cmu phd in transition design

PhD in Transition Design

Fundamental change at every level of society is needed to address the issues confronting us in the 21st century. From climate change, loss of biodiversity, and depletion of natural resources, to systems of oppression, inequality, and inequity, Transition Design tackles these kinds of complex, wicked problems.

About our PhD Program

The PhD in Transition Design is for people committed to making a positive change in the world. Our unique program develops future design leaders with the capacity to envision and realize purposeful change across a range of complex systems—from food, water, materials and products, to policy, culture, economy, cities, and social movements. Transition Design acknowledges that we are living in transitional times, takes as its central premise the need for societal transition (systems-level change) to more just, equitable, and sustainable futures, and argues that design and designers have a key role to play in these transitions. This kind of design is connected to long horizons of time, pluriversal perspectives, compelling visions of desired futures, and must be based upon new knowledge and skill sets. Research in Transition Design, while grounded in systems thinking, can also be undertaken from the perspective of many areas of interest—circular economies, commoning, decoloniality, sociotechnical transitions, public policy, stakeholder participation, and futuring, to name a few.

Complex challenges must be addressed through ecologies of interventions that draw on multiple design specialisms, alongside expertise from other disciplines. In this way, Transition Design is a transdisciplinary field that unites researchers from within and beyond Design. This involves service designers, social designers, communication designers, product designers, environments designers, and design historians, working alongside ecologists, anthropologists, philosophers, economists, and political scientists.

Our PhD researchers develop their own research interests within the broad framework of Transition Design. We practice a collective, rather than competitive approach to creating a strong cohort. Program faculty and researchers alike operate as one supportive community with the shared goal of producing transformational work that matters. Throughout the program, you will maintain fluid interactions between theory and practice, through critical engagements with texts, images, media, objects, and experiences. The program is designed to encourage a supportive, critical research culture in which students, their peers, and advisory committees work closely together to shape new knowledge. As a PhD Researcher at CMU, your research will directly shape the development of this dynamic and emerging field.

The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon is a top-ranked Design School, situated at the heart of a world-leading research university, with a thriving undergraduate, graduate and doctoral student community. Upon completing the PhD, graduates are equipped to drive design-led systems-change through academic posts in leading universities and take on influential roles in nonprofit organizations, business, and government. Recent graduate destinations have included the University of Technology Sydney, New York University, Microsoft, University of Michigan, and Northeastern University.

Read more about Transition Design .

Program Structure

The program has two key stages: the first is taught (year 1); the second comprises a self-defined project developed in consultation with an advisory committee (years 2–4). Where schedules permit, our students can take electives from across Carnegie Mellon's rich and diverse curricular offering.

The core curriculum is as follows:

Advancing your understanding of how research from diverse disciplinary domains can inform new kinds of research and practice. Through this 15-week course, you will explore the intersections of theory, practice and praxis, to develop a holistic understanding of research as a reflexive theoretical and practical process. Coursework includes the design of praxis methods to shape your own research. Topics include: research of design, research for design, research by design, and design praxis.

"Teaching Design" focuses on planning, conducting, reviewing, and revising learning experiences in academic and professional contexts. Students will study learning theories and instructional design approaches, probing their value to design education. Students will investigate traditional and emergent approaches to instruction through readings and discussions situated in the realm of cognitive studies, neuroscience, learning science, instructional design, and educational pedagogy. Students will discuss challenges that are common to design, which they will use to brainstorm ways of effectively addressing obstacles that they are likely to encounter when teaching. Students will apply their discoveries to the design of learning objectives, outcomes, instructional activities, performance measures, formative assessments, and summative evaluations, to create innovative and effective teaching and learning experiences based on a context they define. The course will culminate in the design of concrete teaching plans that may take the form of syllabi, project briefs, class exercises, assessment tools, and evaluation metrics.

An “ecoliterate” mindset is the starting point for Transition Design. Indeed, to be ecoliterate is to understand the principles through which natural systems flourish and to apply these principles to society, so that we too may flourish without compromising or destroying the natural systems on which we depend. Spanning 7-weeks, this seminar class focuses on key themes of ecoliteracy to help us navigate our social, ecological, and existential crises. Topics include: place and bioregions, Goethean science, living systems and Gaia, relationality and context, radical holism, and everyday life and infrastructure

This seminar exposes students to the emergent issues in the research and practice of Design through weekly discussions with individual faculty members. Faculty primarily resident to the School of Design present their research and interests to students in 50 minute sessions; two faculty presenting one day each week. The course aims to provide masters students (and some PhD students) first-hand exposure to faculty, their research, and interests. It's also a nice way for faculty to begin meeting grad students.

Driving design-led, systems-level change towards socially and ecologically sustainable, convivial and equitable place-based lifestyles. Through this 15-week course, you will explore multilevel problems to establish mutually beneficial relationships between people, the natural environment and the designed world; repositioning designers as agents of sustainable change. Topics include: living systems & complex problems, mindsets & postures, theories of change, visions, and transition designing.

Introducing future-focused design practices with practical training in futuring and foresight methods. Through this 15-week course, you will be introduced to a broad array of future-focused design practices, coupled with practical training in futuring and foresight techniques and methods. Coursework includes the development of a "Time Machine"—an immersive, future-focussed scenario for storytelling and research activation. Topics include: world modeling, futuring & foresight, emerging design practices, criticality & speculation, design pedagogy, and sustainable futures.

Defining a 3-year research project with your advisory committee, geared toward activating sustainable change. Through this 7-week course, you will frame new research contexts, define questions, plan methodological approaches, design open research structures that adapt and change, and speculate upon research outcomes and their impacts. Coursework includes writing a PhD proposal. Topics include: framing research problems, building an argument, planning your project, keeping research open, and writing a research proposal.

Developing a 2-year period of deep, reflective and self-directed research. Across this sequence of courses—spanning 4 semesters—you work closely with your advisory committee to build upon your research proposal and literature review. During this phase, you will deepen your literature review, undertake field research, develop your practice and begin pulling together your research into a coherent body of work.

