Design & Technology Innovation
Core Courses & Electives

Design & Technology Innovation
Core Courses & Electives

Core Courses

These courses build a strong foundation through a variety of design, technology and innovation leadership roles.

  • In this course, students will practice applying design and innovation frameworks and methodologies in the context of a client-based project.

    As the first in the series of three courses core to the program, Design Innovation Studio I will focus on human-centered design, design thinking, and systems thinking as critical frameworks to frame problems and opportunities along with the client.

    Key outcomes from the class include:

    1. Opportunities identified and supported by qualitative and quantitative data
    2. Concept directions that will support Design Innovation Studio II
    3. A portfolio of early-stage prototypes and provocations used to guide data collection

  • In this course, students will advance their skills related to two technical toolkits core to design innovation practice: hardware prototyping, primarily digital fabrication and interactive systems developing using single-board computing and microcontroller platforms; and, introductory data science and machine learning, for driving data-driven design work in both hardware and digital applications.

    The course revolves around extensive in-class experimentation; weekly skill-building assignments; three mini-projects; and a final individual project intended to serve as a portfolio-ready piece.

  • In this course, students will briefly review foundational design and innovation frameworks, understanding their history and contemporary critiques of them.

    Design methodologies and frameworks related to design ethics, design justice, participatory and co-design, social innovation and adjacent themes will be introduced.

    The course will involve a semester-long innovation project leveraging frameworks from the class, focused on a single client.

  • Current topics in applied Design & Technology Innovation. Weekly seminar series.

Electives

There are lots of choices—All engineering graduate courses (course numbers 500 and greater) and all graduate-level courses approved for Duke’s Graduate Certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship are automatically approved for this master’s program.

Selected examples include:

  • 2 Semesters

    Over the two-semester Design Climate course sequence, student teams use Design Thinking to create triple bottom line startups to address climate challenges posed by industry professionals or faculty.

    In Design Climate I (fall), student teams develop business ideas by working through the first three phases of Design Thinking: stakeholder empathizing, opportunity definition, and solution ideation. The semester culminates with a pitch on the startup idea that will be further vetted in Design Climate II (spring).

    Through this process, students learn directly from industry professionals and cultivate capabilities in Design Thinking, entrepreneurship, project management, sustainable product development, climate fundamentals, and business competencies.

    For more information, visit designclimate.duke.edu.

    We highly encourage students only register if you plan on taking both Design Climate I and II.

  • 3 Semesters

    A 3-semester design course sequence (BME 773L, BME 774L, BME 775L) for graduate students.

    Students will expand on their formal engineering design principles knowledge by applying it to identify and research a need drawn from the Duke University Hospital/medical personnel, local companies and organizations around Duke. Students will develop and determine design feasibility for a device, system, material, or process subject to real world constraints. Recommended prerequisite: BME capstone design experience.

    For more information, visit designhealth.duke.edu

  • Practical concepts and exercises with the C# programming language. Basic concepts of algorithms and data structures. Discussion of basic computer graphics concepts. Introduction to the Unity3D game engine. Importing various model formats into Unity3D. User interface design in Unity3D. Advanced scripting using C# for Unity3D. Unity3D common pitfalls and tips for optimizations. Usage of augmented and virtual reality libraries. Weekly homework and final project. No prior coding experience is assumed.

  • This course aims to build students’ understanding about the product or service development process and the factors influencing its execution. The transformation of an innovative idea into a product or service involves several phases — discovery, definition, development, demonstration, qualification, deployment and life cycle management — as well as balancing the external factors that impact these phases, depending on the unique product or service. Adequate management of these factors enables the development process to be executed on time and on budget while meeting customer needs and stakeholder expectations.

  • This course will equip practitioners with tools to build compelling products that transform or disrupt longstanding financial services industry paradigms. Students will explore the process of product development and how it connects with FinTech, including user-centered design, the role of empathy, agile development, and collaboration within high-performing teams. Topics will focus on the skills needed to thrive in FinTech product development by investigating the business model, industry, and regulatory landscape and the key topics of data, AI, and responsible product development. Students will put their learnings into practice by examining market entry, scaling, and risk management.