The future of mobility. Creating design leaders with the skills to influence.

The Intelligent Mobility MA programme builds on the rich history of vehicle design at the RCA, and places this within the context of a number of emerging social, cultural and technical changes. These include the shift to autonomous systems, renewable power, demographic changes and the increasing synthesis between man and machine. The programme defines and describes a paradigm shift which brings together existing fields with a design-led approach that addresses both physical and virtual aspects of the mobility space as an integrated whole.

We aim to equip students to deliver critical solutions to holistic mobility needs and issues. The core approach is translating techno-cultural challenge via intense creativity and research – building mature design and innovation propositions to meet new mobility opportunities. You'll work closely with mobility design practitioners, thought leaders and leading brands to ensure you have a thorough understanding of industrial practice and the opportunity to engage and influence critical questions relating to business, production and new models of ownership and use.

The aim of this commercial, connected approach is to create practice leaders within the ‘third age’ of automotive and mobility design and the broad spectrum of mobility services and artefacts – forming a new generation of designers who have both the skill set and mind-set to operate as strategic leaders with a broad range of abilities and insight about their own ‘point-of-impact’ on an increasingly diverse industry.

Programme Structure:

Term 1

The Humanising Technology unit aims to explore how recent transformational mobility technologies such as autonomy and electrification can be interpreted to provide new and desirable human interactions in mobility. You are expected to gain a profound and critical understanding of emerging technologies and their place in future mobility design.

People and Places provides a framework to understand how and where future mobility fits into a changing global landscape and how people and place connect through mobility. The unit aims to sensitise you to the scope and limits of different mobility typologies within the mobility mix and highlights the need for design to meet broader infrastructural and social requirements.

Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in AcrossRCA, the College-wide unit. See below for more details.

Term 2

Automotive Transitions Fundamentals focuses on the future of the automotive typology and asks you to reimagine how technology and social trends will influence future automotive design. The unit also allows you to select a specific area of focus and adopt an approach which explores techniques and questions unique to your chosen sub-sector.

You'll then take either a School-wide elective, or Automotive Transitions Advanced Practice. School of Design electives provide a very applied focus to the topics, through the execution of project activities you undertake by working in interdisciplinary teams which are drawn from across the School's programmes. Automotive Transitions Advanced Practice provides a deeper context to the key elements of future automotive design with an emphasis on advanced manufacturing, socio-cultural issues and questions related to future business models.

You'll also participate in the Grand Challenge, School-wide unit. The aim of this unit is to connect and challenge all students in the School through the introduction of a ‘wicked’ design problem that requires a cross disciplinary approach to problem solving involving an external international scientific or industry partner (or both). This unit and lecture series has been hugely successful in connecting and disrupting disciplines, people, philosophies and approaches to design thinking whilst providing our student body with very unique networking opportunities.

Term 3

The Individual Research Project asks you to identify, develop and address a defined research question which is both socially relevant and technically challenging. The work must be documented at all stages for public dissemination. You are responsible for the intellectual and technical evolution of this project and for leading the research and development of ideas and insights through different stages of the design process. This includes working out who the stakeholders are, how to research and the development of thinking through different media; notably from 2D to 3D and to an appropriate level of resolution.

Open Days and Student Recruitment Events:

To provide prospective students with opportunities to find out about the RCA experience and programmes we run a number of on-campus and online open days as well as events in various countries around the world. You can find out about upcoming events or watch replays of past open days on the RCA website.