Advanced Prototyping Project

The 'Advanced Prototyping Project' course has a multi-disciplinary project based setup. Students will work in project teams on a real world research and/or design challenge, relating to possibilities of digital fabrication and/or extended reality technology. A company or researcher will act as client to the project. Students have an option to state a preference for a project, and we aim to present a diverse range of project from different domain areas such as smart and bio-based materials and products, medical applications, cultural heritage experiences, architecture and building engineering, and mobility design.

Besides that, students will follow several workshops on transferable skills (e.g. product/prototype photography, video making, pitching, material testing, user observation research), which are related to prototyping in a research and development process. Students will apply these skills throughout the project.

Final results will be presented at the final exhibition of the course (at a public venue), offering the opportunity to show your project results to a wider audience.

Method of examination:

The assessment of the course will carried out by the project coaches, and the grades will be benchmarked between coaches, based on a rubric. The evaluation will be based on the following (types of) deliverables for the course:

• Quality of the prototype and its ability to verify the design intent

• Process report of prototyping iterations

• Presentation video

• Presentation at the minor final exhibition

• A written reflection report, reflecting upon the teamwork and lessons learned on prototyping as a part of RenD.

Evaluation criteria:

A rubric will be constructed for the evaluation, taking into account all learning objectives and deliverables. Criteria for evaluation are:

• Quality of the prototype

• Improvements of the prototype(s) between iterations (incorporating feedback, reflection, critical thinking)

• Level to which the prototype contributes to the design intent

• Integration of existing knowledge en skills (incl. Q1 courses)

• Quality of storytelling and presentation

• Peer review participation and quality