PdP - Product Development Project

The first PDP lecture is starting today!

Come and experience what happens when you’ll be part of a interdisciplinary student team with a real industry problems, 10 000€ budget and 9 months time to develop their ideas into products? Whether you are from Tech, Biz, Arts, is here to answer that question!

Too often you hear from the company recruiters that the graduating students aren’t ready for the worklife, and we want to change that. The idea of PdP is to provide students a unique chance to put their learnings to practice and give you real experience you will need in the working life.

You’ll learn how to:
- Communicate and collaborate with other disciplines
- Apply your own background in innovating real products
- Navigate the development process
Work in a large, interdisciplinary team
- Take responsibility by becoming the Project Manager
- Build big things

Each PdP team has a company sponsor, who provides a real problem, budget and support. There are projects from many fields varying each year, typically including medical, design, IT, and engineering!

Interested? Check out previous projects and find more information at pdp.fi or shoot us a DM here!

✨ PdP 24-25 course: 28th edition of the legendary Product Development Project!
💶 Money -> 10 000€ budget per team.
💎 Opportunity -> Work with a real company and problem while building connections to industry. Maybe you’ll also find a summer job or thesis position 😉
⛑️ Learn by doing -> Whether from TECH, BIZ, ARTS or somewhere else, learn to put theory to practise and apply your unique skill set in a real project.
📈 Grow as a professional -> The closest you can get to real working life in your studies.
💯 Take responsibility -> As a project manager you can get real leadership experience.
🪩 Final showdown -> The course culminates in the Final Gala in 16.5.2025 in the Design Factory with around 600-800 visitors.
🚀 Become a game changer -> First lecture on 4th of September at 15.15 in the Aalto Design Factory Stage!
ℹ️ More information:
-> www.pdp.fi
-> https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/view.php?id=42547
⁉️ Questions? -> @ Apackalen @ joonasbiz on Telegram

Where were you when the future of product development was unboxed?

When: 12th May 2023 9:00 - 17:00
Where: New Design Factory, Puumiehenkuja 5A Espoo
Who: Everyone - no need to register!

What is the Gala?
Since September 15 PDP teams have been working hard on their unique projects. At the Product Design Gala 2023 it is time to reveal the results to the world. For the whole day Design Factory has it’s doors open to everyone who is interested in coming to see the innovations that the future product developers have created. The projects are on display around Design Factory and visitors can interact with the students, try the prototype and get inspired by the atmosphere of the event. There are visitors from all walks of life and great connections can be formed.

PDP core principles: The PDP course brings together students from all schools of Aalto University to work on real world challenges presented by an industry partner. All teams have a budget of 10 000 euros that can be used for the realisation of their project. The challenge is provided by an industry partner and the collaboration between the company and the student team is active throughout the year. PDP is an environment that is as close as you can get to real world working conditions with the additions of the freedom to experiment and fail plus the interdisciplinary composition of the teams that in many places is just a buzz word but in PDP it’s true.

History: The PDP course has been running for 26 Years and over 300 projects have been completed today. The total number of students who have taken the course is over 3000. These numbers speaks to the impact that the course has had and continuous to have in the Finnish and global industry. Many graduates of Aalto lists PDP as their most valuable experience going into working life. PDP has also led to the formation of startups, patents, employment by the sponsoring company and master thesis positions.

More information about the event and a sneak peek of this years projects can be found on https://pdp.fi/gala23/

See you all there!

Today let's make history again! Join us at the PdP Gala! See you at Aalto Design Factory!

One of the fundamental ideas behind PdP has been the role of industrial partners. The companies usually have so many excellent ideas or problems – if there just would be someone who has a proven process and skills to explore them more closely. The financial support from our partners enables the teams not only to make desk-top research but also to develop the most promising ideas into prototypes. For many students, it’s the first time when they face such a challenging assignment but also have reasonable resources and support. PdP is no engineering or design consultancy. It’s a tool for learning – but also producing valuable results simultaneously. Therefore, our only guarantee for the partners has always been: we’ll take your money. In addition to keeping that promise, the results, in general, have been so good that the same partners have joined the course several times.

Over the years, 135 companies have been partners to PdP. The list includes well-known international giants as Audi, Airbus, Panasonic, and Murata, as well as their Finnish counterparties e.g. Valmet, Kone, Marioff, Ensto, and so many others. A new trend seems to be the active participation of startup partners or medium-sized companies. If you want to know more about PdP and this year's projects, join us at the Gala! For more information ➡️ Link in Bio ⬅️

Are you curious about the PdP international cooperation and how it was launched? If yes, read Eetu's testimonial below to learn how this International legacy has unfolded and marked several students' experiences.

'Student Tore Åkergren one day came to me and asked: "I'm done with my exchange here and soon on my way back to Sweden. Nevertheless, could I still take the PdP course?" To be honest, the only answer was: I don't know - so let's try. He was the first-ever international remote PdP-student. His case proved that it was at least possible, but the practical arrangements needed further development. The remote team size ever since has been 2-5 students. The concept has now grown to adult age through several stages, and 26 universities, e.g. MIT, DTU, Yonsei and Tongji universities, have participated in the course.

In practice, all teams today have an international sub-team somewhere on the planet. International cooperation brings challenges to a new level: in addition to different fields of study, there are also different cultural backgrounds, language issues, and different time zones included. If you think that the pandemic time has forced everyone to online cooperation, just remember that at PdP, this has been a routine for two decades!'

Join us at the Gala to learn more about PdP and this year's projects! For more information ➡️ Link in Bio ⬅️