A Proposed New Graduate Program in Technical Product Innovation at UBC

Abstract

UBC has held two NSERC Chairs in Design Engineeringthrough which we have established connections with theSauder School of Business (through our New VentureDesign program) and other engineering departments(through our multidisciplinary capstone design course).We are now planning a renewal application for ourDesign Chair that aims to extend the scope of designrelatedwork at UBC by establishing a graduate programin Technical Product Innovation (TPI) that will connectApplied Science, the Business School, Computer Scienceand Industrial Design at the Emily Carr University of Artand Design. The TPI program will offer both thesis andnon-thesis degree options at the master's level, along witha concentration certificate that will be available to non-TPI students. The curriculum will have five keycomponents: (1) a technical base in the area of thestudent's undergraduate specialization, (2) courses ininnovation theory and entrepreneurship in collaborationwith the Sauder School, (3) courses in human factorsengineering in collaboration with computer science,(4) special 'passport-style' skills-based courses inprototyping, visual communication and user evaluation incollaboration with industrial design, and (5) project andthesis options that will allow for work on industry- orentrepreneurship-based design projects. The goal of theproposed program will be to train students to take onleadership roles in product development programs in bothstartups and established companies. The TPI programwill initially focus on three key areas: medicaltechnologies, consumer products and business-to-businessproducts. It will build on two significant cross-universityinitiatives - the multi-faculty Human-ComputerInteraction interest group (hci@ubc) and the universitywideEntrepreneurship@UBC program - and will tie intorelated emerging initiatives such as the Innovation Hub atVancouver General Hospital and Wearables@UBC.