Elements and ways of integrated product development education - Current and future challenges

This paper addresses how different aspects of integrated product development are communicated to students at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM). One major issue consists in teaching students the situation-specific use of methods within the design process. Therefore different procedural models - developed and used in lectures by the Institute of Product Development at the TUM - are introduced and compared. In this context, on the one hand the'Munich Procedural Model'in respect to problem solving and on the other hand the'Munich Model of Product Concretization'are looked at in detail. Further it is presented how students can delve into the procedural models within lectures, tutorials, seminars and student's theses and thus get deeper insight into design processes. For example one focus is directed on'Product Development Seminars'carried out by the Institute of Product Development in order to get students involved in research projects in cooperation with industry. Thereby, student teams work under supervision on a design project, in which they are able to practice and process methods and procedures taught in lectures. Further, interdisciplinary aspects - such as cost-efficient design and biomimetic development scenarios - are considered in the engineering design education and presented in this paper. As a summary, this paper introduces singular elements and ways of communicating integrated product development issues to students. Besides reflecting the current status, future challenges are addressed and deduced.