Deepening your connection with the craft of writing via a cross-section of academic, journalistic and creative styles. Through this 15-week course this practical hands-on course helps you develop your style, structure and confidence in design writing. Writing is framed as a creative process where ideas are explored, discovered and expressed. Coursework includes planning a literature review. Topics include: conference papers & journal articles, design criticism, podcasts & digital publishing, and transformational design curricula.

Creating the critical space for divergent research themes to coalesce into a clear and conclusive body of research. You will assemble your dissertation in advance of the defense in May of the final semester. Dissertations can be entirely written (60–80K words), or a body of written and practical work (40–60K words, by negotiation). Your final body of work must demonstrate an original contribution to knowledge which expands understanding of transition design.

In addition to the above courses, students and faculty meet every few weeks for Critical Readings in Transition Design—a forum for in-depth discussion and critique of key texts, concepts and tools relating to transition design, and design-led systems-change more broadly.

Click here to view our PhD in Transition Design Planner, illustrating how these courses map across the 4 years of the program.

Current Researchers & Faculty

Phd researchers.

Adam Cowart

Tricia Douglas

Kyla Fullenwider

Luis Garcia

Esther Kang

William Martin

Saurin Nanavanti

Alexander Polzin

Madeline Sides

Russell Singer

Margaret M Urban

Matthew Wizinsky

Faculty advisors.

Toward the end of the first year, you are supported in assembling a 2-4 member advisory committee. This mentoring group comprises diverse expertise from faculty from the School of Design , from other schools across CMU, and advisors external to CMU where appropriate.

Requirements & Costs

Entry requirements.

Qualifications Applicants should meet the following requirements:

• A Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution with a strong record of academic achievement.
• A Master's degree from an accredited institution with a strong record of academic achievement. In some circumstances, we will consider applicants without a Master's degree, where there is evidence of equivalent community-engagement, leadership, research, writing, or other related experience.
• Candidates for the PhD teaching fellowship will ordinarily have a Master's degree in Design, and at least two years of professional and/or teaching experience. In select cases, 5+ years of professional design experience, demonstrated by portfolio, may be considered if the applicant's Master's degree is in a related or complementary field.

Language Requirements All applicants whose native language is not English are required to submit a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), or the online Duolingo English Test score. All applicants must submit their highest test score by the application deadline.

• Our minimum TOEFL total score is 102, with minimum subscores of 25. In addition to single test date TOEFL iBT scores, the School of Design also accepts MyBest scores for TOEFL iBT.
• Our minimum IELTS score is 7.5
• Our minimum Duolingo score is 128 total. Subscore minimums: Literacy: 125, Conversation: 120, Comprehension: 135, Production: 105

Scores below these minimums will not be considered for admission. Note : There are additional requirements for teaching fellowship candidates, in regards to written and verbal English language capacities by Pennsylvania State Legislation. All non-native English speakers are required to pass an International Teaching Assistant Test administered by CMU.

There are two funding routes through the program: professional track and teaching fellowships.

Professional track candidates find their own sources of funding. This route is for people who wish to continue their employment whilst also undertaking PhD research, and keep the flexibility to study in a low-residency mode once the first year of coursework is complete.

Teaching fellowships cover tuition, individual health insurance, and provide an annual stipend of $22,500 ($11,250 per semester). Teaching fellows co-teach one course per semester, from semesters 2–7. All teaching fellows must be in residence at CMU for the duration of the program.

Applicants who are accepted into the program, but do not receive an offer of a teaching fellowship, are required to pay the following fees, totalling approximately $69,975 over 4-years:

• Year 1: $45,700 (2024-2025)
• Year 2: $6,490 (2025-2026)
• Year 3: $6,625 (2026-2027)
• Year 4: $6,760 (2027-2028)

University fees (annual estimate)

• Activity Fee: $238
• Transportation Fee: $256
• Technology Fee: $460

Note : Professional track candidates are responsible for their own individual health insurance at approximately $3,000 per year.

Application

Information on how to apply and what you'll need to include with your application can be found HERE .

Further Information

Please feel free to email us with any questions. You can also check out our FAQs page . As this is a relatively new program, insufficient data exists to provide helpful transparency statistics. This will be shared as it becomes available.

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Celebrating our New PhD’s in Transition Design for 2022

Carnegie Melon University’s School of Design is honored to announce our four newest recipients of a PhD in Transition Design . Sofía Bosch Gómez , Hajira Qazi , Chun Zheng , and Alex Wright all successfully defended their doctoral theses in April 2022.

The PhD in Transition Design is an advanced design research program which explores design-led, societal transition toward more sustainable, just futures. Our world-class program develops future design leaders with the capacity to envision and realize purposeful change across a range of complex systems—from food, water, materials and products, to policy, culture, economy, cities, and social movements.

“A PhD is an advanced, design research leadership program,” said Professor Jonathan Chapman , Director of Doctoral Studies at the School of Design. “Yes, there is the certificate, and the original contribution to knowledge that the research makes. But, perhaps more importantly, there is the person. The PhD graduate, who shaped the work but was, in-turn, shaped by the work.”

Her research focuses on the role of design and designers within the Mexican public service, taking into account local and pedagogical circumstances in the development of government innovation spaces. She argues that public and social innovation laboratories (PSI labs) within governments have opened practice opportunities for designers, gaining traction through self-defined design-led methods and approaches. In Latin America, design-led PSI labs have also developed extensively in the past decade. However, the region’s past and present context make the relationship between public innovation and design distinct from those in other world regions. In response, she proposes a future pedagogical approach to public innovation by developing a higher- education course curriculum to prompt alternative forms of addressing these problems than the current status quo. 

“Hajira is a designer and researcher whose work explores how conceptions of the sacred inform an alternative worldview that moves away from the consumeristic aspects traditionally associated with design towards design that fosters resilient and cohesive societies,” said Chapman.

