Industrial Design (ID) requires an unremitting innovative ability, broad academic vision, multi-discipline knowledge and strong team cooperation willing, since ID targets to design the future life of human and appears in the early stage of a production where nearly 80% of the manufacturing and marketing effectiveness is determined by ID. Meanwhile, as an application science, ID is employed in solving all kinds of practical problems. Therefore, ID students should connect themselves closely to the society and manufacturing companies, and this condition necessitates the liaison between theory and practice. ID designers’ virtue and cultural value are vital to society as they are committed to seek the genuine, happiness and beauty of the human life. In order to maximize the ID students’ ability, the CDIO theory is implemented in this research. First of all, an exploratory learning is introduced. A tutorial system is set up to achieve the education of exploratory learning, where work studios are established according to different tutors with different design projects. Each tutor is re4sponsible for the supervising the students in market research, project design activity, manufacture visiting and so on. These students include several junior and senior undergraduates who are interested in this tutor’s project or research field. In this way, students can know better about the job requirements, become more initiative, and then improve their exploration ability. Another method is the logical reasoning design training. Instead of inspiration focus, a strict logical thinking is emphasized whether in class or in design project. Students are asked to think about related questions as what? why? how? This helps students improve their capability of spotting problem, analyzing problem and solving problem. A third case is that practice and cooperation are employed in undergraduates’ education. Several research and design centers and practice bases are installed to allow students to connect companies and manufactures more closely. Students command the knowledge in dealing with real designs. On top of that, the personality shaping is the most important part of education. Some practice courses are set to let students to know their family and friends, to get the needs and wants of general customers. In the process of understanding the people, students gain many skills of communication, enhance the sense of responsibility, and feel grateful to the society. In conclusion, the outcomes from ID department in Tianjin University are welcomed by the society. Many become the top designers or managers in company.
Proceedings of the 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 15-19 2014