School of Design (Carnegie Mellon University)
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| School of Design (Carnegie Mellon University) | |
|---|---|
| Name | School of Design |
| Established | 1934 |
| Type | Private |
| Parent | Carnegie Mellon University |
| City | Pittsburgh |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| Country | United States |
School of Design (Carnegie Mellon University) is the design school within Carnegie Mellon University located in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. It offers programs focused on industrial design, interaction design, and strategic design, linking practice with research across collaborations with institutions such as the Franklin Institute, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and organizations like NASA and Procter & Gamble. The school has contributed to projects aligned with initiatives at National Endowment for the Arts, National Science Foundation, and industry partners including Google, Apple Inc., and IBM.
History
The school traces its roots to the design programs at Carnegie Institute of Technology and grew through mid-20th century curricular reforms influenced by educators from Bauhaus, practitioners from General Electric, and visiting scholars from Royal College of Art. In the 1960s and 1970s, exchanges with researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and collaborations with Bell Labs shaped interdisciplinary pedagogy. The merger forming Carnegie Mellon University fostered ties with the School of Computer Science, and initiatives spurred partnerships with Pentagram, IDEO, and governmental commissions such as projects for Department of Transportation. Over ensuing decades, the school expanded graduate offerings and established research centers in concert with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Academic programs
Programs span undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Bachelor of Design, Master of Design, and doctoral pathways linked to departments such as Human–Computer Interaction Institute and the H. John Heinz III College. Coursework bridges studios and seminars addressing subjects tied to architecture, business, and collaborations with the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Students engage with electives influenced by curricula at Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt Institute, and Cooper Union, and joint degrees with entities like School of Art and the Entertainment Technology Center. The school emphasizes professional practice and research methods drawn from practices at Frog Design, Studio O+A, and Ziba Design.
Research and labs
Research activities occur across labs and centers that intersect computing, design, and policy, linking to projects funded by National Institutes of Health, DARPA, and collaborations with Microsoft Research and Adobe Research. Labs explore interaction design, service design, and fabrication, often in coordination with the Robotics Institute, the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, and the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition. Research themes align with work by groups at MIT Media Lab, Stanford d.school, and UC Berkeley College of Engineering, producing scholarship presented at conferences like CHI, Design Research Society, and SIGGRAPH. Facilities support prototyping for partnerships with Ford Motor Company, Boeing, and Siemens.
Faculty and notable alumni
Faculty have included designers and scholars who have collaborated with institutions such as Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, and Victoria and Albert Museum. Notable alumni have taken roles at companies and organizations including Apple Inc., Google, IDEO, Microsoft, Nike, Procter & Gamble, Philips, Fjord, Amazon, and Samsung Electronics. Alumni and faculty have been recognized by awards such as the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's National Design Awards, the MacArthur Fellows Program, and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Visiting critics and lecturers have come from Pentagram, Wolff Olins, Herman Miller, and IDEO.
Facilities and campus
The school is housed within Carnegie Mellon campus buildings proximate to the Cowell and Crawford Halls cluster and adjacent to the Carnegie Mellon University Library and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Studios include digital fabrication workshops, electronics labs, and user research suites comparable to facilities at MIT Media Lab and Stanford University’s d.school. Public exhibition spaces host shows in partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Art and regional venues like The Andy Warhol Museum and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. Campus access facilitates internships and collaborations with local institutions such as UPMC and the Allegheny County cultural ecosystem.
Industry partnerships and outreach
The school maintains partnerships with corporations, non-profits, and government agencies including Google, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Ford Motor Company, NASA, and regional economic development groups like the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. Outreach includes community design projects with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, public sector engagements similar to initiatives by United Nations Development Programme and consultancy collaborations with firms like McKinsey & Company and BCG. Student and faculty projects frequently appear in exhibitions at Cooper Hewitt, presentations at SXSW, and publications in outlets associated with Wired (magazine) and Fast Company.