Maynooth University Department of Design Innovation

10 years young  - MSc Design Innovation celebrates its impact
 
On Thursday 28th November the Department of Design Innovation celebrated the 10^th Anniversary of our MSc Design Innovation programme. An audience of alumni, staff and colleagues came to view the exhibition of alumni testimonials and hear tributes to all the staff and students that had contributed to the inception and development of this ground-breaking programme, notably Dr Linzi Ryan who had been Programme Director for over 6 years.
 

Dr Frank Devitt spoke of how the programme came about and the vision he had for bringing design, technology, social sciences and business together in a unique learning experience. He highlighted the success of many alumni that had applied for the programme through RPL and had gone to further academic success. A point strengthened by Simon Hanratty who spoke about entering academia as a mature student working at Irish Life who is now 3 years into his PhD. Another alumnus, Lydia Ward spoke about how she uses the skills she learnt on the programme in her work at Accenture Song where she researches and brings out insights for large corporate clients such as Google Ads, and Optimum Nutrition.
 
Not only has the programme produced over a 120 graduates it has also born a book, ‘ARRIVE’ by Dr Frank Devitt, Trevor Vaugh and Martin Ryan. Both Trevor and Martin have moved on to bring this vision of Design Innovation into the Irish Government and NCAD respectively. The programme has also inspired and informed several new MSc Design Innovation programmes in the UK, at Manchester Metropolitan University and Glasgow School of Art.
 The evening was concluded by the new Programme Director Dr Threase Finnegan-Kessie who laid out a future vision for the programme that will focus on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.