DS 500 Thesis (0-1) NC                                                                                                                   AKTS 26

Under supervision of an advisor, students write a master thesis about the experimental and/or theoretical research topic they choose based on the courses they have taken.

DS 501 Design Project (2-2) 3                                                                                                      AKTS 7.5

In the course, students develop at least one design project. Design theme is selected between the contemporary cultural issues. Designing is based on problem solving processes.

DS 502 Ethics and Research Methods in Design (2-2) 3                                                AKTS 7.5

Course aims to teach the rules of ethics in scientific works and basic research methods. This course teaches students how to analyze design structures, concepts, prototypes and systems by using quantitative and qualitative methods of research and implimentations in the design field. In this respect, the students are expected to gain the ability to conduct research by using various methods, such as analytical evaluations, testing, interviews, questionnaires, observations etc.

DS 504 Seminar (0-2) NC                                                                                                               AKTS 7.5

The course focuses on the selected contemporary design issues and their theoretical and practical reflections.

DS 8XX Special Studies (8-0) NC                                                                                              AKTS 4

Graduate students choose and study a topic under the guidance of faculty member normally his/her advisor.

DS 511 Applied Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning  (2-2) 3                                    AKTS 7.5

Introduction to probabilistic and statistical reasoning; Bayesian methods, decision making; distributions; pattern recognition and simple regression; available computer tools for AI and learning; AI paradigms, embodied AI; neural networks, deep networks; case studies: artificial intelligence in art.

DS 512 Basic Mechatronics for Design (2-2) 3                                                                    AKTS 7.5

This course is designed for students who would like to study on human-machine interaction interfaces and have no previous exposure to electronics and programming. Hardware and programming of embedded platforms (such as Arduino); processor, memory, peripheral devices; I/O features; analog and digital representation of signals and conversion; basic electronics; types of sensors and interfaces: switches, motion sensors, touch sensors, optical sensors, encoders, etc.; motors and actuators; driving motors with embedded microprocessors; real time programming; case studies from human-computer physical interaction, multimodal interfaces.

DS 513 Colour and Design (2-2) 3                                                                                              AKTS 7.5  

In this course, fundamental principles of colour is examined. The principles are applied on various design cases in which colour is highlighted as basic design tool.

DS  514 Communication and Design (3-0) 3                                                                         AKTS 7.5

This course explains why and how design should be considered a way of communication. This course enables students to comprehend communication theories and design concepts in relation to each other.

DS 515 Consumption Culture and Design (3-0) 3                                                             AKTS 7.5

The main aim of this course is to discuss the relation between consumption culture and design object. The course will undertake the emergence of production-based industrialized society, and then the transition from the production-based society to the consumption-based. The course will focus on design object not only as output of industrialized production but also as meta of consumption culture. The course will analyze the issues along with critical design samples concerning to how design object has become commercial meta being impersonal, objective, and independent from its consumer; how it has been utilized to mediate the mits and the fantesies for the sake of identity constructions.

DS 516 Craft and Design (2-2) 3                                                                                                 AKTS 7.5

The course examines the relationship between craft and design. The course covers the meaning and the state of crafts within the cultural and the social structure. The transformation of design and craft objects as well as the rebirth of craft objects will be discussed throughout the design history and in light of design philosophy. Craft is searched as a value and the theoretical and practical ways are searched to integrate design with craft.

DS 517 Creative Writing (3-0) 3                                                                                                   AKTS 7.5

This course covers various forms of creative writing from poetry to essays. By reading essential works of estabslihed writers as well as each other’s work, students will learn the fundamentals of creative writing and improve their critical thinking and writing skills.

DS 518 Cultural Analysis of Design (3-0) 3                                                                              AKTS 7.5

Design is defined as a form of cultural production in the course. Students are expected to analyse various everyday objects with reference to cultural codes.

DS 519 Cultural Studies (3-0) 3                                                                                                    AKTS 7.5

This course aims to introduce students to the basic concepts, analytical techniques and interpretative frameworks in the field of Cultural Studies. It will specifically focus on cultural processes and how artifacts are created, produced, distributed and consumed. Students are expected to understand the broader social, aesthetic and political contexts of cultural production.

