The programme is designed for students seeking to gain skills in harnessing the challenges and opportunities linked to digital fabrication and its associated maker-movement. The programme integrates knowledge from the fields of social sciences, humanities, engineering, and design. It is offered in close collaboration with industrial partners and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, preparing students for qualified tasks in digital fabrication and innovation.
The Master's programme in Digital Fabrication and Innovation is for students who want to engage in the new challenges brought forth by the emergence of new digital fabrication technologies that question the industrial mass production paradigm. For example, the rapid emergence of 3D-printing technologies is triggering new forms of small scale experimentation, while at the same time gaining attention from large corporations that need to assess how their business may be affected by its applications.
As a student, you will be exposed to a multidisciplinary set of perspectives on digital fabrication and innovation. This entails both the theoretical underpinnings of these perspectives, as well as the application of the practical tools, techniques, and methods from each tradition.
In the first term, the focus lies on a design-based perspective. Here, students will take courses that focus on topics such as user-centred design, prototyping, design thinking, and the specific nature of the tools and techniques involved in digital fabrication (e.g. CAD/CAM, 3D-printing). After being introduced by a humanistic perspective on the processes and outcomes of digital fabrication, the second term continues with an innovation and entrepreneurship based perspective on digital fabrication. Finally, the third term approaches digital fabrication from an engineering-perspective.
Whether you choose to study one or two years you will be well prepared for working in any context in which the innovative use of digital fabrication technologies is in focus. The programme contains courses given by multiple departments and faculties. However, the programme also provides flexibility, as the third term consists of 15 ECTS of elective courses.
Students finishing the programme after one year are required to undertake a 15 ECTS thesis in the spring, their second term, before they graduate. Students studying for two years can choose whether they want to do two 15 ECTS thesis courses, one in the second term and one in the fourth term, or only one large 30 ECTS thesis course during the fourth term. Students will select their topic independently and the thesis is written under the guidance of a supervisor. In order to pass the Master's thesis, the students must not only write and defend their thesis but they must also be opponents of another student's thesis.
Informatics - Interior end equipment. Welcome!
After graduation, you will be well prepared for conducting qualified tasks in digital fabrication and innovation in for example R&D-labs of large organisations, or in start-ups. This could consist of professional responsibilities related to designing new digital products, services, and processes. Possible careers for a student with a Master's Degree in Digital Fabrication and Innovation include roles as a consultant, researcher, project manager, product developer, designer, within the realm of digital fabrication and innovation. The programme also gives you eligibility to proceed with studies at a doctoral level.