Her research explores the possibilities of designing for more resilient citizen-led initiatives, also known as “urban commoning,” through the lens of scaling. She argues that the importance that urban commoning plays in contemporary cities makes their sustainment crucial. Commoning can be a response to socio-political, ecological, and economic crises, as well as government’s inadequacies. For commoning practitioners and researchers, her dissertation reframes the criteria of measuring the success of urban commoning, and develops design considerations related to scaling strategies. 

His research focuses on bridging theory and practice, through developing a curriculum to help UX designers and researchers embed long-term thinking into their professional practices. His research asks: if, as some economists have argued, the world stands on the cusp of a new post-capitalist era, then what role might user experience (UX) practitioners working in industry play in fostering such a transition? He argues that UX practitioners are uniquely positioned to bring about transformative change in for-profit organizations; but that they face mounting obstacles to doing so in increasingly data-driven, mechanistic product development environments. His dissertation explores the barriers that UX practitioners face in trying to incorporate long-term societal and ecological perspectives into their work. 

“It would be an understatement to say that I am proud of our PhD graduates,” said Chapman. “What they have achieved is truly amazing, not just the PhD itself, but doing so under such adverse, challenging conditions. Perhaps most importantly to me though, is not simply that these four individuals were able to complete exceptional PhDs, but that they were able to do so in a manner that was collegial, generous, and caring of those around them. For me, this is what it means to operate ‘successfully’ at an advanced level. Not just to complete the work, and for the work to be stellar, but to be able to do it in a way that is not harmful to those around you. I commend all of our PhD graduates in their astonishing achievements, and unflinching collegiality throughout. You are remarkable!

“To our four new doctors, congratulations! You are an inspiration to us all.”

Learn more about the PhD in Transition Design program >>

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What's Happening

• Home: About Transition Design
• Course Overview & Structure
• Requirements & Grading
• Course Calendar
• Course Introduction
• Wicked Problems
• Social Relations
• Historical Evolution of Wicked Problems
• Designing for Transitions
• Designing Systems Interventions
• Assignments
• The Framework
• Visions for Transition

Theories of Change

• Mindset & Posture

New Ways of Designing

Bibliography, useful links.

• Workshops & Short Courses

The Transition Design Institute

Workshops & short courses.

Note: this section is currently undergoing an update. The entries below are from the 2015 Transition Design Monograph. Over the course of the next several months we will be regularly adding more current resources to this section.

Systems, Systems Problems and Contextual Thinking

Coming Soon

Visions & Futuring

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Berg, Peter and Raymond Dasmann.  2008. “Reinhabiting California”. In Judith Plant, Christopher Plant and Van Andruss (eds.) Home! A Bioregional Reader, pp. 35–38. Gabriola Island, BC: New Catalyst Books.

Bloch, Ernst. 1995. The Principle of Hope. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Borjeson, Lena et al. 2006. “Scenario Types and Techniques: Towards a User’s Guide”. Futures, 38: 723–739.

Brand, Stewart. 1999. The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility. New York: Basic Books.

Candy, Stuart. 2015. Whose Future is This? TEDxChristchurch. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxgVxu2mdZI .

Casey, Edward. 2013. The Fate of Place: A Philosophical History. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. 

Charles, Leonard et al. 2008. “Where You At? A Bioregional Quiz”. In Judith Plant, Christopher Plant and Van Andruss (eds.) Home! A Bioregional Reader, p. 29. Gabriola Island, BC: New Catalyst Books.

Dunne, Anthony and Fiona Raby. 2013. Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming, pp. 1–9. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Escobar, Arturo. 2013 (unpublished). “Transiciones: A Space for Research and Design for Transitions to the Pluriverse” Forthcoming in Design Philosophy Papers, 2015.

Fry, Tony. 2009. Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice. Oxford: Berg. 

Greer, John Michael. 2008. The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers.

Hopkins, Rob. 2008. The Transition Town Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience. White River Junction, VT:Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

Hopkins, Rob. 2011. The Transition Companion: Making Your Community More Resilient in Uncertain Times. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

Knapp, Alex. 2011. “Brian David Johnson: Intel’s Guide to the Future.” Forbes Magazine, October. Available online: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/10/13/brian-david-johnson-intels-guide-to-the-future/ .

Kossoff, Gideon. 2011. “Holism and the Reconstitution of Everyday Life: A Framework for Transition to a Sustainable Society.” In Stephan Harding (ed) Grow Small, Think Beautiful: Ideas for a Sustainable World from Schumacher College. Edinburgh: Floris.

Jacoby, Russell. 2005. Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Ant-Utopian Age. New York: Columbia University Press. Manzini, Ezio. 2009. “A Cosmopolitan Localism: Prospects for a Sustainable Local Development and the Possible Role of Design”. In Hazel Clark and David Brody (eds), Design Studies: A Reader, p. 448. New York: Berg.

Manzini, Ezio. 2012. “Resilient Systems and Cosmopolitan Localism – The Emerging Scenarios of the Small, Local, Open and Connected Space.” CNS Ecologia Politica. Available online: http://www.ecologiapolitica.org/wordpress/wp-con tent/uploads/2014/03/Resilient-systems-and-cosmopolitan-localism.pdf.

Manzini, Ezio. 2013. “Small, Local, Open and Connected: Resilient Systems and Sustainable Qualities”. Design Observer. New York: Design Observer Group. Available online: http://designobserver.com/feature/small-local-open-and-con nected-resilient-systems-and-sustainable-qualities/37670.

Manzini, Ezio and François Jégou. 2003. Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios of Urban Life. Milan: Edizioni Ambiente srl.

Margolin, Victor. 2007. “Design, the Future and the Human Spirit”. Design Issues. 23 (3): 4–15. Available online: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/desi.2007.23.3.4

Orr, David. 2005. “Place and Pedagogy”. In Zenobia Barlow and Michael K. Stone (eds) Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World, pp. 85-95. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books.

