The MSD Program prepares designers for leadership positions in business, industry, government, NGOs, and education by focusing on what you want to do, not what you want to be. The "Master of Science" implies a strong research orientation while the modifier "in Design" designates professional terminal degree status.
The Master of Science in Design (MSD) program was established in 1989. Unlike the more traditional practice-oriented MFA programs the primary goal of the MSD was to create and foster a research orientation and bias in graduate design education. This direction was especially suited to Arizona State University because its status as a research-intensive institution.
The faculty members associated with the MSD Program in the College of Design have always been at the center of its development. Their regular contributions have always lent credence to the research direction of the graduate program. For example, the Lighting Simulation Laboratory was opened in 1990 and Professor Michael Kroelinger was appointed as its first coordinator. The Human Factors Research Laboratory, coordinated by Professor Knight and now by Professor Don Herring, was launched in 1992. Its principal purpose remains the same: to support graduate research in design. More recently, Professor Paul Rothstein created InnovationSpace, an interdisciplinary design laboratory focused on integrated innovation. This research facility now has the ongoing academic and fiscal support of both the W.P. Carey School of Business and the Ira Fulton School of Engineering. Beginning in fall 2008, the MSD will offer a concentration on New Product Development based on concepts developed in InnovationSpace.
Grants and funded projects have also been an important part of faculty research. One early research project— a significant one at that—was the $1 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to study and design a prototype of a wet lab in support of collaborative teaching for the biological science programs. Professors Lorraine Cutler and Lauren McDermott, along with faculty members of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, were members of the team that undertook this project, begun in 1994 and completed in 1997. Since then, there have been ongoing and important research grants for bio-medical design, sponsored projects of various types through InnovationSpace, and, more recently, a project to support micro-enterprises in Mexico funded by USAID/TIES.
At the individual level, faculty research and scholarship has been strongly focused on investigation, research and the creation of design knowledge. Professors Beverly Brandt and José Bernardi continue to be leading authorities in the history of Interior Design and Latin American architecture, respectively. Professor Tom Witt’s research and publications in design creativity continue to break new grounds, as does the material culture research undertaken by Professor Prasad Boradkar.
Three new concentrations have been added to the MSD and will be offered beginning in fall 2008. New Product Development has already been mentioned but there is also Healthcare and Healing Environments and Interaction Design. All three offer opportunities in emerging areas of design.
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