Degree Show Catalogue 2022 School of Design MDes Fashion & Textile Design MDes Graphics/Illustration/Photography MDes Interior Design MSc Product Design Engineering
Our ground floor gallery space is shared across all our post graduate programmes providing a student driven, co-curated and collaborative reflective showcase. This exciting intervention will act as a taster for the individual programme shows that await above and beyond. This display will remain open a little longer than the studio-based exhibitions, affording next year’s students the opportunity to see the work of our latest graduates within this exciting multi-disciplinary format.
Introduction
Professor Stephen Bottomley Head of the School of Design A warm welcome to the School of Design’s Postgraduate show and this publication, one of the accompanying catalogues representing our master’s programmes within Fashion and Textiles, Interior Design, Product Design Engineering or Graphics, Illustration and Photography.
As a school we are all immensely proud of the achievements of our exceptionally talented and creative students. Collectively they have overcome the significant challenges of the Covid pandemic to attend and complete their post-graduate studies with us at the Glasgow School of Art. My sincere thanks to all our staff who have worked so hard to support them.
Whether on-line or in-person thank you for taking time to investigate the ideas factory that is the Glasgow School of Art’s School of Design and discover the vibrant talent who are the graduating masters of their disciplines in the class of 2022.
We are delighted that the Reid building on Renfrew Street houses a physical exhibition of the master’s degree shows across its many levels. This contemporary building, with its unique and individual architectural features, is a magnificent backdrop to the stunning work on display at the heart of this celebration open 2nd to 9th September. An online digital showcase also accompanies the physical exhibition and will provided further information and access for those unable to be with us in Scotland.
Craig Whittet Head of Department
Welcome to the PDE MSc Degree Show Booklet
“ The pace of the MSc is challenging, but thankfully also rewarding”
PDE is a balance, making the most of the cultural differences and the demands of the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow School of Art takes time, but these students don’t have the luxury of time that is part of our Undergraduate programmes. Therefore, the pace of the MSc is challenging, but thankfully also rewarding. The MSc year goes by incredibly quickly, it’s maybe a small part of the students overall educational experience, but it will have far reaching benefits that will be of great value for many years to come. We can see evidence of this in the amazing careers that our PDE MSc graduates have and the positive impacts they make upon our lives. Their experiences range from key positions in multi nationals to developing their own products and start-ups. The PDE department is looking forward to seeing and hearing what is next for this year’s cohort. On that note, and something that we say every year, keep in touch!
On behalf our students and everyone that has supported the PDE department, thank you.
Product EngineeringDesign
↘ faunaskis.com/zero-waste-skis ↘ alex@faunaskis.com ↘ Instagram: @faunaskis I am a product designer who throughout their studies has specialised in early development and healthcare. Industrial experience as a 3D printing engineer means I have the practical ability to prototype, design mechanical systems and produce for final manufacture. However, my most valuable asset is empathy. Conducting a range of projects which focus on vulnerable demographics, I have learnt to understand other people, learnt how to design socially sustainable products, and seen first-hand how the littlest things can really improve someone’s quality of life.
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I am a designer drawing on academic experience at undergraduate level in physics, with a materials specialism. I have employment experience as a structural technician, along with design and manufacturing experience from designing and prototyping a line of eco-conscious alpine skis, which was commercialised under the brand Fauna Skis. I have a keen interest in materials, manufacturing, and sustainability, and have applied this interest with elements from the taught courses in circular economy, composite design, human factors, service design, and engineering design to my project, which explores and creates a novel approach for a sustainable future for the alpine ski manufacturing industry. I believe that this approach could have a serious impact on an industry that in my opinion, has been slow to adapt to the climate emergency.
The rapidly changing climate puts the snow that skiers rely on for their sport at great risk, yet the ski industry has been slow to make radical change to play their part in securing the future of the sport. This project begins by looking at the current unsustainable life cycle of skis, noting the points of waste creation. Then, through a new design, these waste points are eliminated, while the fundamental mechanical requirements of skis and the changing needs of skiers are met. This is achieved through a 3-piece modular ski design, made from a fully reprocessable, injection moulded, natural fibre reinforced plastic ski body and highly recyclable steel edges, and a service design that gives value to capturing what was once waste.
