Do you dream about creating your own digital startup but lack the business know-how to get everything going? Then an international master’s degree programme in Design and Development of Virtual Environments (DDVE) may just be the thing for you.
DDVE is a new inter-discliplinary initiative at the University of Tartu in Estonia that combines three key study areas; design, business and ICT. Taught in English, the two-year programme provides students with advanced skills in entrepreneurship for creating innovative digital products and services.
DDVE is aimed at everyone with an entrepreneurial spirit, not just tech-oriented programmers, developers and engineers. Applicants should, however, have some work experience in software development or product development and previous studies (bachelor’s degree) in the field of Information and Communication Technology, Design, Social Sciences, Economics, Business or Marketing.
The programme employs agile and lean startup methodologies to teach entrepreneurship in both theory and practice. Students get to work in teams to complete a series of development projects, some of which are commissioned by real companies and the public sector in Estonia. These hands-on activities are supported by theoretical studies of culture, social sciences, business and software product development.
The inaugural semester of the DDVE programme recently finished with four teams presenting their projects. The winner of the fall project competition, GameON, has a public beta out for its sports team management service.
Interested in applying for the programme? Next year’s application deadline is April 16th, 2012. Detailed information is available here.
