Throughout the world more than thousand courses industrial design exist, the far majority of them mainly focused on the design of furniture, utensils, textiles, transportation. The TU/e Industrial Design department (ID) has a radical different starting point. The new TU/e ID graduate should be an integrator, combining technology, user focus, design and business insights to invent intelligent systems, products and related services.

The Industrial Design discipline ID develops is based on three paradigms: engineering, social science and design. The new TU/e ID graduate is the link between high-tech research and innovative products for the market.

The department Industrial Design started in 2001 as a result of through discussions with large industries surrounding the TU/e. ID is a truly unique school because of the way the department originated, its focus on intelligent systems, products and services and a new competency-based educational concept.

ID welcomes around 150 students per year, has a bachelor course and a master course (both in English) and PhD students. There is a strong interaction between education and research. ID employs both university staff and design specialists from the professional field. Therefore the interaction with the professional world outside the department is well supported.

The department has a number of advanced facilities such as the /d.search-labs, focused at the integration of educational and research activities integrated from idea creation and problem finding up to prototyping and consumer testing. Various workshops enable both student and researcher to realize optimal prototypes. A state of the art 3-d printer is used to realize high quality models on very short notice. ID students, like all TU/e students, are provided with advanced laptops.