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
In the UK it is estimated that over 2 million people of 75 years or older, live by themselves. Of this population, 23% of them are living and struggling with diabetes. Diabetes is a disease which can cause arthritis and sight loss, which can leave older patients having reduced capabilities. This lancing device is specifically designed so that users of limited dexterity can take their own blood sample safely and independently, allowing these patients to check their blood glucose levels more easily. Currently the NHS spend 10% of their budget on diabetes related issues. This product will allow the older generation to better control their diabetes and relieve stress from the healthcare system.
Alexander Fleming Alfie Talbot
Product design reflects social change and responds to productivity and productive relationships. However, it is also influenced by culture, laws, profit, and market. Considering all these factors is necessary and exciting, but we still need to think about the logic of these factors and what design Wisdommeans.tooth
7 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
extraction can be a very painful procedure and many patients fear the anaesthetic injection. This project focuses on reducing, or eliminating, the negative experience of the injection. Responding to this problem, I have designed a handheld dental TENS device to be used during the injection procedure. The product provides electric stimulation through the electrodes to reduce the pain signal from that area, while also distracting and relaxing the patient, reducing their stress. Considering the clinical environment and the dentist’s/patient’s behaviour, I have designed the product to be as simple and intuitive as possible to use to give patients a positive and pain-free experience, and designing the product form and application of materials to be fit for purpose. ↘ xuaw99@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/ao-xu-816011230/
During the past few years, I have learned the knowledge and skills of product design, service design and experience design, laying down the foundation for me to design a product service system, integrating software and hardware. That is why I’m interested in transportation systems and shared services, which relates to my values on design.
For me, design is the process of creating something that people need. It is analytical work; every step in a design process should be evidenced and justified. The product designer’s role is understanding people’s needs including users, contexts, and key issues. In a design project, it is important to reflect on our work to make sure it serves people’s needs and requirements, finding the best solution to satisfy their requirements.
Ang AowenGaoXu
The availability of shared vehicles has been growing gradually, but their utilisation is not high. What is stopping people from using more economical, environmentally friendly, shared cars? After some investigation, it was found that shared cars are considered less protective of peoples’ privacy: a camera in the car; car key that is not unique; the vehicle is used by many. To protect privacy of users, this project proposes a private car module with a shared power system. For individuals, it not only protects their privacy, but also reduces the shared cost of buying or leasing the transportation module. It promotes development of a shared car system, increasing traffic efficiency, reducing energy and resources consumption, and waste pollution.
Although I agree that product design should pursue the unity of commercial value and user needs, I also aspire to stimulate cooperation and a sense of equality through design. Product design could be criticised for encouraging private ownership of products, but design for the sharing economy breaks this monopoly of private ownership and turns people’s attention from consumerism and materialism to experience and enjoyment of life.
8THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
I’m a Product Design Engineer, from Glasgow, with a Physics background. I like to take influence from what I see around me, big and small. This year in Product Design Engineering has been a massive learning curve but one that I have enjoyed. It has taken me out of my comfort zone, but in the best ways possible. Initially having focused on more day-to-day applications at the beginning of the course, I have enjoyed the transition to more innovative and technically driven designs that are within the area I would like to work. Skiing is my favourite pastime and being able to combine a passion with a product has been a rewarding experience. My final project is focused on enhancing the user experience on mountains, adding an extra layer of safety. The climate crisis means that the weather is progressively more unpredictable. Whether you are a skier, a snowboarder, prefer on piste or backcountry, unobstructed vision is key, especially when the conditions can change in the blink of an eye. Odyssey are a pair of smart ski goggles designed to complement the user’s experience on the mountain whilst also keeping them safe. The industry-standard dual lens technology is elevated by the addition of a graphene layer that is heated; triggered by humidity sensors to tackle the effects of lens fog. Additionally, fitted LEDs provide navigation indication via GPS, and controlled through an app. To ensure optimum user experience ambient lighting sensors adjust the brightness of the LEDs based on the level of natural light.
