factors
Plus two options from:
Level 2
Design Process 2
Graphic Communication 2
Electronics Programming & Interfacing
Dynamics, Mechanisms & Stress Analysis
Design for Manufacture
Graphics
Contextual design
Embedded Systems for Design
Environmentally Sensitive Design
BA (Hons) Industrial Design & Technology
This is the fastest growing member of the Brunel Design family. ID & T contains all the
creative and human factors elements of the Product Design course with a new
approach to the technological subjects through practical experience and ‘building’
projects where empirical thinking complements the understanding of theory. The
emphasis is on creative problem solving and practical design applications. ID & T has
been created for students with a desire to develop their abilities through following a
distinctive direction of design understanding and a more manufacturing-led teaching
philosophy.
Acaemic Subjects
Level 1
Level 3
Design Process 1
Graphic Communication1
Design Modelling Workshop
Creative Engineering Practice
Product Analysis
Major Project
Contextual Design
Innovation Management
Level 2
Environmentally Sensitive Design
Graphics
Human factors
Embedded Systems for Design
Design Process 2
Graphic Communication 2
Systems Design
Design for Manufacture 1
Design Applications
Oct ‘07
Plus two options from below:
BSc (Hons) Product Design Engineering
This is the specialised variant of the Product Design programme, providing students
with greater analytical, mathematical and design for manufacture skills. The course
concentrates on deepening the students’ understanding of engineering principles such
as mechanisms, systems design, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, increasingly
through the use of advanced modelling software. There is a final year module in
Computer Aided Design which all students on this programme take. It is a highly
demanding programme and has been created as a direct response to many companies’
wishes to develop stronger design and engineering communicators within the complex
product development process. Graduates move into careers as design engineers and
creative communicators between engineering and design departments.
General Information
All of our courses are built around a central core of design. It is important that students
test their design ideas by realising them, and accordingly workshop skills are an
important element of all of the courses. Project work is a strong feature of all courses,
culminating in the major project in the final two semesters. The major project is a selfgenerated design and make project that enables students to demonstrate mastery of
the different themes within the course through their own design work.
Students may show their work in a final Degree Show but the show itself is not part of
the academic programme. Success on any of the degrees requires students to
demonstrate some measure of creative and artistic talent. Accordingly all students are
normally interviewed before an offer is made, and students will be expected to
demonstrate their creative flair, normally through a folio of work and/or artefacts.
What is Expected of the Placement?
The placement provides an opportunity for a student to achieve at least 44 weeks of
experience in industry where they can apply their academic and technology skills to real
life problems and applications. This will vary according to the employer, but will
generally provide the student with the following elements:

Induction
This is generally a short period to help the student in the transition from academic to
commercial life. The student would ideally meet his or her manager or supervisor to
discuss the content and objectives of the project and terms and conditions of
employment. The student should also receive information on the organisation and its
culture, its products or services and how the project fits into the context of the client.

Develop personal and existing practical skills
Students should have an opportunity to further develop their personal, communication,
creative, and technical skills within the constraints of the specific industry. Students
should have a real job, which has value for the organisation, and develops commercial
understanding.
Oct ‘07