PdP - Product Development Project

The first PDP lecture is starting today!

Come and experience what happens when you’ll be part of a interdisciplinary student team with a real industry problems, 10 000€ budget and 9 months time to develop their ideas into products? Whether you are from Tech, Biz, Arts, is here to answer that question!

Too often you hear from the company recruiters that the graduating students aren’t ready for the worklife, and we want to change that. The idea of PdP is to provide students a unique chance to put their learnings to practice and give you real experience you will need in the working life.

You’ll learn how to:
- Communicate and collaborate with other disciplines
- Apply your own background in innovating real products
- Navigate the development process
Work in a large, interdisciplinary team
- Take responsibility by becoming the Project Manager
- Build big things

Each PdP team has a company sponsor, who provides a real problem, budget and support. There are projects from many fields varying each year, typically including medical, design, IT, and engineering!

Interested? Check out previous projects and find more information at pdp.fi or shoot us a DM here!

Where were you when the future of product development was unboxed?

When: 12th May 2023 9:00 - 17:00
Where: New Design Factory, Puumiehenkuja 5A Espoo
Who: Everyone - no need to register!

What is the Gala?
Since September 15 PDP teams have been working hard on their unique projects. At the Product Design Gala 2023 it is time to reveal the results to the world. For the whole day Design Factory has it’s doors open to everyone who is interested in coming to see the innovations that the future product developers have created. The projects are on display around Design Factory and visitors can interact with the students, try the prototype and get inspired by the atmosphere of the event. There are visitors from all walks of life and great connections can be formed.

PDP core principles: The PDP course brings together students from all schools of Aalto University to work on real world challenges presented by an industry partner. All teams have a budget of 10 000 euros that can be used for the realisation of their project. The challenge is provided by an industry partner and the collaboration between the company and the student team is active throughout the year. PDP is an environment that is as close as you can get to real world working conditions with the additions of the freedom to experiment and fail plus the interdisciplinary composition of the teams that in many places is just a buzz word but in PDP it’s true.

History: The PDP course has been running for 26 Years and over 300 projects have been completed today. The total number of students who have taken the course is over 3000. These numbers speaks to the impact that the course has had and continuous to have in the Finnish and global industry. Many graduates of Aalto lists PDP as their most valuable experience going into working life. PDP has also led to the formation of startups, patents, employment by the sponsoring company and master thesis positions.

More information about the event and a sneak peek of this years projects can be found on https://pdp.fi/gala23/

See you all there!

Today let's make history again! Join us at the PdP Gala! See you at Aalto Design Factory!

Are you curious about the PdP international cooperation and how it was launched? If yes, read Eetu's testimonial below to learn how this International legacy has unfolded and marked several students' experiences.

'Student Tore Åkergren one day came to me and asked: "I'm done with my exchange here and soon on my way back to Sweden. Nevertheless, could I still take the PdP course?" To be honest, the only answer was: I don't know - so let's try. He was the first-ever international remote PdP-student. His case proved that it was at least possible, but the practical arrangements needed further development. The remote team size ever since has been 2-5 students. The concept has now grown to adult age through several stages, and 26 universities, e.g. MIT, DTU, Yonsei and Tongji universities, have participated in the course.

In practice, all teams today have an international sub-team somewhere on the planet. International cooperation brings challenges to a new level: in addition to different fields of study, there are also different cultural backgrounds, language issues, and different time zones included. If you think that the pandemic time has forced everyone to online cooperation, just remember that at PdP, this has been a routine for two decades!'

Join us at the Gala to learn more about PdP and this year's projects! For more information ➡️ Link in Bio ⬅️