As a Product Design Engineer with a background in Mechanical Engineering, I am keen on finding a technology-problem fit. I am devoted to discovering the depths of complex socio-economic problems and delivering long-lasting, sustainable, and sensible outcomes in the form of physical products. I believe that with interdisciplinary collaboration, we can reveal the undiscovered areas of design. Communication between the industry, the community of consumers, and the government can lead to products that are required of this time and context. My major project is reflecting on the complex supply chain of fresh produce and opportunities, making it simpler and keeping nutritional security at the core. As the global population grows, conventional agriculture will require support to provide sufficient food and nutrition from the agricultural industry. Looking at the complex supply chain requiring long-distance transportation and refrigeration in the fresh food sector, we need an urgent solution to provide nutritional security. My focus in this project is to build a modular growth capsule that is robust, and scalable to feed an ever-growing urban population by producing hyperlocal food within the city limits. Employing surplus city resources and passive systems for controlling the growth environment to produce food all year long offers a promising way of supplementing conventional agriculture. With advances in technology in this field, I see a bright future for urban farming with increasing feasibility.
↘ caitlinryoung@hotmail.co.uk
Ashmak Moon
Caitlin Young
↘ volcanicashmoon@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/ashmakmoon/
Chen ChinenyeZhangObioha
9 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
Knee injuries account for over 50% of all sports related injuries. The current bracing and support system causes further discomfort in patients, and there is a lack of patient compliance due to difficulty in performing the required physical therapy. Koena is an improved solution for bracing and support of knee injuries. It is a functional brace that has been designed to assist athletes in proprioceptive rehabilitative therapy by recording and storing data during motion for a comprehensive physical therapy routine tailored to each individual and creating augmented feedback for the user. The product also acts as a tool for assisting in pain management and reducing the occurrence of bruising, atrophy, and muscle spasms through a series of stimulation techniques.
↘ c871011266@gmail.com
As a product design engineer with a background in communications, user experience design and consulting, I have developed an eclectic range of design influences. I enjoy creating aesthetically pleasing products while exploring the relationship between the form and function from a user-centred perspective and paying close attention to the materials used as a major consideration for sustainable design. I have taken a keen interest in the design of medical, interior & lifestyle, and fashion-related products. My work this year was focused on the field of biomechanics and sports science by assisting recreational and competitive athletes recovering from knee injuries in rehabilitative therapy.
As a product design student, I’m used to observing people’s lives and how people interact with various products. I have always aspired to design products that can improve the quality of people’s lives and are easy to use. I am interested in interactive product design, and I believe technology is an important support for product design. In this project I have focused on taxi driver’s health and driving posture.
Being a professional driver is a compulsory sedentary occupation. A taxi driver can spend nearly ten hours sitting in a car every day. Prolonged driving makes many drivers physically uncomfortable. However, many drivers are unaware of how changing or correcting their driving posture can help reduce physical discomfort. I have designed an interactive car seat cover that utilises load cells which measure weight distribution within pre-set value ranges in the seat and which gives vibrational feedback to the driver to prompt them to positively adjust their posture.
↘ obiohachinny@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/chinenye-obioha
10THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
↘ indraneildesign.cargo.site ↘ indraneildesign@gmail.com
Dialysis patients might faint or feel nauseated and dizzy due to low blood pressure in the body after hemo-dialysis, which is performed three times a week. It can be a very challenging task for the caregivers to transfer the patient between car and dialysis units, especially for a non-professional caregiver such a parent, partner, or a child of the patient. The current solutions act more as passive solutions, i.e. additional equipment that is used with the wheelchair itself to transfer patients. In this project, I am attempting to re-design the basic structure of a wheelchair, to come up with integrated active equipment which can be used to transfer patients between bed/car and wheelchair.
↘ harshiljogi96@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/harshil-jogi-4333a818a
Harshil
For me, it will always be about how my journey (process) has been and not my products; perhaps my stories and experiences will be my only accomplishments. My perspective toward success changed during my MSc PDE. Knowing how to handle the discomfort of uncertainty, disorientation, and sometimes paradox during the design process is what I have learned during this course, and am still learning. With my skills as a product design engineer, I am enthusiastic to take up challenging projects at the beautiful intersection of both of product design and engineering. As my major project, I explored the field of healthcare design, specifically the life of dialysis patients. My product Wheel+ is integrated wheelchair equipment for caregivers of dialysis patients, to easily transfer their patients between bed, wheelchair, and car.
