The origins of the PDP course extend 30 years to the past, but it developed close to its present form at the end of 1990s. Key success factors of PDP have been:
- easy, attractive & established cooperation concept with industrial sponsors
- welcoming students from various fields of expertise
- cooperation with the University of Art & Design (TAIK) and the Helsinki School of Economics (HSE)
- involvement of international students and sponsors
- services and tutoring provided by the faculty and laboratory personnels of TKK and TAIK
Since 1997, overall 126 projects with 1160 students have been successfully carried out. A new set of 13 projects were rescently underway on the academic year of 2008-2009. The results of these projects were declared to the public on Product Design Gala 2009, on April 24th 2009. Check more in from the Gala page.
During the last years the proportion of international students has set up to over 20% of the participants. The international cooperation with different foreign universities has also tightened during the last years. Ongoing cooperation has been established with Massachutes Institute of Technology (USA), Rhode Island School of Design (USA), TU Graz (Austria), Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Tallin University of Technology (TUT) and Kungliga Tekniska Högskolet (Sweden).
In January 2010 Helsinki University of Technology (TKK or HUT), University of Art & Design (TAIK) and Helsinki School of Economics (HSE) merged. The university is now known as Aalto University.