The Industrial Design programme at the National University of Singapore has matured considerably within ten short years.

The programme emphasis is a reflection of the Singapore context. There is a general shortage of manufacturers of original designed products in Singapore. Singapore is perceived as representing the cross road of east and west cultures located within a region enjoying the onset of economic growth and expansion. International design companies and designers see Singapore as the resource centre for design talents as well as the place to sieve out future trends within the Asian regions. The Industrial Design programme therefore focuses on strategic thinking through design innovation in search of new products, applications and markets. However, fundamental to the programme is the emphasis on a knowledge-based approach to design innovation.

The programme is founded on its strength in the learning of design fundamentals, followed by market and brand awareness, conceptual thinking as well as design research in support of analysis and design development.

Projects serve to provide students with a broad range of design exercises to learn about scale, human interface, technological innovations, ambience, culture and identity, environmental concerns and sustainability. It adopts a holistic approach in design education that is both humanistic as well as market orientated. Since the introduction of the programme in 1999, the Industrial Design programme has proven to be extremely effective in grooming talented students for the design industry. Apart from the success in local and international competitions and awards such as Luminary Awards of Red Dot Concept Award 2005, 2006, the Grand Winner of Electrolux Design Competition 2005 and Grand Winner of BraunPrize 2007, recent graduates have also achieved recognition and success in gaining scholarships for further studies as well as being placed in well-known design practices.

NUS ID has been ranked Top 30 in iF ranking University. For more information, please refer to http://blog.nus.edu.sg/nusid/2009/04/05/nus-id-ranked-top-30-in-if-ranking-university/

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