The MSc PDE course has helped shape my outlook on design, engineering, and life itself. It’s the context we design for that should be the focus of our creations. With this ethos, I like to add my own flavours of playfulness and humour; creating products that invoke emotion, engagement and build sentiment. For this project, my goal was to create a product that can help children learn a language through music. For children who arrive in a new country, but not speaking that language, starting a new school can be daunting. Music can be an effective way to teach a new language (like English) faster, while creating, collaborating and communicating. My product, Enzo, The Elephant, generates music whilst engaging students in a fun activity. Enzo helps students learn new words by correlating them to specific melodies. By using generative audio programs, the device can create endless possibilities in association with the tags (on objects) which assist the teacher in fun, collaborative learning.
IndraneilJogiGhosh
11 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
Jin
This project has been a fantastic experience in my design career. I have enjoyed every step, even if it has kept me busy and sometimes exhausted! I was excited to combine two of my key areas of interest, plants and the ‘smart home’. I enjoy talking to my target users, and always learn a lot. I enjoy using different techniques to bring my ideas to life after research and consulting users, it’s really cool! I enjoy the step-by-step growth of my own designs. I am so glad that after six years of my design studies I can still maintain this love! I look forward to continue doing what I love to do, in the future.
JunyaoChenWang
A good product should be user-centred, useful, and useable, which has always been my guiding philosophy. As a designer, I appreciate putting myself in the position of the user in the design process, with empathy and understanding. This way of thinking inspires me with a lot of creativity and ideas that are user-centred. As an engineer, I am fascinated with ingenious mechanics and the simplest and most effective solutions to challenges. In my major project, I focused on those who had cognitive impairment and aimed to assist the user and his family in identifying normal aging from dementia for early treatment. If dementia is diagnosed at an early stage, the patient could live as normal for seven to ten years with medication, or even reverse it. Unfortunately, most patients with dementia are generally discovered at a late stage, living just three to four years with associated with aggressive tendencies and significant memory loss. Therefore, early diagnosis is crucial to reducing this problem. To determine whether a person is at risk of developing dementia, this product tracks and analyses the person’s reading behaviour, including eye movements, time spent reading, and frequency of reading. If there are abnormal behaviours over an extended period (one or two months) then a recommendation would be made to contact a doctor for further diagnosis.
The project concept is a ‘plant cyberpunk’ that combines plants with smart homes. ‘PLET’ is a smart plant housekeeper with a personality. It is designed to control domestic appliances at home by analysing the electrical signals of the plants and interpreting this as a way of understanding their feelings about their environment. At first, users select plants that have the roughly the same temperature preferences as they do. In the home environment the plant will then be enabled to monitor and ‘control’ the air conditioning, curtains, lights and so on according to its own preferences and the users’ preferences. But if you adjust the temperature to too cold or too hot, the plant will be angry/upset and will attempt to change this back to its own preferred temperature! But it is actually for your own health and wellbeing.
↘ chenjinjin0412@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/jinchen2022/
↘ wangjunyao26@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/junyao-wang-2a35a7246/
↘ lucych0112@hotmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/lucy-chen-7b2933240/ Li
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PerPain is a personalised pain scale device for more objective pain assessment and management. Pain is too subjective to be well described, which causes many cases of misevaluation. PerPain uses AI scanning technology to achieve more accurate pain assessment by capturing the patient’s micro-expressions and micro-motions, as well as changes in heart rate and breathing rate. PerPain can measure a patient’s pain threshold to exclude extreme sensitivity to pain. Compared with the traditional methods, PerPain not only reduces the possibility of errors in subjective judgments but also varies from person to person. It provides a more objective and accurate reference for GPs and a more convenient and quicker way for patients with chronic disease to record their pain diaries.
↘ dropbox.com/s/ob81xocvm5i74vv/ Portfolios2022-LI%20XIONG.pdf?dl=0 ↘ lixiong19980202@gmail.com ↘ instagram: li_creations_x I can now confidently introduce myself as a product designer, graduating from GSofA with a MSc in Product Design Engineering, and being skilled in human-centred design, design thinking, product design engineering and concept communication techniques. I have a passion for design and the humanities, including social and cultural studies. I adhere to the responsibility and status of designers in the close relationship between humanities and design, which can also be seen as the reason I proposed focusing my major project on improving the life experience of visually impaired. I aim to keep a focus on actual user requirements and humanity values, apart from simply being a visionary, which will always be my design philosophy.
