International Design Symposium in Kyoto March 15-16, 2013. Collaborative Graduate Program in Design, Kyoto University*1 Kyoto Research Park (KRP), Kyoto, Japan.

About IDS Kyoto 2013

Our cities and the societies living in and around them face immense challenges arising from the growth of population, urbanization, globalization, climate change, ageing, resource scarcity, technology shifts, cultural diversity and conflict. Universities, their research communities and partners in industry and society can play a vital role in addressing these challenges. The goal of this symposium is to develop general understanding on graduate education in design, which provides theories and methodologies to wide variety of creative activities such as designing interactive systems, life styles, compact cities, health care systems, and so on.

Kyoto University has started a new program for graduate school called as the Collaborative Graduate Program in Design (Kyoto University Design School) from 2012. This program is to develop future research leaders with the skills to lead collaborations between different disciplines and cultures. In this program we teach “Design” as a common language among different specialties so that they can create a professional team to solve complex real problems (the so-called “+” shaped People). This kicking-off international meeting will introduce an overview of the Collaborative Graduate Program in Design and a number of presentations by our international partner institutions and/or consortium are provided to deepen the shared understandings on the design-related researcher development framework.

With the theme of “Design”, this symposium offers attendees a number of ideas to assess potential problems and needs from the real society as well as the methodologies and theories to explore how researchers can develop to take advantage of the diversity of disciplinary including informatics, mechanical engineering, architects, management and psychology etc. as well as the diversity of societal cultures including academia, governmental and industry cultures. The Kyoto University Design School is working with the well-known worldwide design institutes and schools on the development of cutting-edge educational resources that address the design-related approaches and methodologies leading to sustainability and resilience of the artifact systems and the society. This symposium is to facilitate the formation of active collaborations among worldwide well-known institutions to achieve a tangible outcome and to develop a sustainable network of design-related researchers all over the world.

*1) This new government initiative, launched in autumn 2011, aims to assist universities in setting up new PhD degree programs. The programs are aimed to develop PhD graduates who can contribute to society not only as academics but also as highly skilled research staff beyond academia. High-quality PhD programs will be delivered through trans-disciplinary approaches and through the combined expertise of academia, industry, and government.
Supervising organization: JSPS (MEXT)

Latest Information
March 19, 2013

Presentation slides have been published.

March 19, 2013

Our symposium has closed. Thank you very much for all contributions for the success.

March 6, 2013

Program has been updated.

March 1, 2013

Please register immediately!
The registration will be closed when it reaches the capacity.

February 28, 2013

Program has been updated.

February 18, 2013

Site has been opened IDS Kyoto 2013.