Porritt, Jonathon. 2013. The World We Made: Alex McKay’s Story from 2050. New York: Phaidon Press Limited.

Raskin, Paul et al. 2002. The Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead. Stockholm: Stockholm Environmental Institute and Boston: Tellus Institute. Available online: http://www.world-governance.org/article90.html .

Rockefeller Foundation and Global Business Network. 2010. Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development. Available online: http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/bba493f7-cc97-4da3-add6-3deb 007cc719.pdf.

Sachs, Wolfgang. 1999. Planet Dialectics: Exploration in Environment and Development. pp. 105-107. London: Zed Books Ltd.

Sale, Kirkpatrick. 1980. Human Scale. London: Secker and Warburg

Shuman, Michael. 2000. Going Local: Creating Self-reliant Communities in a Global Age. New York: Routledge.

Snyder, Gary. 1995. “Reinhabitation”. In Alan Drengson and Yuichi Inoue The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology, pp. 67-73. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.

Speth, James Gustave. 1992. “The Transition to a Sustainable Society”. Proceedings, National Academy of Science, USA, 89: 870–872. Available online: http://www.pnas.org/content/89/3/870.full.pdf.

Tonkinwise, Cameron. 2014. Design for Transition – From and to What? Available online: https://www.academia.edu/11796491/Design_for_Transition_-_from_and_to_what .

Wilkinson, Angela et al. 2013. “How Plausibility-Based Scenario Practices are Grappling with Complexity to Appreciate and Address 21st Century Challenges”. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 80: 699-710. 

Damian, White. 2015. Future by Design. Forthcoming July 2015. London: Bristol Classical Press.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development. 2010. “Vision 2050: The New Agenda for Business.” Available online: http://www.wbcsd.org/pages/edocument/edocumentdetails.aspx?id=219 .

Worldwatch Institute. 2013. State of the World: Is Sustainability Still Possible? Washington DC: Island Press.

Augros, Robert and George Stanciu. 198. The New Biology. Boston: Shambhala. 

Benjamin, Barber. 2013. If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Benkler, Yochai. 2007. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Berkhout, Frans, Adrian Smith, and Andy Stirling . 2003. “Socio-technological Regimes and Transition Contexts.” Science and Technology Policy Research Working Paper Series . Brighton: University of Sussex. Available online: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/publications/imprint/sewps/sewp106/sewp106.pdf .

Berry, Wendell. 2010. What Matters? Economics for a Renewed Community, pp. 186-188. San Francisco: Counterpoint.

Biehl, Janet and Murray Bookchin,. 1998. The Politics of Social Ecology. Montreal: Black Rose.

Boff, Leonardo and Hathaway, Mark. 2009. The Tao of Liberation: Exploring the Ecology of Transformation. New York: Orbis Books. 

Bookchin, Murray. 1999. The Murray Bookchin Reader. Janet Biehl (ed). Montreal: Black Rose.

Bookchin, Murray. 2005. The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Edinburgh: AK.

Briggs, John and David Peat. 1990. Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness. New York: Harper and Row.

Briggs, John and David Peat. 1999. Seven Life Lessons of Chaos. New York: Harper Perennial.

Brown, Richard Harvey. 1989. A Poetic for Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Callenbach, Ernest. 2008. Ecology: A Pocket Guide. Berkeley: University of California.

Capra, Fritjof. 1997. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. New York: Anchor Books.

Capra, Fritjof. 2005. “Speaking Nature’s Language: Principles for Sustainability”. In Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow (eds) Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World , pp. 19-29. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Capra, Fritjof and Pier Luigi Luisi,. 2014. The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision.  Padstow, Cornwall: Cambridge University Press.

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de Sousa Santos, Bonaventura. 2006. The Sociology of Emergences, The Rise of the Global Left: The World Social Forum and Beyond. London: Zed Books.

Delanty, Gerard. 2003. Community, pp. 1–21. London: Routledge.

Doordan, Dennis P. 2013. “Developing Theories for Sustainable Design”. In Stuart Walker and Jaques Giard (eds), The Handbook of Design for Sustainability . London: Bloomsbury.

Douthwaite, Richard. 1996. Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Unstable World. Totnes: Green Books.

Ecologist Magazine. 1993. Whose Common Future? Reclaiming the Commons. Gabriola Island: New Society. 

Eguren, Inigo Retolaza. 2011. Theory of Change: A Thinking and Action Approach to Navigate in the Complexity of Social Change Processes. pp. 1-33. Panama City: UNDP and The Hague: Hivos.

Ehrenfeld, John R. 2009. Sustainability by Design: A Subversive Strategy for Transforming Our Consumer Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Elden, Stuart et al. 2003. Henri Lefebvre, Key Writings, Continuum, New York.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 2013. Toward the Circular Economy: Opportunities for the Consumer Goods Sector. Cowes: Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Available online: http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/business/reports/ce2013 .

Elzen, Boelie, Frank W. Geels and Kenneth Green, eds. 2005. System Innovation and the Transition to Sustainability. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishers.

Escobar, Arturo. 2009. “Other Worlds are (Already) Possible: Self-Organization, Complexity and Post Capitalist Cultures”. In Jai Sen and Peter Waterman (eds) World Social Forum, Challenging Empires. Available online: http://www.choike.org/documentos/wsf_s506_escobar.pdf .

Escobar, Arturo. 2011. Encountering Development:The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Flemming, David. 2011. Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It. England: Calverts.

Fry, Tony. 2012. Becoming Human by Design. Oxford: Berg.

Fry, Tony, Clive Dilnot,and Susan Stewart. 2015. Design and the Question of History. London: Bloomsbury.

Funtowicz, S. and J. Ravetz 2003. “Post Normal Science.” International Society for Ecological Economics, Internet Encyclopaedia. Available online: http://isecoeco.org/pdf/pstnormsc.pdf .

Gardiner, Michael E. 2000. Critiques of Everyday Life. London: Routledge.