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
I am an enthusiastic and self-motivated product design engineer, always striving for more. Creating and taking challenges is my passion, which drives me to get involved in different fields. I am keen to explore the development of user-centred designs and propose new paradigms for innovative and sustainable products. My designs aim to balance the user experience, business, and societal challenges, and make positive changes to the community and for society. During my master’s, I have been trying to solve problems in daily life and improve the sense of happiness, especially for people who need help. Design is for a better life, and I am working for better design.
LuxiXiongChen
People with visual impairments are a significant percentage of the population today. Everyday experiences within this group, especially for those who live alone, have presented significant challenges. For those people, the cooking process mostly relies on personal adaptations or workarounds, as well as additional assistance, or aids. Safety during cooking has been considered seriously as a basic requirement, while no more details focused. Legibilis (late Latin “that can be read”) is a set of products combined with an integrated seasoning package and accompanying smart storage, which reduces the complexity of the measuring process during cooking while guaranteeing accuracy. This project focuses on human factors for visually impaired people, while also being inclusive to meet a wider variety of scenarios.
Maria MayowaModestouOlagbegi
A product design engineering student with a chemical engineering background, I began a discipline that would marry a latent interest in the arts with my engineering training. ‘Products’ are the lens that my formal education will be filtered through, although I believe that the principles of design allow me to apply the skills I have cultivated during this course into multiple industries. I am always looking to learn new skills, and uniquely apply what I have learned in a variety of situations. My project began with an ethnography study into the sensory experience of people, and what each sense means to them. My research focussed on smell to better understand the significance of the olfactory sense and its power in the domains of memory and emotion. I aim to add value to independent retailers who aspire to greatly enhance their customer experience, in an increasingly competitive market environment that is strongly monopolised by digital algorithms. Designing a product to augment experiences that stimulate more than just your audio-visual view on the world allows for richer experiences in post-pandemic world where citizens are craving something more real.
A product design engineer with a passion for creating designs that are sustainable and human centric. To me, it is most important that my designs are helpful to people in their everyday life while also creating minimal waste at the end of the product’s life. As a student working through the pandemic and slowly coming out of it, I saw many opportunities in how working in different spaces can change the way we work. Hence, I decided to investigate wellbeing in the working environment.
13 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
↘ Mayowa_ols@hotmail.com
↘ linkedin.com/in/maria-modestou-39685b244/
A lot of companies currently use hot-desking either as an opportunity to reduce the space they need, or as an anti-covid measure. I decided to take advantage of this and work on a way for every worker to have their own workspace anywhere, while also making it easier for them to have any personal items with them. Therefore, I’ve created a portable foldable worktop and storage solution that can be taken anywhere and used for any hot-desking situation.
↘ maria.mod03@gmail.com
↘ prakherjosan20@gmail.com ↘ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/prakher-js-josan/
Taking medicine on time as prescribed is essential to ensuring that your body maintains an adequate amount of the drug in its system. Otherwise, the disease can develop resistance to the medicine, or the time to recovery is prolonged. Up to 75% of people in the UK do not take their medicines properly, so the Smart Med Assistant is designed to keep your medication schedule on track. It ensures that the correct medication is taken on time, stores medicines in lab-like conditions, keeps stock of medicine available, and makes it easier to manage medicines on the go with a travel module. A patient’s doctor and loved ones can be kept informed of progress and adherence to the prescribed course of medication.
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Design and Engineering have always been subjects that have captivated me, design not only offers the ability to solve problems but also allows one to express themselves creatively and most importantly improves people’s lives. Studying at GSA has been a great opportunity for me to improve my abilities in thinking, researching, and idea delivery. Teamwork, problem-solving, leadership, and the ability to communicate in a clear & simple way, especially when talking about technical concepts are a few skills that I have improved during the masters. I am excited about taking my skills forward and gaining experience by working within industry.
DECIBEL-ESS is an attempt to provide active noise reduction for people who need temporary or modular solutions without permanent changes to their living environment. When in use, this flexible transparent sheet turns into a stiff surface that counter-vibrates to cancel out the noise from outside. With the current focus on personal living spaces like student accommodation and living rooms, users would be able to install DECIBEL-ESS on the windows just like a regular curtain without obstructing the view, creating a noise-free atmosphere for themselves.
