Topic outline

  • PDP Home Page


    Product Development Project (PDP) course is primarily aimed at students starting their Master in technology (ENG, ELEC, SCI and CHEM), business (BIZ), and design (ARTS), as well as last year Bachelor students in design.  

    However, the course is open for other students and there have been participants from various master’s studies e.g. cognitive science, anthropology, and biology. You can sign up for the course on Sisu.

    The course follows a problem-based learning (PBL) methodology. The challenges are given and sponsored by industry partners, who are searching for innovative cooperation with the next generation of product developers. At the start, a lot of attention is directed to the forming of highly motivated interdisciplinary teams. A project typically includes phases of understanding the challenge, planning, research, concepts generation, prototyping and testing.

    The project concludes with the Product Design Gala where the teams present their final functional prototypes of a tangible product or service solution for their industry challenge. The results from the previous gala 2024 can be seen here.

    PDP course is hosted by Aalto Design Factory, an experimental co-creation platform of Aalto University. Design Factory as an operational environment is two folds: The material side consists of team working spaces, machining workshop & electronics workshops, prototyping & testing facilities, its immaterial form is composed of low hierarchy, dynamic interaction, development methods and workshops that support innovative co-creation of the products of the future.

    You can check the official PDP course website: pdp.fi to find out more about the course overview for students and companies, and see the project portfolios from previous years. Follow us as well on social media such as Facebook and Instagram.

    Lectures are organized at the Design Factory Stage, Puumiehenkuja 5A, usually on Wednesdays 15.15-17, with time for team meetings afterwards. We will use the same zoom link, password pdp2024, throughout the course for all sessions that are streamed. 

    PDP Teaching Staff:

    Tua Björklund - Course Professor (tua.bjorklund@aalto.fi)

    Kalevi "Eetu" Ekman - PDP Founding Father (kalevi.ekman@aalto.fi)

    Aaro Packalén - Course Coordinator (aaro.packalen@aalto.fi)

    Joonas Vesterinen - Course Coordinator (joonas.vesterinen@aalto.fi)

    Senni Kirjavainen - Teacher (senni.kirjavainen@aalto.fi)