DS 520 Design(art) as Critical Design Practice (2-2) 3                                                   AKTS 7.5

Critical Design Practices create practical, material and textual productions to discuss the discourses concerning to daily life, culture, nature, production, consumption, locality, globality, technology, phenomenology, etc.  The productions are named as designart which are the mediators between theory and practice and also art and design. Similarly, this course will be based on the interaction of theory and practice. The course will focus on theoretical cultural issues and then produce critical practices as objects.

DS 521 Design, Domesticity and Daily Life Objects (2-2) 3                                          AKTS 7.5

The aim of this course is to discuss the tensioned relationships between domesticity-modern design and design-daily life objects. The course focuses on the relationship between design, domesticity and daily life objects. The course discusses the ways how design as a one of the object types of material culture become daily life objects in domesticity context. Use value of the objects, and the humility of the things are the phrases to be examined along with design and daily life objects.

DS 522 Design History (3-0) 3                                                                                                      AKTS 7.5

This seminar will theoretically and methodologically prepare graduate students in studying design objects in their historical contexts. Through a focus on the texts that discuss disciplinary boundaries of design history, students will learn major approaches and questions of the field, discover its relation to other fields like art history and material culture.

DS 523 Design in the Context of Modern Art and Society (3-0) 3                             AKTS 7.5

The period in which industrial design as we know it now originated – the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century – was characterized by the rise of modernism and modern art. In this course the development of modern art, and its parallels with and repercussions on design will be reviewed; there will also be attention for philosophical ideas and political ideologies that are related to the design and art of the period in question. The journey will lead from the emergence of impressionism in Paris, the city that dazzled the world with fashion and engineering feats like the Eiffel Tower, via cubism and constructivism to Anselm Kiefer’s Lead Airplane and digital art of the 21st century.

DS 524 Design Management (3-0) 3                                                                                          AKTS 7.5

The main objective of this course is to emphasize the relationship between design, business and management in design institutions. In order to create a strong corporate identity, it is described in detail how to perform a correct management of the relationships between innovative design process, design and organization of other activities. The ways of making design presence apparent within the corporate structure are taught through a strategic planning and management.

DS 525 Design Models, and Methods (2-2) 3                                                                        AKTS 7.5

Course focuses on one of the current design models and methods: emotional design, inclusive design, service design, co-design, etc. Students develop a design project along with a selected approach. When the model is emotional design, the terms of physio-pleasure, psycho-pleasure and socio-pleasure are discussed. In the context of inclusive design, cognitive, motor and sensory skills are examined. With service design, the processes of planning and arranging people and designing infrastructure between user and provider and all material components concerning to service are issue of design. For Co-design approach, problems and solutions are determined by a wide range of people who are stakeholders. The course is considered also to be open new models and methods.

DS 526 Design Thinking and Innovation (2-2) 3                                                                AKTS 7.5

The course is based on the relationship between design thinking approach and innovation. The six  phases of the approach are examined: Setting emphaty, Problem definition, İdea generation, Prototyping, Testing, and Evaluating. The phases of this approach are experienced along with various techniques and design exercises in the context of innovation.

DS 527 Fashion Theory (3-0) 3                                                                                                    AKTS 7.5

The course will be originated in the basic frameworks of fashion theory: behavioral phenomenon in a variety of material and non-material contexts; an object and a process; fashion mechanisms which develop on contemporary and classical literature. One of the frame along with a design case is selected for each student to analysis and examine the context.

DS 528 Innovative Materials (3-0) 3                                                                                         AKTS 7.5

Advanced materials are critical to many industrial applications. This module explains why different materials are employed for production of different engineering components and how materials processing and structure contribute to the properties which will determine total system performance. The module will cover both ferrous and non-ferrous alloys, metal, polymer and ceramic matrix composites along with their productions and applications. By the end students will be able to explain why each of these novel materials are suitable and select an appropriate family of alloy and composite for a given industrial design application.

