This research focuses on navigating the complexity of a modern approach to product development in the educational context, revolving around how to best equip future product developers. The PdP (Product development Project) course at Aalto University has been running for 25 years and is considered a success in what concerns Industry-Academia cooperation. Many changes have occurred in industry, education, and students' profiles during the last decade. Collaborative projects became substantially more complex and showed a significant degree of trans disciplinarity. This paper analyses the wide repository of data related to the PdP course to classify characteristics of industry project briefs and the nature of multidisciplinary knowledge used during their development. The findings suggest industrial partners favour providing design briefs with relatively high degrees of novelty and uncertainty in the course. It was also found that breakthrough types of projects have resulted in the most balanced disciplinary contributions to the project outcomes, whereas derivative projects have leaned on mechanical engineering. More conceptual research and development projects emphasize design and business, and platform projects have varied widely. The project typology and profiles can be of help to educators, students, and industry representatives alike in scoping and planning university-industry project-based courses. © Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education: Disrupt, Innovate, Regenerate and Transform, E and PDE 2022. All rights reserved.
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