Umea Institute of Design prepares for annual Degree Exhibition

Tue, 30 Mar 2004

Another end of term approaches and the Masters students from the Umea Institute of Design in the north of Sweden have just presented a preview of their final thesis projects. There are 22 graduating students in total, eight of whom are from the Masters course in Transportation Design. Transportation Design is one of three MA courses offered at the Umea Institute of Design - the others are Advanced Product Design and Interaction Design. The two-year MA course currently has 16 students. Students must have a first degree in industrial design or equivalent to be considered for the course.

The Institute of Design is housed in a converted power station and purpose-built premises on the banks of the Umea River. The school has an atmosphere which is open and light, and all students have their own personal workspace within this environment. There are well-equipped workshops for woodwork, metal, plastic, clay modeling, assembly and painting. The college also provides students with state of the art technology for rapid prototyping and milling from CAD files.

The course has a highly international focus. The ratio of students on the current course is almost 50:50 between Scandinavian and international students who come from countries as far apart as Argentina, China, Israel, Russia, USA and the UK.

The final thesis work at the Institute has a duration of 17 weeks and the students are expected to develop an individual project involving a general transportation related problem. They are encouraged to approach the industry in search of support during the project development. In these co-operation companies they find a mentor and sometimes financial support to cover the project expenses. Besides this support, every year the graduating class receives guidance from an experienced designer from the automotive industry. Ajay Jain from the GM Europe Advanced Design studio in Sweden is in charge of tutoring the graduating class this year.

Final examination will take place on the 18th and 19th of May. The Degree Exhibition opens on the 4th of June at the Image Museum (Bildmuseet) in Umea. On the 17th of June the exhibition moves to the Volvo Showroom in Stockholm.