Geels, Frank W. 2010. “Ontologies, socio-technical transitions (to sustainability), and the multi-level perspective.” Research Policy, 39: 495–510. Available online:  http://www.transitionsnetwork.org/files/Geels,%202010,%20RP,%20 ontologies.pdf .

Goodwin, Brian. 1998. “The Edge of Chaos.” In The Spirit of Science: From Experiment to Experience. Edinburgh: Floris.

Grin, John, Jan Rotmans and Johan Schot. 2010. Transitions to Sustainable Development: New Directions in the Study of Long Term Transformative Change. London. Routledge.

Hargreaves, Tom et al. 2012. Understanding Sustainability Innovations: Points of Intersection Between the Multi-Level Perspective and Social Practice Theory. Norwich: UEA Science, Society and Sustainability (3S) Research Group. Available online: https://uea3s.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/3s-wp-2012-03-hargreaves-et-al .

Harman, Willis. 1999. “The Issue Before Us”. In David Lorimer et al (eds) Wider Horizons: Explorations in Science and Human Experience, pp. 246-257. Collingsburgh: Scientific and Medical Network.

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Ho, Mae-Wan. 1998. The Rainbow and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms. New Jersey: World Scientific.

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Kossoff, Gideon. 2011. Holism and the Reconstitution of Everyday Life: A Framework for Transition to a Sustainable Society. Ph.D. diss., University of Dundee, Scotland.

Laszlo, Ervin. 1996. The Systems View of the World: A Holistic Vision for Our Time. Cresskill: Hampton Press

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This page contains links to resources that are relevant to/scaffold many of the concepts in Transition Design. This page is also in the process of being updated. We welcome recommendations: [email protected] .

Transition-Related Resources

Transition Design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_design

Transition Management (governance) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_management_(governance)

Transition Town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_town

Transition Network http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

Great Transition Initiative http://greattransition.org

Transition United States http://www.transitionus.org/transition-towns

Transition Academy http://transitionacademy.nl

Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN) http://www.transitionsnetwork.org/

Center for Ecoliteracy http://ecoliteracy.org

Resilience http://www.resilience.org

Post-Carbon Institute http://www.postcarbon.org

Tellus Institute http://www.tellus.org/index.php

Commons Transition http://commonstransition.org

Systems & Systems Change

Donella Meadows Institute http://www.donellameadows.org

School of System Change https://www.forumforthefuture.org/school-of-system-change

Buckminster Fuller Institute https://www.bfi.org/

Social & Stakeholder Relations

Thought Partnerships https://thoughtpartnerships.org/

Common Cause Foundation https://valuesandframes.org/

Jonathan Haidt https://jonathanhaidt.com/

Visioning & Futuring

Deutsche Post, Logistics 2050 — a Scenario Study http://www.dhl-usa.com/en/press/events/logistics_2050.html

Sustainable Everyday Project http://www.sustainable-everyday-project.net

The Long Now Foundation http://longnow.org

The Next Systems Project https://thenextsystem.org/

Forum for the Future https://www.forumforthefuture.org/

Alternative Economies

New Economics Foundation http://www.neweconomics.org

The Ellen Macarthur Foundation https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/

David Korten.org https://davidkorten.org/

Sharing, Mutual Aid & Commoning

Shareable http://www.shareable.net/

P2P Foundation https://p2pfoundation.net/

Mutual Aid Hub https://www.mutualaidhub.org/

Shareable https://www.shareable.net/

Energy, Climate, Technology & Research

Rocky Mountain Institute https://rmi.org/

Wuppertal Institute https://www.wupperinst.org/en/

Center for Alternative Technology https://www.cat.org.uk/

Santa Fe Institute https://www.santafe.edu/

Schumacher College https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/

Dartington Trust https://www.dartington.org/

Ecodemia https://ecodemia.org.uk/

Navdanya: Bija Vidyapeeth https://navdanyainternational.org/what-we-do/earth-university/

Fit Associates http://www.fitassociates.com/

Findhorn Foundation https://www.findhorn.org/

Center for Ecoliteracy https://www.ecoliteracy.org/

Capra Course https://www.capracourse.net/

Politics & Social Movements

Black Lives Matter https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Decolonising Design https://www.decolonisingdesign.com/

Design Justice https://designjustice.org/

Braver Angels https://braverangels.org/

Ecology, Food & Soil

Navdanya https://www.navdanya.org/site/

Nourish Health https://www.nourishhealthcare.ca/

The Fife Diet https://www.facebook.com/login/?next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Ffifediet%2F

The Soil Association https://www.soilassociation.org/

The Biomimicry Institute https://biomimicry.org/janine-benyus/

Ocean Arks International https://www.oceanarksint.org/

This page contains video lectures and interviews about Transition Design by its originators, colleagues and others.

Terry Irwin discusses designing for systems-level change at the SRD 8 Conference in Chicago, 2019.

Gideon Kossoff discusses Cosmopolitan Localism and its relevance to Transition Design as part of a lecture series for Ecodemia.

Jonathan Chapman, Director of the doctoral program in Transition Design at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University discusses the program’s format and objectives.

Cameron Tonkinwise discusses Transition Design and his lab at the University of Technology, Sydney, working on a project in the energy sector.

Terry Irwin discusses Transition Design and systems-change with author, physicist and environmentalist Fritjof Capra as part of his Capra Course series. September, 2018.

Terry Irwin gives an overview of the Transition Design approach and discusses a project to map COVID-19 in the U.S., through the lens of Transition Design. Ecodemia, 2020.

Terry Irwin chats with Mickey McManus, the host of the Quarantime! Series and Boston Consulting Group design lead Dutch McDonald and interconnections and the Transition Design approach. Summer, 2020.

Terry Irwin discusses the concept of worldview and how it affects the way we see and solved problems. AIGA national conference, 2014.

This podcast is created by students in the PhD program in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University and is broadcast in both English and Spanish.

