“The most rewarding, most inspiring, and at times the most ridiculous experience.”

– PDP alumni

Join the course

The course is open to all Aalto students and is designed to be taken as part of Master’s studies, or when the student has equivalent skills and capacity in their field. The course lasts the whole academic year, from September to May, and is worth 10-15 ECTS.

In the course, you gain:

  • a deeper understanding of how your disciplinary field connects to interdisciplinary product development efforts
  • hands on experience of a range of product development phases and tasks, and understand how these connect to one another in development projects
  • skills in communicating, collaborating and negotiating effectively with diverse stakeholders, including interdisciplinary, international and interorganizational partners

How to signup

Registration

Aalto students register through Sisu. The course code is MEC-E3001.
For students in partner universities, the application process is managed by local supervisors at their home university.

Access to Sisu

For students without access to Sisu, please contact the course staff.

Introduction lecture

Check out the MyCourses page of the course and attend the first PdP lecture on 3.9.2025 at 15.15 and get to know everything about the structure of the course and its arrangements.

Alumni testimonials

  • During PdP, we had the opportunity to try new things and work on challenging tasks, at times it was difficult, but it was very rewarding and emotional when things worked, what I gained from teamwork is unique in PDP.

    Yuying Li “Espe” | Business | PdP 2018

  • The most rewarding thing is to get the ideas off the paper, even if they’re crude or ugly—just to test them out as prototypes!

    Rosa Vita Novo | Project Manager team Lappset | PDP 2025

  • Our challenge was to solve some of the most pressing challenges in the world – improve the lives of the most marginalised children in Uganda. The motivation and passion our team had, did not only lead to great results but also provided one of the greatest learning experiences the university can offer – Learning across the 7 nationalities and 9 disciplines.

    Irena Bakic | Products Technology | PdP 2012

  • PDP opened a lot of doors by helping me build valuable connections, friendships, and practical skills that support my future career. This course also helped me explore my professional direction.

    Team Woamy | Mechanical Engineering | PDP 2025

  • PdP gave me a chance of experiencing different cultures in a unique and profound way: by working closely with people of different backgrounds

    Arnab Chattopadhyay | Mechanical Engineering | PdP 2019

  • Some of the main reasons that led me to participate in PdP were: long term project with a lot of freedom and flexibility where students make decisions and shape the outcome and final prototype while working in close collaboration with industry.

    Hazal Alkan | New Media | PdP 2018

  • PdP is an interdisciplinary roller coaster!

    Serpil Oguz | Design | PdP 2019

  • I was suprised by the power of teambuilding, bonding in a human way! You get so much better results than just having a sterile, professional setting.

    Umberto | Project manager team Gosta Labs | PDP 2025

  • In order to create a successful project, the key difference is that you're taking key information from customers and not just designing what you think they need. I think the skills gained during PdP will be incredibly useful in my future career, especially if I'm going for leader positions.

    Mircea | Project Manager team Isaware | PDP 2025

  • If I'm thinking about starting my own company in the future, PdP has given me a great simulation on how to build a product for a market.

    Adamay | Computer Science | Team Isaware | PDP 2025

PDP as project manager

Every year we search for potential candidates to fill the position of the student project manager of each project team. The project managers will get 3 extra credits and enjoy the best learning experience – but deal with the most challenges and invest a lot of time in the project. So if you are an Aalto student and already have some study or work experience in product design, development or innovation, this could be your chance to put your learnings to the ultimate test! More information on the project manager positions and selection can be found in the course MyCourses page.

Global partners

PdP collaborates with the Design Factory Global Network and partner universities across the globe to allow students to collaborate with top universities all over the world and experience true global collaboration – product development rarely happens in a single location.

Questions?

Reach out to our student assistants, who are also PDP alumni!

Kalevi EkmanStudents