D-Schools 2007

Stanford University: Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, and the Product Design Engineering Program

Palo Alto, Calif.

300 students, both grad and undergrad
Design

Partnerships
Academic: Art, business, education, engineering, medicine, and social sciences at Stanford
Business: Private, public, and NGOs.
Top Employers: Google, Apple, IDEO, Monitor, Microsoft

Claim to Fame: David Kelley, founder, IDEO is an alumnus as are Jerry Manock, designer of the original Macintosh; and Perry Klebahn, founder, Atlas Snow Shoes.

Signature Programs: An interdisciplinary center offering classes to students from all fields at Stanford, the Hasso Plattner Institute puts pupils into interdisciplinary teams, where they work on ethnographic research and user-centered design for such corporate clients as Mozilla, Instant Ramen, and Timbuk2. Meanwhile, Stanford's product design undergraduate degree has been producing leaders in innovation for 50 years, including IDEO's David Kelley.