Join us in developing products for the future!

Picture the products you use every day. You get up, take a hot shower (heat is also a product) get dressed, drink soft drinks, use furniture, mobile phones, a bike or a car. All of these are products you think are of good or poor quality, and have good or bad properties. However, there is one common feature: They are the result of systematic development work and advanced production processes.

Industry is rapidly changing and becoming global and knowledge-based. In order to meet challenges and succeed in this process, we need to continuously develop knowledge and technology. We have to educate people who can work in teams and handle the entire interaction between product development, production, materials technology, design, construction, energy and process technology, and operational techniques. Sustainable production and consumption are the main objectives of this development.

The programme in brief

Product Design and Manufacturing is a five-year long programme. During the first two years you will develop a profound theoretical grounding that includes the traditional scientific subjects such as maths, physics and chemistry, and subjects within mechanics such as statics, solidity studies, dynamics and fluid mechanics, just to mention a few. These theoretical studies provide the students with a foundation for further competence building and specialization.

Team work and cooperation in groups have gained increased focus both in industry and in educational institutions, resulting in parts of the education now consisting of problem or project-based learning. This involves students working in groups on specific problems, and the group as a unity is assessed. The group’s results as well as the cooperation are taken into consideration when awarding the grade.

Towards the end of the second year students choose their field of study. In the Product Design and Manufacturing programme (PDP), students may choose between three fields, or specializations. These are:

• Product Development and Materials Engineering
• Production and Quality Engineering
• Energy, Process and Flow Engineering

In addition, students may choose between the following interdepartmental courses:

• Industrial Mechanics
• Project Management
• Materials Technology

In the fourth year, preparations are made for the project paper which is written in the autumn semester of the fifth year, and the final master’s thesis, which is written in spring. In this way, the fourth year forms the foundation for the written work produced in the final year at NTNU. The options are numerous, and students may choose among many subjects which will be invaluable for the work carried out in the fifth year.

Use every brain cell and all your senses!

Teaching methods include lectures, practical work and group and project work. Problem-based learning is central to the teaching. In traditional engineering subjects where logic and analysis are central, you only stimulate the left cerebral hemisphere. But with problem-based learning, your right hemisphere will also be stimulated. In the Product Design and Manufacturing study programme problem-based learning will account for a quarter of the learning activities. A good engineer uses all his senses when facing new problems!

What does the programme consist of?

Three departments, each equipped with work shops, computer labs and laboratories for their students. Each department teaches one specialization.

	Department	Specialization
1	Department of Product Development and Materials	Product Development and Materials Engineering
2	Department of Production and Quality Engineering	Production and Quality Engineering
3	Department of Energy and Process Engineering	Energy, Process and Flow Engineering

The specialization course in Product Development and Materials Engineering (PDMA) will provide the students with a basic understanding of the life cycle of a product from idea and concept to verification, production, application and finally recycling. Creating good solutions involves understanding several different aspects of a product. PDMA will give you a profound theoretical platform as a basis for the understanding of the factors that affect products during their life cycle. In the field of specialization called Product Development you will gain knowledge about the product development process, including anything from general drawing skills to 3D modelling with professional computer tools, and group work with focus on problem solving and creativity. Shaping and choice of materials are also central to this course. If you are going to create a product, you need to know which material that would bring out the properties you want your product to possess. Delving into areas such as (1) metals processing, (2) plastic, and (3) composites, we will focus on the use of materials in products. The ability to predict how products will react when put to use is a prerequisite attached to many products. The field Construction Control look at how a product react to different loads, be it forces and moment loads, temperatures, or corrosive environments. You will be introduced to all these four fields.

• For further information about the field, please visit the homepage of the Department of Product Development and Materials.

In this specialization course you will learn how to produce products such as mobile phones, washing machines, armchairs, and airplanes in a proper way that makes the products good, inexpensive and safe. You will learn how to plan factories and how to use advanced production machinery, computers, robots, ICT solutions, and artificial intelligence to make the production as automatic as possible in order to make enterprises competitive. Managing factories to make high-quality products in a sustainable and efficient manner at the same time as the employees' creativity and knowledge are taken care of are also central factors. An important issue is how factories should cooperate to produce complex products such as airplanes and computers and deliver the products as soon as possible to the customer. Further more, you will learn how to reduce the risk of causing damage to people, the environment and equipment in relation to anything from production of goods to oil installation activities.

• For further information: about the field of Production and Quality Engineering, please visit the homepages of the Department of Production and Quality Engineering.

The specialization course for Energy, Process and Flow Engineering includes the entire energy chain, from electricity and heat production to the final consumption of energy in industry and buildings. Here you may learn about systems based on natural gas as well as renewable energy. Pollution problems in relation to both the outer environment as well as the indoor climate in buildings are central topics. You can learn about industrial process engineering in a broad sense, about processing of raw materials for high value and competitive products. The course includes the following fields: Thermal Energy, Industrial Process Engineering, Energy Supply and Climatizing of Buildings, and Flow Engineering.

• For further information about the Energy, Process and Flow Engineering fields, please visit the homepages of the Department of Energy and Process Engineering.