The Transition Design Seminar is only available to students enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, however we do from time to time offer online executive education in the approach (which closely resembles this seminar). We also offer customized executive education and also use the approach in conducting research with a range of external partners. If you are interested in obtaining more information about this, or would like your name added to our database in order to receive notification of upcoming events contact: Terry Irwin: [email protected]. or Gideon Kossoff: [email protected].

This page is under construction. It will contain information about the Transition Design Institute that will launch at Carnegie Mellon University in fall of 2023.

College of Fine Arts

School of design, rich history in design.

The School of Design is among the oldest and most respected design programs in North America and one of the only leading design programs to offer degrees at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels within a top-ranked multidisciplinary research university. Our students are part of a diverse, intellectually rich community pursuing Undergraduate design degrees in Communications, Products or Environments; Masters' degrees in Design for Interactions; and PhDs in the emerging field of Transition Design.

School of Design Degrees

School of design website.

Designing for the Present and the Future

Organizations are actively seeking new problem-solving approaches that respond to escalating business, social, and environmental challenges. Design has become a highly interactive, collaborative and transdisciplinary activity that is integral to the success of businesses and institutions worldwide. Our practice plays an increasingly important role in shaping the interactions people have with products, services and systems that can have substantial impact on their experience.

Become a Systems Thinker

Designers can no longer think about products or communications in isolation; to practice ethically and effectively, they must also consider interactions within broader social and environmental contexts. Our programs are unified by a framework that contextualizes design, while also seeking to shape the future of the discipline and advance the field as it matures. Our students become "systems thinkers," able to see and solve complex problems in a globally connected and interdependent world. The career possibilities — and your potential to make an impact on the world — are limitless.

• Faculty & Staff Resources
• CMU COVID-19 Resources

Computational Design

MSCD | PhD-CD

The Computational Design (CD) program investigates creative opportunities and critical issues at the nexus of design and computation. Fundamentally interdisciplinary, it mobilizes Carnegie Mellon University’s computational strengths critically towards design, architecture, and other creative disciplines.

With a shared emphasis on critical technical practice, faculty and students in the program draw from fields including computer science, robotics, human-machine interaction, machine learning, art, and science and technology studies to illuminate emerging potentials as well as unforeseen consequences of new technologies in design. The program examines topics including robotically-supported construction, machine learning- and AI-based approaches to design generation and analysis, tangible interaction, shape grammars, responsive environments, digital heritage, computational urban studies, as well as historical and ethnographic investigations into design technologies and technologically-mediated design practices. The program’s research and creative works are frequently discussed, published, and exhibited in leading national and international venues. Inherently interdisciplinary, the program invites students to forge unique curricular paths, closely interacting with field-defining researchers, educators, and mentors in the program and across the university. 

The program offers Master of Science (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees, and is well suited to highly inquisitive applicants with technical, creative, and/or critical backgrounds who are motivated to challenge disciplinary boundaries; develop a unique research agenda; and explore the intersection computation and design with creativity, technical rigor, and critical depth.

Daniel Cardoso Llach

Associate Professor & CD Track Chair

Master of Science in Computational Design

The Masters of Science in Computational Design is a two-year, research-focused program that prepares students for leading industry positions and advanced studies in the broad field of Computational Design. 

Students in the program develop technical and conceptual skills to a) formulate and develop technologies that reimagine material, sociotechnical, and/or environmental relations in design; b) approach digital systems and human-machine encounters as sites for both creative exploration and critical inquiry; and c) produce a thesis that documents a substantial work of research and a novel contribution to knowledge in the field of Computational Design.

The program’s curriculum is structured around a lean sequence of research seminars that builds cohesive cohorts, explores the field’s technical, conceptual, and historical underpinnings, and introduces a variety of approaches to research in the field. Selective courses, special topics seminars, and faculty-led independent studies and research groups delve deeper into technical and critical issues, and help instigate the development of unique theses. With guidance from faculty advisors, students define a sequence of courses providing a solid technical understanding of computational concepts and techniques. The precise choice and sequence is based on each student’s prior skill level and their research orientation. In addition, a vast pool of eligible extra departmental courses gives students the opportunity to enrich their methodological and conceptual toolkits further. During the second year, students form advisory committees and develop their theses. Of publishable, or close to publishable, quality, theses in the program rigorously document the definition, prototyping, and critical interrogation of design-technological systems, and/or their histories and the communities they support. 

The program’s typical duration is four semesters. Students must complete a minimum of 147 units of coursework including a 36 unit thesis for graduation. Proficient candidates with prior relevant experience may be considered for advanced standing, subject to approval of the faculty committee upon admission based on a proposed plan of studies. In all cases, full-time registration must be maintained for the first three semesters.

MSCD Curriculum

Doctor of Philosophy in Computational Design

The Doctor of Philosophy in Computational Design prepares students for careers as leading educators, scholars, and researchers in academia and industry. The program offers students the opportunity to conduct research that explores Computational Design questions in greater technical and critical depth, resulting in novel and original contributions to knowledge in the field.

Students work closely with their advisors throughout all stages of the program. Advisors are responsible for supervising and offering guidance, including working with students in the formulation of an individual plan of studies that supports both technical and conceptual elements of the student’s chosen area of concentration. Advisory committees in the doctoral program in CD must be chaired by a CD Core Faculty member, and must include one external member. External advisors might be at a different Carnegie Mellon University department, at a different institution, or in industry. Faculty currently serving as PhD advisors in the program include Profs Joshua Bard, Daragh Byrne, Daniel Cardoso Llach, and Vernelle Noel. Prospective applicants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the work of the program and with individual advisors’ recent and ongoing research. 

