Integrated Product Development

The Integrated Product Development (IPD) course at Carnegie Mellon provides a state-of-the-art education in new product development while exploring the role of interdisciplinary teaching and learning. The course takes teams of engineering, industrial design, and MBA students and, in one semester, leads them through the product development process to the program approval stage of the process. The course consists of four modules including identifying, understanding, conceptualizing and realizing a product opportunity.  Patentable, and often patented, products are developed for corporate sponsors in 16 weeks.  Recent sponsors include International Truck and Engine, New Balance, Respironics, BodyMedia, Ford Motor Company.

The IPD course is the capstone for two masters programs: the Masters in Product Development and the IPD track of the Masters in Business Administration.  The course has been featured in Carnegie Mellon Today.  The IPD course has won the Curriculum Innovation Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  Two books have spun from the course. The course is open as an elective to seniors and graduate students in the three core disciplines.