Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design - specialisation Engineering, Master Programme

The statement of purpose is one of the most important parts of your application – it is your opportunity to "sell yourself ". We will carefully consider the answers of the following questions. Please write your answer's in a document, then upload the document at the admission webpage. (universityadmission.se or antagning.se)

Please provide your full name and application number for identification:

(if application number is unknown, please provide date of birth instead)

Name:
Application number:

Name of university at which you have studied for your BSc/BA degree:
In which country have you studied for your undergraduate degree:

Question 1.

Why are you applying for the Master Programme Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design – specialization engineering? Why do you believe you would benefit from joining the programme? What do you expect you could contribute with?

Question 2.

What are your career ambitions immediately after graduating from the programme? Describe how you plan to achieve these goals. How do you see your career developing over the coming years?

Question 3.

Describe your experiences concerning interdisciplinary development work/process.
How do you think you could contribute to this program with regards to this aspect?

Please attach a one page CV/resume to your statement of purpose. The completed document must not exceed three pages in total. There is no word limit.

Please attach the statement of purpose to your application at universityadmission.se

Ramona Hallgren studies on the design specialisation. Her group collaborates with the company CumVex, specialising in office furniture. Since CumVex is based in Växjö it is easy for the group to arrange meetings with the company without having to plan too far in advance.

"The company has been very open to our ideas and they listen to what we have to say. The fact that it is a local company is, of course, a great advantage, almost luxury", says Ramona. The collaboration within the group is also working well. All groups consist of students from the three different specialisations: business, engineering and design.

"The interesting part about working in a collaboration like this is that I, being a designer, view things differently. As opposed to financial managers and engineers I don't think very much about production and costs in the first stage of generating ideas", says Ramona.

Sebastian Duque studies on the business specialisation. He thinks that it has been very instructive to work together with students from the other specialisations.

"We all have different perspectives, and our working processes are also different from each other. We get to learn how designers and engineers think, just like in real-life projects", he explains.

Sebastian's group works with Alstermo Bruk, a company making suitcases. They keep contact through email, but also through visits both ways. Sebastian's group has focused on the concept of sustainability and is developing a new product.

"First, we worked four weeks with the development of a design model and now we have reached the engineering process. Once we have completed that, we will work four weeks with the business process. In this way, we will all learn the entire development process, which is very rewarding", says Sebastian.

Joe Sullivan studies on the engineering specialisation and works with the company Quickbutton, a supplier of campaign buttons, name tags and conference badges. Joe's group has also had a sustainability perspective in the development of their product and they have chosen to work with the material bamboo.

"We are really benefitting from each other's different skill sets and different previous experiences within the group. I, for instance, have never before really come into contact with the financial management part. The entire programme is very focused on teamwork", Joe says.

Innovation through business, engineering and design is a 2-year master programme offered at Linnaeus University in Växjö. The programme offers three different specialisations and the language of tuition is English.

My name is Juliana Restrepo. I was born and raised in the beautiful and constantly-developing city of Medellín, Colombia. That is to say, Colombia in South America, not Columbia in the US, as many still make that mistake. In Medellín, I studied industrial design for five years and also worked as an event designer for DDB Colombia, an advertising agency. Having done that, I was ready for my next adventure – moving to London. During my four years in London, I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to learn from a number of different work and life experiences. Even though I loved London (and still do), my husband and I decided three years ago to move to Växjö – my husband's home town – since we wanted to raise our son in a smaller city, and also be closer to relatives.

During my first months in Sweden, I studied beginner's Swedish and looked forward to embracing the exciting challenge of a new country. It was then that I came across the master programme Innovation through business, engineering and design. One of my biggest motivations for applying to the programme was the collaboration with IKEA and, of course, the fact that the programme is based on a multidisciplinary collaboration. During my two years on the programme, I developed a lot as a designer, as a team player and, last but not least, as a citizen of the world. I also developed a passionate interest in metadesign, design-thinking and sustainability.

I feel more proud than ever of being a designer. I believe that designers have a great responsibility, both now and for our future, as I see designers as the 'connection keys/tools' between different disciplines, skills and cultures. The world is changing so quickly that we can barely understand it. We need to learn, share, communicate and work better together.

I am now working as an interior designer at IKEA in Älmhult. I'm constantly curious and working in a dynamic environment, where people are not afraid of change. I'm so excited to see where this will take me in the future!

In my class, there were students from Italy, Colombia, China and Iran – and from Sweden, of course. To have fellow students with different cultural and professional backgrounds was a great experience. In particular, I liked the group projects where we worked together with the students from the design and business specialisations of the programme. As a matter of fact, the interdisciplinary approach on the innovation master was one of the main reasons why I chose to study that programme.

The programme involved hands-on projects and enabled us to complete the theoretical part of our studies by applying the theory on real working-life situations. Through contacts with partners and contributors from the private sector, we had the opportunity to build our own networks during our studies. Also, when working in projects with companies we really felt more like colleagues than students.

Now, I am working at IKEA of Sweden as a laws & standards specialist. When I'm working with product requirement, safety, and compliance, I can really make use of the technical competencies that I gained through my studies at Linnaeus University. At IKEA of Sweden, we have a diverse working environment where all diversities melt and merge in a common IKEA culture of shared values.
Sweden truly is a great country to study in, both what goes for the education itself and the social aspect. The master programme was the perfect preparation for my working life.

/Tayfun, former student on the master programme innovation through business, engineering and design – specialisation engineerin

 In simple words, the aim is to tie together a number of disciplines to create a better life at home for the many people. It deals partly with what fundamental needs we have and what furniture we need, but also with how production can be made as cheap and environmentally friendly as possible.

As a result of The Bridge, Linnaeus University has been able to establish an IKEA professorship, unique to the world. The research environment revolving around the subject area Life at Home is developed in collaboration with doctoral students. It is this research environment that makes it possible for Linnaeus University to establish the interdisciplinary master programme.

The master programme has an interdisciplinary perspective, combining engineering, business, and design. The programme enables students to learn from each other's knowledge and improves their ability to work with different projects and product development. The master programme is offered in close collaboration with a number of companies, IKEA being one of them.