The PDI program was formed out of a desire to integrate several strong tendencies in the academic offerings from RPI; Engineering education that could include a fully integrated STS-Social Analysis component, as well as (initially) an aesthetic component, was the driving force and the unique terrain of the emerging Design and Design Studies disciplinary world had just the right multi-disciplinary tendencies to fit this ambitious project within it.
Though classes had existed since at least as far back as 1993, the first of the intially 8-class studio sequence began in earnest as of Fall 1998, with the inaugural run.