About Us

Somaiya School of Design, supported by Riidl, an institution without boundaries, is leading the way to reinvent Design education through its 4 year undergraduate program - Bachelor of Design in sustainable Product Design.

Our model is based on student - centered project based learning and multidisciplinary curriculum. We offer a program that is relevant to the time we live in; focusing on values such as Adaptability, Accountability, Assiduousness, and Altruism. The distinctiveness of our program lies in our foundation in Global Design & Innovation Ecosystem that we have built over the years at riidl, coupled with the multidisciplinary academic experience present at Somaiya Vidyavihar University. We concentrate on sustainability and problem solving; we empower our students to be versatile and skilled to ideate solutions for society, and various fields of study and industries.

Distinctiveness of our program lies in leveraging our foundation in the Global Design & Innovation ecosystem built over the years at riidl coupled with the multidisciplinary academic experience at Somaiya Vidyavihar University.

riidl, a startup incubator has over the years built a strong community of Makers, Innovators, Designers and Entrepreneurs globally. We have a thriving Maker Movement through our flagship events like MakerMela and Darwin. We bring fresh and inspirational ideas to our campus through TEDxSomaiyaVidyavihar. We take pride in serving the curious minds of our campus and beyond through our programs, our Laboratories - FABLAB, SMAC LAB, BIO lab, XR lab, our network of mentors & investors and Design challenges to help them build innovative solutions. We have assimilated learnings from our successes and failures as a startup incubator. We have leveraged our network in Corporate & Governance coupled with the ongoing dialogue on the future of design education to put together this program for you.

Credits : www.shiksha.com

Vision

Somaiya School of Design envisions to build a revolutionary education model that enables students to become socially conscious, skilled and intrinsically motivated to build solutions for the problems of our world.

Our aim is to design programs that encourage student led learning in the domains of Design, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. We aspire to move away from rote learning and build experiential learning methods that facilitate students to practice introspection and be aware of the implications of their decisions and actions on the society at large.

Mission

Our mission is:

• To develop programs that are relevant to the needs of society today and create educational models that are flexible to suit the contemporary changes in the world around us.
• To bring together different stakeholders of the society - Governance, Citizen bodies, NGOs, Educational institutions, Corporate to work in unison with our programs to give students a holistic view of the world.
• To create scenarios for students to practice critical thinking and nudge them for self enquiry based pursuit.
• To equip students with sensibilities to identify problems around them and uncover their root causes.
• To instill our students the importance of collaboration and diverse perspectives while humbly accepting limitations of individual knowledge.
• To equip our students with the latest Design, Technological and Business skills with a humanistic approach.
• To develop effective communication skills amongst our students that enables them not only to express their work in different formats but also spark meaningful conversations that flourish new ideas.
• To give our students an experience that is enriching & positive and appreciate the finer things in life while keeping the focus on our vision intact.

Introduction to Program -

Our Program empowers students to become compassionate Product Designers who can build Sustainable solutions leveraging Design Thinking philosophy.

Humans are surrounded by a diverse range of solutions that they use for multiple needs and desires. These solutions can be:

• Product or tangible solutions
• Screen or graphical solutions
• Strategic or service oriented solutions

At our program, our students will be encouraged to build solutions in the diverse thrust areas as per their interests and skill sets. Our labs and our strategic partnerships are focused towards these thrust areas: Healthcare, Robotics, Mobility, Education, Entertainment, Fin-tech, Gaming, Animation, Governance, Sustainability, Biotech, Agri-tech, Food & Nutrition, etc.

While our students learn how to build a product that is easy to use, they will also develop skills to assess whether this product makes sense in the current economy. We encourage our students to not only focus on "How do we make our Design user-friendly (User experience)?" but also "How do we make our Design cost-effective and sustainable (Business Viability)?"

Our three golden attributes for every product:

• Functionality
• Aesthetics
• Sustainability

Our students will learn at every step to focus on circular economy whose objective is to ensure products and services are developed in a sustainable way by limiting the consumption & waste of resources and also limiting production of waste.

The soul of our program lies in keeping our students connected to the real world by facilitating collaboration and interaction with stakeholders from different walks of life.

The 4 Year Journey

Year 1 (Foundation) - Learnings of this year provide our students foundation into the four pillars of this program and understanding of their inter - dependability.

They will be exploring 5 blocks: Inception of Design Thinking, Design, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Visual & Content Design, User Experience Design and Design & Fabrication

Year 2 (Exploration) - Learnings of this year provides students an opportunity to explore various Advanced Design elements, Technology platforms and Business nuances curated for our program in an experiential format keeping the connection with real world intact

Year 3 (Deep Dive) - Students immerse into their focus areas by selecting their courses and develop customized skills while working with their peers in different focus areas as real world solutions are multidisciplinary.

Thrust areas: Governance, Sustainability, Healthcare, Biotech, Agri-tech, Food & Nutrition, Robotics, Mobility, Education, Entertainment, Fin-tech, etc.

Year 4 (Leap) - Students take a leap into the real world through full time internship program / Student Exchange program and doing their Final year Capstone project.

Program Outcome

Individual courses have their outcomes defined. Also students will develop their ability in following broader domains over 4 years.

1. Thinking & knowledge Competency
Students will develop ability to

• Empathize with various stakeholders of the society and to understand their interdependability
• Comprehend, analyze, synthesize and critique information which facilitates decision making and problem solving
• Exercise creativity and curiosity
• Accept the limitation of individual knowledge & acknowledging the merit in collaboration

2. Uncovering problems & Research
Students will develop the ability to

• Identify gaps and problems in the society
• Formulate design problems that challenge traditional assumptions because they are based on understanding of social science
• Narrow down on the true root causes of the problem to build robust way forward

3. Ideation tools & techniques
Students will develop the ability to

• Ideate from multiple perspective and employ multiple disciplines while problem solving
• Challenge their own cultural context and popular world views
• Exercise openness towards diverse perspectives and others experiences
• Operate with the tools and approaches of more than one discipline
• Rely on collective past knowledge and join dots to uncover newer insights
• Develop humility by the process of collaboration

4. Creation & Entrepreneurial mindset
Students will develop the ability to

• Identify the optimum resources to build the low fidelity prototypes or innovative design concepts
• Build prototypes and run tests to validate the effectiveness of the solutions built and market readiness.
• Build innovative prototypes or design concepts through visual representations, physical forms, and user testing

5. Communication
Students will develop ability to

• Curate creative ways of expressing a message or a concept
• Design communication channels by empathetic listening
• Improvise the communication format to suit the audience
• Practice awareness about the diversity in communication process and its dependence on social, cultural and linguistic context
• Present and write effectively about the activities and projects using Design process

6. Introspection
Students will develop ability to

• Reflect on their learnings, interactions, actions and their beliefs
• Comprehend the impact of individual and collective actions on society, environment and the world
• Practice the art of self critique and conflict resolution with peers
• Exercise effective decision making for personal growth while being aware of its implications on society at large

Location