MDes faculty and students at Woodhaven Regional Park.
After years of collaboration, planning and community engagement, UBC Okanagan’s Master of Design (MDes) program has welcomed its inaugural cohort of students.
In the letter below, Professor Dr. Kenneth Chau and the MDes Team reflect on the journey to launch the program and the vision for MDes as a change-making place where students, faculty, partners and communities come together to explore new possibilities and design better futures.
Welcome to the MDes Community
Dear MDes Community,
For years, members of the UBC and broader Okanagan community, including students, faculty, staff, industry partners, artists, entrepreneurs, and community leaders, have helped shape and support the vision for the new Master of Design (MDes) program. Recently, that vision became more real as we welcomed our inaugural cohort of students.
What began years ago as conversations around creativity, entrepreneurship, human-centred design, and experiential learning has now crystallized into a diverse and engaged community of students, educators, partners, and builders coming together to explore how we might design better futures for our communities, organizations, and ourselves.
Orientation began unconventionally: with faculty making pancakes for students at Woodhaven cabin, surrounded by forest, conversation, and the feeling that something new was emerging. Throughout the morning, students connected and began making weekend plans, discussing projects, and imagining possibilities together. Faculty left energized as new ideas, collaborations, and opportunities emerged throughout the day.
It already feels less like a traditional graduate program and more like a living studio for experimentation, creativity, and connection.
We were also joined by our first community partner, Dr. Nancy Holmes, founder of the Eco Culture Centre, who guided the cohort through Woodhaven Nature Conservancy Regional Park and introduced students to a real-world challenge grounded in the local landscape: wetland restoration within Woodhaven itself. It was a powerful reminder that good design begins with listening deeply to people, place, ecology, and community.
The students joining the program come from diverse backgrounds spanning computer science, design, arts, technology, education, and community practice. Yet despite these differences, a common thread runs through the cohort: a desire to build meaningful things, work across disciplines, engage deeply with people and communities, and grow both professionally and personally.
Over the coming months, MDes will become increasingly visible as a change-making studio embedded within the Okanagan. Students will not simply be assigned projects, they will actively shape relationships, identify opportunities, frame meaningful problems, and co-create new possibilities alongside community organizations, industry partners, entrepreneurs, artists, educators, and researchers.
Some upcoming activities we’re excited about:
- Conversation with Dr. Will Hughes on “Innovation and Love” and the wicked challenges in higher education
- Conversation with Dr. Susan Crichton on “Asking Good Questions” and why programs like MDes are needed more than ever
- Visit to the Schnewips Heritage Museum to engage the cohort in local stories, cultural memory, and place-based learning
- Visit to Lake Country District to explore the real-world infrastructure and development challenges that keep Director Matthew Salmon up at night
- Visit to Kelowna City Hall to discuss civic innovation and organizational transformation with Andreas Boehm
- The UBCO Map the System Competition and Lego Serious Play Activity led by Dr. Nadine Ibrahim
- Okanagan Angel Summit 2026 forum and finale to expose the cohort to the region’s entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem
More than anything, we hope to create a space where curiosity, courage, creativity, and human connection can flourish.
To everyone who has supported, encouraged, collaborated with, or simply believed in this vision along the way: thank you. We are excited for what comes next and look forward to building this together with the broader community.
If you would like to visit the cabin and studio, connect with students, share a project or community challenge, invite others into the conversation, or simply see what is emerging, we would love to hear from you. As our friend Susan Crichton commonly shares, “none of us are as smart as all of us”.
With optimism for what lies ahead,
Kenneth Chau and the MDes Team
about the Master of Design program
The UBC Okanagan Master of Design (MDes) program brings together creativity, human-centred design, entrepreneurship and community-engaged learning to help students tackle complex challenges and create meaningful impact.