Design for Food

Course

The Specializing Master DESIGN FOR FOOD integrates extensive design skills with thematic and specific competences in the food area, related to humanities, gastronomic sciences, engineering and food technology.
It therefore provides a wide-ranging designing capacity on process and tools for the design of the food product-service system and a series of specific thematic in-depth useful for the understanding of culture, sociological and anthropological factors and also scientific and technological.
As a whole, it provides an explanatory and comprehensive overview of food systems, from agricultural production to food processing, from distribution to consumption, from planning to recycling in a circular economy perspective.
The Specializing Master trains design and consulting profiles who are able to integrate creative and operational skills, through the development of hard and soft skills, which train participants to work in multidisciplinary teams, in competitive and highly strategic contexts, in quick and dynamic private and public organizations.

In collaboration with

Didactics

Training objectives

The Specializing Master DESIGN FOR FOOD aims to train professionals, entrepreneurs, independent innovators, civil servants with competences in the design and management of systems, processes and products-services in the food sector. Professional Profiles characterized by a profile combining the design and experimental approach of design with the thematic knowledge of the logics of the food sector in all its extension “from field to table”, including the traditional and more advanced production and distribution systems and with a specific attention to sustainability.
The sector already expresses forms, experimentations, experiences, innovation and project-oriented cases, requires a transversal expertise able to integrate in a strategic way the different design factors. For this reason, the Specializing Master completes the design (in the disciplinary extension of systems, strategies, services, products-services, communication) and food engineering skills, brought by Politecnico di Milano, with the thematic and specific ones in the food area related to humanities, food technology and gastronomic sciences, brought by the University of Gastronomic Sciences.

Participants will be able to:

• understand the socio-economic and environmental transformations of the sector
  outline innovative models and strategic orientations for the specific sector
  design for sustainability;
• understand and design the territorial impacts of food supply chains;
• use theoretical and critical skills to define design opportunities;
• understand and use the potential of the sector’s technologies, as well as the main elements of the production processes of the different supply chains;
• design complex solutions and their articulation in terms of product, service, communication and space;
• manage the main elements of food safety and planning;
• manage all phases of the process of conception, design, development and implementation of an innovative solution in an advanced perspective that includes participatory approaches;
• use specific design tools for design.

Didactic Plan

The Specializing Master DESIGN FOR FOOD is organized according to a mix of theory and practice that sees the alternation of lessons and hands-on activities on projects and exercises organized in the form of workshops or applied experiences, such as study-tours and compulsory internship.

The Specializing Master DESIGN FOR FOOD is structured according to an lesson plan that provides:

• Frontal lessons: aimed to introduce the main themes of study and the acquisition of tools and methodologies for analysis and design development; the lessons are held by a Faculty with professors from the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, in addition to qualified external professionals;
• Workshop: “hands-on” activities developed in studio (also in collaboration with external companies) aimed at the application of tools and methodologies for the development of product-service ideas;
• Study Trips: educational trips aimed to approach the topics dealt with, through experiences applied to real contexts in the food sector;
• Internship: 470 hours of training experience in a partner reality of the Master or suggested directly by the participants in agreement with the coordination of the Master.

Title Released

At the end of the course, the Diploma of Specializing Master in “DESIGN FOR FOOD” by the Politecnico di Milano will be awarded.
The Specializing Master program grants 60 CFU (Formative University Credits) equivalent to 60 ECTS.

Employment Opportunities

The opportunities for graduates to enter the job market are many and can be articulated according to different fields and roles that correspond to the different areas in which the food sector is expressed “from field to table”.

For example we can list:

• experts in research and innovation in agricultural companies food processing and service production;
• consultants, professionals and experts in strategic and sustainable innovation in the food and distribution sector _ consultants and operators who are experts in food policies and strategies within public, private and third sector organisations or research centres;
• independent entrepreneurs able to create start-ups;
• operators and curators who design and implement events and initiatives for territorial, entrepreneurial, cultural and social promotion.

Admission

Requirements

The Specializing Master welcomes candidates with a Degree or Specialist/Master’s Degree in Design, Engineering, Architecture, Economics and/or Management, Social Sciences/Humanistic Sciences, Gastronomic Sciences, Agriculture, Food Technology, or to people with other types of degrees who have also gained significant professional and work experience and who wish to strengthen their professional path in the field of food innovation, acquiring and developing specific and qualified competences.

The selection will be made on the basis of the documentation sent, followed by a possible interview in English language (remotely). The selections will be made in chronological order with respect to the date of receipt of the application, until all available places are filled.

Deadlines

To take part to the selection process, the application form must be completed online within the following deadlines:

• Italian/foreign citizens with a qualification obtained in Italy by September 2021
• Non-EU citizens with qualifications obtained abroad by August 2021

Price

The Specializing Master costs € 16.500 (€ 14.000 participation fee + € 500 enrollment fee at the Politecnico di Milano) EXEMPT VAT ART. 10 DPR 633/72.
For students graduated from the Polytechnic of Milan and from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, the total cost of the course is € 14.500.

Faculty