What is ME 310 Porto?

ME310 STANFORD – Product Innovation Post-Graduation is an interdisciplinary, project-based and team-based course for graduate students (BA or MA) and represents a true integration between engineering, business and design disciplines. Originally created at Stanford University, the course has operated continuously for over forty years. Over its lifetime, the course has shifted from practical engineering experience to design of mechatronic systems to design innovation and global collaboration. The course is now focused on teaching students the innovation methods and processes required for designers, engineers, and project managers of the future. Upon the completion of the course, students have acquired the skills necessary to be global innovation leaders.

Meanwhile, ME310 has gone beyond the hedges of Stanford University and is now being taught in four different continents and eight different countries and Politécnico do Porto has been selected as a main partner of Stanford University for academic year 2015/2016. ME310 STANFORD – Product Innovation Post Graduation is a joint project of all the seven schools of Politécnico do Porto: ISEP, ISCAP, ESE, ESMAE, ESEIG, ESTGF and ESTSP.

In ME310, student teams work on innovation challenges proposed by corporate partners for nine months, learning and applying the Stanford/IDEO design process in product development to prototype, test and iterate to solve real world design challenges for multinational corporate sponsors. Through the projects, students go through an intense and iterative process of needfinding, ideation, and rapid prototyping to create and develop new product concepts. Company involvement provides the reality that is important for teams to improve their innovation abilities. In the end, teams deliver functional proof-of-concept prototypes along with in-depth documentation that not only capture the essence of designs but the learnings that led to the ideas.

Every team in ME310 collaborates with another team from a foreign university for the duration of the project. The partnership adds diversity to the project teams and students are given the opportunity to experience true global collaboration, a skill required in this highly globalized world.

All teams in ME310 typically start their projects at Stanford University where they participate in a design thinking kick-off workshop and experience the entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley. Final proof-of-concept prototypes are typically presented at the Stanford Design EXPE each June in California.

During the program, students travel to partner universities and research labs and.

ME310 is all hands-on, all the time.