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 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 is now under the leadership of Professor Prasad Boradkar and 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 Innovation 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. Professor Lauren McDermott, along with other faculty members, were part 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.
In fact, several faculty members have had or will soon have books published: Professor Diane Bender with Design Portfolios: Moving from Traditional to Digital; Professor Brandt with The Craftsman and the Critic; Professor Jacques Giard’s with his second book, Designing: A Journey Through Time; and
Professor Prasad Boradkar’s investigations and reflections on material culture, which will soon be in print.
Three new concentrations have been added to the MSD and will be offered beginning in fall 2008. New Product Innovation has already been mentioned but there is also Healthcare and Healing Environments and Interaction Design. All three offer opportunities in emerging areas of design.
In 2009, the departments of Industrial Design, Interior Design and Visual Communication Design were fused into the School of Design Innovation. Michael Kroelinger, professor, was named director. In May 2009, the College of Design and the Herberger College of the Arts merged to become the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts under Kwang-Wu Kim, dean and director and Professor Kroelinger was named executive dean. Lauren McDermott has been named Interim Director of the School of Design Innovation. A national search for a new director will begin in fall 2009.
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