DS 529               Intellectual Property Rights and Design (3-0) 3                                   AKTS 7.5

The course aims to teach students, theoretically and by cases, the concepts of intellectual property and design law which are acquiring increasing importance both in Turkey and around the world. It encourages students to do scientific research on the topic aiming them to gain insight about intellectual property and design ethics.

DS 530               Introduction to Science and Technology Studies (3-0) 3             AKTS 7.5

The seminar is an introduction into the theories that concentrate on the interaction between social context and the development of scientific knowledge and technological innovation. Students explore various schools that explain the interactions between social actors and scientific and technological developmens and develop a critical perspective of the relations between science, technology and society.

DS 531               Key Themes and Debates in Media Studies (3-0) 3                             AKTS 7.5

This course sets out to teach students basic media literacy skills by helping them develop conceptual tools to think critically about the content and form of various media from cinema to the Internet. It particularly focuses on reading media texts from various theoretical perspectives.

DS 532               Materials in Design (3-0) 3                                                                              AKTS 7.5

Material has always been essential component in human life. From basic hand tools and daily life objects such as chair and table to the complicated appliances, the material has always been transformed into the objects/designs by human beings. In this course the primary role of material as physical, mechanical, chemical existences in the production of objects/designs and the context of functionality will be discussed. In addition to that, the interaction between material and user and the contexts conceivably related with subjectivity will be questioned. Selected designs/objects with the generic (advanced plastics, nanomaterials, organic materials, etc.) and commercial names, and their common use ways, typical production methods and well-known aesthetics, psychological, social and individual values will be analyzed.

DS 533               Novel Interfaces for Human-Machine Interaction (2-2) 3                AKTS 7.5

A project-based course that focuses on developing novel interfaces. Human-machine interaction; sensors and actuators; computer systems, mobile platforms, robots; non-conventional input (Kinect, Nintendo Wii) and output devices (VR, haptic displays); multimodal interaction; design project.

DS 534               Play and Toy Design                (2-2) 3                                                                            AKTS7.5

The course focuses on the duality, play and toy, which is necessary for children’s deveopment and well being. Play and toy types are examined in relevance of children’s ages.  Students develop a toy design according to a defined age group. 

DS 535               Politics and Aesthetics of Representation   (3-0) 3                               AKTS 7.5

The course explores the ways politics and aesthetics of artistic representation intersect. The critical and political potential of various artwork will be analysed within the scope of the course. In this regard, issues such as signification, identity, representation, means of production and ownership structures in artistic industries will be at the centre of discussion. 

DS 536               Special Topics in Design (3-0) 3                                                                    AKTS 7.5

The course content may vary each semester depending on the instructor’s and the students’ research topics.

DS 537               Sustainability and Sustainable Design Models(2-2) 3                       AKTS 7.5

The purpose of the course is to explain and discuss the concept of sustainable design which is considered to be one of the most significant issues of contemporary world in great depth. In this respect, the relevant theoretical background is presented by analysing sustainable design models.

DS 539               Wearable Technology (3-0) 3                                                                            AKTS 7.5

This course explores the rapidly growing applications of wearable technologies and internet of things. Smartphones, smart watches, commonly available sensors (GPS, accelerometer/gyro, microphone, camera, heart rate, radar, etc.) and related technologies; signal processing; daily activity monitoring; location-based services; communication protocols such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and their use in location tracking; ethical issues and privacy; novel wearable systems, smart textile garments, flex sensors; construction and data processing for smart fabrics; case studies from medicine, e-health, sports, fitness, motion capture and animation, dance, entertainment, and affective computing applications.

DS 538               UI and UX Design (2-2) 3                                                                                 AKTS 7.5

Course examines the similarities and differences of user interaction and user experience design.  Basic techniques, tools and concepts and are examined to improve design ideas in the context of UI /UX design: usability; social interaction; emotional interaction; user interface; graphical interfaces; tangible and wearable interfaces; data collection and analysis; data processing prototyping; evaluation and testing.