Mindhub for Intelligent Artificial Worlds at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Artificial intelligence is approached with critical judgement in the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid‘s specialised MindHub in Intelligent Artificial Worlds Foundations course.
Course details
School: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Course: Mindhub for Intelligent Artificial Worlds
Type: Postgraduate
Location: Online
Course dates: March 2027 to July 2027
Application deadline: 15 December 2026
Course overview
The MindHub in Intelligent Artificial Worlds Foundations (MIAWS) course at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid is a specialisation course that teaches artificial intelligence with critical judgement.
It is not organised around software, as tools shift continuously, but around the process of design, which remains constant. A future advanced course, currently in preparation, would extend it towards a full master’s degree.
The programme follows the phases of a real project: territorial analysis, design decisions, simulation, documentation and integration. It is fully online and live in English, with recordings of every session.
It comprises 10 modules and 240 taught hours. Each module lasts a fortnight and ends in a real deliverable, so students build a single project as they go. They learn to prepare their own data and to train and fine-tune their own models, rather than depend on a black box.
The course is offered by the UPM’s ETSAM school of architecture, with Arup and MCH Master in Collective Housing as founding partners. Foundations totals 30 ECTS and ends with a final project.
It is aimed at the whole AEC sector, including professionals and graduates looking to enhance their existing practice.
What will I learn during this course?
Students will learn to:
- set up an AI working environment and the mindset to use it
- use basic programming, data structures, databases and scraping to turn data into working material
- read and interpret a territory through geospatial data and AI-assisted site analysis
- capture or generate 3d geometry and modify it from natural language
- formulate a design problem as a system of rules, explore its solution space with comparative metrics and validate the chosen result against production constraints
- run structural, environmental and multi-system simulations, and validate AI surrogates against the engines
- explore early-stage design through hybrid workflows that combine AI, digital tools and analogue media
- automate documentation, from bim and openbim standards to specifications and compliance
- turn project, territory and simulation data into legible visual arguments
- integrate the whole programme into a bespoke, adaptive ecosystem for a final project
What are the requirements?
Applicants need a university degree or an equivalent that gives access to postgraduate studies in the applicant’s country, a portfolio, a CV and a short motivation letter, followed by a short online interview with the admissions committee.
What facilities and resources are available?
Classes are live and online in English, with recordings of every session. Enrolling is also an entry into a standing digital community of architects and AI practitioners, who stay in contact through the platform during and after the course.
Each module includes an expert talk with an international guest, and every student is assigned a mentor and technical and theory tutors.
The course runs on a learning management system built specifically for the programme, with live meeting rooms, session recordings, module content, discussion channels, a cohort directory, and a searchable faculty knowledge base.
Final course project sessions from the first course prepare the final project, and an optional in-person event during final-jury week rounds off the course.
What career prospects can I expect upon graduating?
Graduates leave with a competence still rare in the market: architectural domain knowledge combined with practical AI and software skills.
That combination opens roles as computational designers or as specialists in AI applied to architecture and engineering, in research and development at practices and construction companies, in simulation and digital twins, or in digital fabrication.
The final project also prepares students to start their own venture.
Who teaches this course?
Each module is led by practitioners and researchers working at the intersection of AI and architectural practice today, not by academics teaching theory alone.
What they share is hands-on experience: every coordinator has shipped a tool used in practice or a system deployed on a real project.
The programme is directed by architect José María de Lapuerta and co-directed by Sergio del Castillo Tello. Module coordinators include Federico del Blanco García, Carlos Chacón Pérez, José Ignacio Kempff Seleme, Manuel Monteserín, Antía F. Fernández and John Porral.
