Your study programme

Studyload

Approximately 40 hours per week. Combining project work, learning line courses, coaching and self-study.

4 challenges and graduation

Each challenge is open-ended; there is no single right answer. You work in teams, combine all five learning lines, and present your outcomes to real stakeholders. Complexity increases deliberately each time:

Challenge 1

Individual level. "Me, myself and data": you help a fellow student understand their daily habits through a self-built data collection and visualisation system.

Challenge 2

Group / organisation level (outside). First real collaboration with an external organisation. You translate digital technology possibilities into practical, sustainable solutions for a professional context.

Challenge 3

Company level (inside). You work inside an organisation, navigating internal culture, stakeholder dynamics and the full complexity of real digital transformation in practice.

Challenge 4

Ecosystem level (outside). Year 2 opens with a big one: a challenge at the level of a whole sector or ecosystem. Think healthcare, smart industry or urban transformation. You combine technology, ethics and design at a scale you haven't worked at before.

Graduation

Ecosystem / company level (your choice). You spend 20 weeks at a company of your choice, working on a real problem from start to finish. You define the question, do the research and deliver something the company can actually use.

Year 1. Three challenges. From data to digital transformation inside organisations

You start with 'Me, myself and data': building a data collection system for a real user and turning raw data into meaningful insights. Then your first collaboration with an external organisation, translating digital technology into sustainable solutions. Your third challenge takes you inside a company, navigating culture, stakeholders and the full reality of digital transformation in practice.

Year 2. One major challenge and a 20-week graduation project

In Year 2 you take on one big, complex challenge, working at the level of a whole organisation or sector. Then comes your graduation: 20 weeks at a company of your choice. You define a real design question, do the research and deliver something that works.

Your lecturers are active researchers, and that feeds directly into your challenges.

The master is connected to the research team Systems for Transformation and the lectorate Industrial Engineering and Entrepreneurship at Fontys. Your lecturers work on live questions with real companies, and what they find feeds into your challenges.You are not just a student here. You are part of a team working on problems that do not yet have answers.

Frans Fonville: Coordinator Master DTE and lecturer Digital Technologies. Frans works with SMEs to improve their digital maturity through data analytics, machine learning and predictive maintenance. In the Brainport Region he runs masterclasses on data-driven manufacturing and supports care organisations in scaling smart care technologies.

Jeroen Keijzers : Coordinator Master Graduation and lecturer Practice-Based Research. Jeroen's background is in design research and innovation management. He focuses on the socio-technical aspects of digital transformation and develops tools to help SMEs navigate it.

Stella Lo Giudice: Research lead and lecturer Digital Technologies. Stella combines expertise in data analytics and intelligent systems with a strong interest in human behaviour. She designs workshops that equip students with tools for tackling complex, real-world challenges.

Ralph Peters: Lecturer Systems Engineering. Ralph brings over twenty years of experience in engineering, consultancy and education. With a background in aerospace engineering, he blends Lean and TPM-inspired methods with business and human factors, preparing students to work effectively across disciplines and cultures.

Eveline Vervoort: Lecturer Design-Based Working. With a background in Industrial Design, Eveline specialises in Design Thinking. She helps students tackle complex problems that do not have a textbook answer and prepares them to become confident, self-directed professionals.

Milou Kauffman: Coach Personal and Professional Identity

Yelda Öztürk: Coach Personal and Professional Identity. Yelda's background is in positive psychology and well-being. She helps students explore their identity and build resilience, confidence and self-awareness for dynamic workplaces.