With Europe gaining importance among Indians in the map of international higher education, several options are being explored. One such interesting option is the post-master’s degree called Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) offered by the 3TU School for Technological Design, Stan Ackermans Institute in Netherlands. After completing my Master’s in Embedded Systems from TU Delft, I chose to do the PDEng programme in Automotive Systems Design (ASD) at TU Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
The three technical universities in Netherlands — TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and Universiteit Twente jointly offer the two-year post-master's design programmes in various fields. All the designer programmes are taught in English and follow almost the same educational structure.
During the first year, the latest design methods are taught through various courses or workshops and the second part of the programme involves working on an individual design project in an industry. At the end of the two years, upon successful completion of the design project, the title of PDEng is awarded by the Stan Ackermans Institute. The knowledge gained through the PDEng course is comparable to the PhD programmes and this provides better industrial exposure.
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The PDEng in Automotive System Design is still in its infancy as it was started only two years back and is gaining popularity day-by-day with many automobile majors showing interest in this programme. Like most other PDEng programmes, ASD also has an educational structure in which the first year is devoted to gaining knowledge. The first year consists of five modules, where we work as a team on projects for the industry in each module. Each module deals with specific sub-fields within the automobile field like systems engineering, hybrid and electric driving, software-networked embedded systems, Human-centred design of automotive systems and vehicle dynamics design. The second part requires working on an individual design project in an automotive industry for nine months.
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Eindhoven city is a hub of several major companies and is called as the Brainport region, because of the world class businesses, knowledge institutes and research institutes in this region. Eindhoven University of Technology (TU Eindhoven) being the major technical university in the Brainport region, attracts a lot of students and researchers alike. TU Eindhoven takes great care in welcoming and making the international students feel at home upon arrival by organising several introduction week activities within the faculty which helps in getting to know your colleagues. PDEng trainees are regarded as employees at the university and receive all benefits.
The PDEng programme does not only involve working with the technical design, importance is also given to personal and professional development with the help of trained professional coaches who provide individual attention. We are also taught the Dutch language so that we can integrate with the Dutch culture easily.
The writer is pursuing
PDEng in Automotive System Design at TU Eindhoven
Email id: p.p.ramamurthy@tue.nl