Students’ doctoral path in CD is punctuated by four milestones. The first is the presentation of a game plan that specifies the student’s area of concentration within the program and a scope of work within that area comprising both a plan of studies and research activities, as well as an advisory committee. The second milestone, usually completed after fulfilling course requirements, is a written and oral examination that gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their command over technical and conceptual aspects of their area of concentration, and their ability to formulate an original research project. The third is the public presentation of their dissertation proposal, a document detailing the dissertation’s conceptual, technical, and methodological components, arguing for its relevance to the field of Computational Design, and demonstrating its viability by documenting completed and ongoing research activities. The final milestone is the public defense of their doctoral dissertation. A doctoral dissertation in CD must be a rigorous, significant, and novel contribution to knowledge in the field. It must be grounded on a deep understanding of the state of the art in the field and their specific area of concentration, as well as a critical awareness of the broader contexts of the research.

^ A Data Informed Workflow in Design for Architecture and Urbanism. Javier Argota Sánchez-Vaquerizo, MSCD 2018

PhD-CD Curriculum

About the Program

The highly selective Computational Design graduate program at the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University is a trailblazer in computational design research and pedagogy. With origins in the late 1960s, it is one of the earliest programs of its kind. Its pioneering focus on applications of computational representation and symbolic AI to design has evolved into a broader inquiry into computational modes of design interaction, materiality, and intelligence, and a sensitivity towards the cultural, material, and historical specificity of computational media in design. Today, the Computational Design program adopts a broad view of computation as a vehicle of design inquiry, as a key technical scaffolding for applied and speculative design research, and as a worthy subject of scholarly analysis and debate. 

More than mere instruments, computational methods and ideas — including those linked to recent developments in machine learning/AI, virtual and augmented reality, and robotics — configure new technical infrastructures and imaginaries. Shaping contemporary spaces, artifacts, materials, and labors, these also configure new conceptions of design and creativity. Embracing this complex context, the Computational Design program works to develop new knowledge that harnesses computational ideas and methods towards humane, ecological, and creative environments, and that reimagines the interplay of the technological, the social, and the material in design.

^ Interfacing the Multiplexer Room: Speculative Spatio-Mediated Assemblages for the Digitally Interfered Home. Policarpo Del Canto Baquera, MSCD 2021

Computational Design students occupy the Computational Design Laboratory (CODe Lab) , a beautiful double-height space strategically located in the Margaret Morrison building’s fourth floor, and its two adjacent suites. Aside from workspaces and an area for presentations and collaborative work, the lab houses a fabrication space equipped with a variety of tools to support research including desktop digital and hand fabrication tools, an electronics workbench, as well as dedicated terminals for specialized data and graphics processing and virtual/augmented reality research. 

In addition, CD students have access to many other School of Architecture and Carnegie Mellon University’s world-class laboratories and facilities, including the Design Fabrication Laboratory (dFAB) and Applied Architectural Robotics Laboratory. They often participate in research and learning activities at other labs including the Frank Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry , the College of Fine Arts’ research hub, and the Manufacturing Futures Institute at Mill 19 , among others.

Extracurricular activities including yearly lecture series and workshops by leading computational design scholars and practitioners further enrich the program, fostering a vibrant atmosphere of research, learning, and creativity.

Recent Alumni

Recent phd-cd alumni.

Ardavan Bidgoli , PhD ‘23 - Computational Design Lead, Higharc; Co-Founder, Flumio; Madeline Gannon , PhD ‘21 - NVIDIA, Founder-Principal, ATON-ATON; Jinmo Rhee , PhD ‘24 (expected) - Assistant Professor of Architecture, U. of Calgary, Canada; Pedro Veloso , PhD ‘23 - Assistant Professor of Architecture, U. of Arkansas

Recent MSCD alumni

Michael Hasey (MS ‘23) - Computational Designer at Samsung Research, San Francisco; Anna Henson (MS ‘21) - Assistant Professor of Practice in Emerging Media Arts, U. of Nebraska, Lincoln; Chloe Hong (MS ‘23) - PhD Student at MIT Architecture, Cambridge, MA; Rungchang Kang  (MS ‘21) - Research Engineer, Sensing and ML at Apple AI/ML; Malika Khurana (MS ‘22) - Multimedia and Graphics Editor at the New York Times, NY; Yi-Chin Lee (MS ‘19) - PhD Candidate, Architecture at University of Michigan;  Vincent Mai (MS ‘20) - Studio Design Computation Leader at NBBJ, New York; Willa Yang (MS ‘21) - PhD Student in Computer Science, U. of Chicago

Program Faculty

Joshua Bard

Associate Professor & Associate Head for Design Research

Daragh Byrne

Associate Teaching Professor

Dana Cupkova

Associate Professor & MSSD Track Chair

Jeremy Ficca

Associate Professor, MAAD Track Chair & dFAB Lab Director

Sinan Goral

Adjunct Faculty

Matthew Huber

Special Faculty

Professor & Head

Kristen Kurland

Teaching Professor

Vernelle A. A. Noel

Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture

Paul Pangaro

Visiting Scholar in Computational Design

Admissions Resources

Are you a current student looking for resources? Handbooks, procedures and other information can be found on the Student Resources page .

Transition Design

Carnegie Mellon University

design.cmu.edu

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings is the only global university performance table to judge research-intensive universities across all of their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

Photos of university / #carnegiemellon

The Doctor of Philosophy in Transition Design (PhD) is a four-year, full-time, residential program. The PhD is appropriate for candidates who wish to become design academics or applied research leaders in design practice. The PhD in Transition Design aims to generate new knowledge about the nature of design and designing, especially in relation to the role of designers in transitioning our societies toward more sustainable futures.

Year One: is coursework intensive and instructs candidates in design-specific research techniques, explores the intersection of Design and Transition Studies, and helps develop teaching practices. 

Years Two thru Four: candidates conduct their research in consultation with a committee of advisors and regular progress reviews are held. All candidates have their final submissions examined by a committee of relevant experts with no prior knowledge of candidate’s research, and defend their research in a public oral presentation.

Residential Intensives: All PhD and DDes candidates attend two intensives each year, the first at the commencement of the Fall semester, and the second around Spring Break, usually in March.

