What is, and why MSPI?

Programme description

For product and service system innovation, there is a unique possibility to support and speed up society’s development towards sustainability. The effects of resource extraction, production, distribution, usage, and disposal of products that we see today on ecological and social systems show that current methods for product and service innovation are not sufficient. Positive and negative consequences during the entire life cycle of a product are largely decided through the decisions that are made already during early phases of the innovation process. Hence, it is important to integrate a sustainability perspective in the methodology for product and service system innovation. Also, the competitiveness of a company highly depends on the ability to create innovative products and services, both through value adding activities and through reduced cost in development.

Increasingly more companies request skills for sustainable product and service system innovation to strengthen their competitiveness on an increasingly sustainability-driven global market. There is today a shortage of such competence and this program aims to decrease this shortage.

The main field of study of the program is mechanical engineering with emphasis on the profiling areas at BTH: sustainability, innovation, and systems engineering (applied IT).

Learning outcomes

The program includes concepts, methods and tools within the subareas of strategic sustainable development, strategic life-cycle modeling and simulation, creativity and innovation methodology, concept generation, product planning, product- and service development and innovation, design methodologies, modeling and simulation-driven design, product realization and systems engineering.

Those who work with product, and service innovation (development of innovative solutions) must have skills in strategic sustainable development and have the ability to evaluate the positive and negative socio-ecological influence of a product during its life cycle, as well as the related economic preconditions and implications, together with knowledge of the value-adding properties of the product solution.

In addition to the nationally regulated aims, further academic aims apply to the education. More specifically, this means that the student should be able to:

• analyze sustainability challenges for an organization in a scientific way.
• use new methods and tools and engineering skills, to work with sustainable product and service system innovation in the industry.
• support a change towards a more value- and service-oriented economy.

An important aim of the program is that the students should obtain good insight in and knowledge of how different companies work. The students will already at an early point during the education complete course modules in companies.

Why Blekinge? Why Sweden? Why MSPI?

Here is an interview with Mark Simmons, a Canadian designer who graduated from the first round of MSPI. Check out what Mark has to say about how he found out about MSPI, what it’s like to live and study and Karlskrona, and a few other things.

And here is an interview with Tony Thompson, a former Ph.D. student who helped to initiate the MSPI program. Check out what Tony has to say about the importance of the program!