Industrial design studies at Georgia Tech began as a part of Architecture curriculum in the College of Architecture (COA) in the late 1940s. These course offerings resulted in the formation of the Industrial Design (ID) Program within the College of Architecture in 1952, making this ID Program one of the oldest in the United States. The Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design (BSID) at Georgia Tech started with small numbers and has graduated over 500 students since the program inception. The student body consists of approximately 150 undergraduate students and 35 graduate students. The ID Program has five full-time faculty and 10 practicing adjunct faculty who teach specific coursework related to industrial design, such as materials and processes and the history of industrial design.

The ID Program's first director, Hin Braedendik, brought the influence of Bauhaus educational methods to industrial design studies at Georgia Tech, giving the program foundation studies and methodologies still evident in the curriculum today. Since that time, the ID Program has progressively gained national recognition through its graduates, industrial student projects, and more recently faculty expertise and involvement with the Industrial Design Society of America.

The Industrial Design Program is one of two in the country that reside within a technical institution such as Georgia Tech. The other industrial design program, Carnegie Mellon University, is similar in curricular make-up to the Georgia Tech ID Program. The Georgia Tech ID Program is one of six programs located in the Southeastern United States.  It is the only industrial design program in the State of Georgia that resides within a public institution.