The Fall intensive is a 3 day workshop exploring new forms of applied design research and current issues in design. The Spring Break intensive is similar, but is preceded by progress reviews before panels of experts and peers. There will be invited guest experts leading or participating in the workshops with candidates.

Coursework: The first year of the PhD comprises an intense series of courses. These courses mostly concern different kinds of Design Research: research of designers and the expert design process; contextual research for undertaking designing; and research that can be undertaken through design activities distinctive from social research methods. There are also courses concerning Teaching Design, in studios and seminars as well as courses on Transition Design, the focus of the School’s doctoral research. These courses are based upon understanding and leveraging systems-level design-enabled eco-sociotechnical change.

• A Bachelors degree from an accredited institution, with a strong record of academic achievement.
• A Masters degree from an accredited institution with a strong record of academic achievement. The degree must be in one or more of the School of Design’s areas of focus: communication design, product design, environments (design for physical/digital spaces/IoT), design for interactions, design for service or design for social innovation. In select cases, 3+ years of professional design experience, demonstrated by portfolio and testimonials, may be considered if the applicant’s masters degree is in a related or complementary field.
• At least two years professional and/or teaching experience in the areas of design focus listed above.
• Fluency in written and spoken English (see below).

More on Language Requirements

GRE GREs are not obligatory but are strongly recommended. We look for GRE scores of 160 and above for verbal, 148 and above for quantitative, and 4.5 or above for analytical writing.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY All candidates whose native language is not English are required to submit recent TOEFL or IELTS scores. This requirement will not be waived.

A TOEFL score above 102 total, with minimum sub-scores of 25, or an IELTS score of 7.5, with no score lower than 7, is required for admission to the program. 

Note: For PhD candidates who receive a stipend in exchange for teaching, there are additional English language requirements in regard to written and verbal capacities. These are required by Pennsylvania State Legislation. All non-native English speakers are required to pass an International Teaching Assistant Test administered by CMU. To ensure that candidates will be likely to pass this, minimum sub-scores of 25 (preferred score of 28 in speaking) in TOEFL and 7 in speaking and writing are required.

In addition to personal background information, the application for the PhD program has 3 main components:

1.  Biographical Essay

This 2-4 page document should give the Doctoral Selection Committee a sense of who you are and why you are interested in, and appropriate for, a doctoral research degree in Design. We are particularly interested in accounts of your level of design expertise. We want to understand how you think about and practice design, and the place of research in your work. You should indicate to us key figures and approaches in design history, thinking and practice that you have learned about or had experience with. You should also indicate any relevant teaching experience. We use this essay to evaluate your fit for the School in general, given that our focus is primarily Communication Design, Environments Design, Product Design, Interaction Design, Service Design and Design for Social Innovation. Your biographical essay should refer back to projects in your Portfolio of Expertise and connect forward to your Research Topic Proposal.

2.  Portfolio of Work

Because this doctoral program involves less coursework in order to accelerate candidates to the research phase, accepted candidates will need to have demonstrated a high level of mastery of design and design studies. Applicants should submit a portfolio of selected design and design-related work (no more than 10 projects). The nature of the projects you select should be determined by your biographical essay and research topic proposal (explained below); choose projects that demonstrate your expertise in research-based designing in the areas that you are interested in furthering through doctoral research. Any design-related teaching experience should also be evidenced in the portfolio. Applicants should host their own digital portfolios and provide a web link in the application. 

Each portfolio piece should include:

• a clear description of what your specific role on the project was
• a clear description of what expertise of yours is evidenced in the project
• a clear description of the research/research process you undertook for the project
• a clear description of any external validation of the project by peers, reviewers or users 

3.  Research Topic Proposal

In 2-4 pages, describe 1 or 2 design research topics. These proposals are not binding – all candidates will develop more extensive research proposals that can vary markedly from their application proposals in the course of the first year of the program. The Research Topic Proposal is used by the Doctoral Selection Committee to determine:

• a candidate’s practical understanding of design research
• capacity of a candidate to undertake research in a topic area appropriate for their experience and expertise as demonstrated in the Biographical Essay and the Portfolio
• the fit between a candidate’s research interests and those of the School, faculty at CMU and potential advisors within the School’s international network

Some guidelines for writing a Research Topic Proposal:

While recognizing that all candidates will undertake a year of coursework in design research, the Doctoral Selection Committee is looking for evidence of an ability to:

• formulate a comprehensive research question that is not too broad in scope, but can sustain 3 years worth of investigation
• identify appropriate collections of precedents of design work that might inform the research
• identify appropriate bodies of literature that would frame the research
• speculate/outline appropriate research processes and even methods, including practice-based design research projects, for conducting that research
• list possible advisors on the faculty of the School of Design as well as those advisors external to School (within other departments at CMU or other institutions)
• discuss potential audiences for whom the research outcomes would be appropriate
• Scholarships

There are two financial models for the PhD program:

• Full Tuition with Teaching Fellowship: Candidates who are qualified to teach design within one of the School’s areas of focus (see below) in the undergraduate or masters programs receive full tuition for 4 years and an annual teaching stipend of $13,500 in exchange for teaching one course per semester.
• Tuition Paying: Candidates who do not wish to teach or are not qualified to teach, have the option to pay full tuition each academic year. The table below outlines tuition fees for the academic years 2015-2019. Tuition goes up $1000 per academic year, based on 72 units per year.

Tuition-paying PhD candidates are responsible for all living costs as well as health insurance costs and some University fees. The School of Design does not offer scholarships for the PhD program at this time.

Architecture and Design Research

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

Education: design of learning environments.

Rutgers University-Camden

Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava

Design, technology and society.

Koc University

Urban design and town planning, civil engineering (transport).

Newcastle University of Medicine Malaysia

Electronic, electrical and computing engineering (railway systems specialism).

University of Birmingham

Transport planning.

University of Leeds

Transport technology, 3d digital design.

University of Huddersfield

Deadline information.

Ask admission

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