Information technology as a bridge between engineering analysis, visual design and informal education

The creation of a new graduate program in product-architecture, that fuses the design culture normally associated with architecture and industrial design with the engineering institution, has presented the opportunity to better prepare students for a paradigm in which design, engineering and its application merge as an interdisciplinary, collaborative endeavor. In turn this graduate program has been a catalyst to draw in undergraduates in traditional engineering disciplines to this new mode in higher education that also bridges the gap between: undergraduate and graduate education, visual design and engineering disciplines and the academic and professional setting. At the heart of this new approach is the effective use of information technology. This is illustrated through a project to design a museum building and multimedia exhibition to display a supersonic Concorde aircraft. The design of the building and of the interactive, multimedia exhibit take cues and content from engineering analysis of the aircraft design as it relates to sub-sonic and supersonic flight.