↘ behance.net/rahulverma7
↘ verma203rahul@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/rahul-verma-0b1313100/ JS Josan
I am a chemical engineer turned product designer. Solving problems and improvising designs has always fascinated me. This year, I learned to understand what happens behind the scenes for an idea to evolve into a product. With an interest in user experience, electronic products, toy design, and furniture design, I am looking forward to exploring and learning new things in the field of design innovation and engineering. Most people rely on passive solutions like acoustic foams, basic earbuds, or soundproof glazing for noise reduction. These are effective but respectively expensive, uncomfortable, or permanent structures. White noise devices or noise-cancelling headphones also have limitations.
Rahul Verma
Prakher
14
Hi, I am a Design Engineer from Nanjing with a background in Mechanical Engineering. My current work and interests include consumer electronics design, transportation design and human-machine interaction. I aim to explore people’s roles in a changing society and to design products that bring both functional and emotional value to them through multidisciplinary skills and knowledge. I believe Design Engineers are responsible for not only seeking answers, but also new questions.
The world has changed a lot since men first walked on the moon in 1969. With the development of innovative technologies, people can explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. My project centres around a near future space travel project on the lunar surface. I have designed a process that allows lunar travellers to explore complex terrains. The cargo transportation and human-machine interaction involved are implemented through an unmanned lunar rover. It can autonomously transport the necessary instruments for surface exploration and traverse complex obstacles through its biomimetic structure and deploy necessary equipment to enhance the user experience at the destination.
Ruiyang Liu Wang
Shuo
↘ ruiyang.liu42@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/ruiyang-l-8682b6150/
↘ wshuo9001@gmail.com
15 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
I used to be a mechanical and electrical engineer, working to solve mechanical engineering problems. In this year’s master’s study, I not only gained knowledge of product design, but also changed my perspective on observing things and solving problems. Compared with mechanical design, product design systematically tries to solve problems on a larger scale. I am interested in changing the user experience and background of products to better meet the needs of users and solve problems. In this master’s project, I tried to increase people’s willingness and enthusiasm to plant trees in a sustainable way. Glasgow Council aims to increase Glasgow’s urban tree cover from 16% to 20% by 2030. Achieving this goal will require the efforts of all Glasgow residents. In addition to professional tree-planting organisations, the main groups of tree planters are residents, school children and volunteers. However, according to my research, some groups, such as current college students, have little experience of planting trees. Therefore, my product hopes to increase people’s willingness to participate in planting trees so that users do not have to wait passively for some tree-planting organisation to organise activities. I hope they can find the right place to plant trees through my products, get the proper tree planting knowledge, and plant trees in a more convenient way.
Sujal Agrawal
16
↘ s.agrawal7@outlook.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/sujalproductdesign
↘ s.donnan1@student.gsa.ac.uk
Stuart Donnan
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
I am an Edinburgh-based Product designer with a background in Mechanical Engineering. When combining my background with the MSc PDE course I started seeing things through a different lens. Training as a designer has driven me to stop thinking in terms of problems and start to think in terms of solutions. I have an interest in sustainable design and strongly believe that all designers should be working to the ethos of designing a product that will last forever or will not leave a trace behind once its life is over. This project attempts to tackle the unsustainable nature and impact on the environment of the hiking footwear market. The aim of this was to innovate upon the shape and construction of the classic hiking boot. This has been achieved through materials research into much more sustainable and eco-conscious material choices, combined with a design that focuses on reparability by ensuring that if any part of the boot wears out it can be easily replaced or repaired and therefore extending the lifespan of the boot almost indefinitely.
I am a product design engineer with a background in mechanical engineering. I use mindfulness and slowness in my design practice and design thinking to evaluate problems and generate sustainable userfriendly products. Through this master’s programme, I have developed a heightened sense of responsibility for using a circular design approach and understanding human factors, which I never thought of with an engineering mind. However, the most rewarding part of being a designer is creating meaningful products to improve people’s lives. Seeing them use my products drives me to produce the best results and to keep honing my skills.
I’m fascinated by sleep and its function in daily life, more so about sleep deprivation problems. One such problem is drowsy driving, which is responsible for about 25% of all road crashes. To address this severe issue, my project is geared towards making a retrofittable gadget that can be installed in any car. It not only detects drowsiness but also assists drivers in staying awake to safely find a place to rest. It uses face detection technology (blink rate) combined with sensory engagement such as vibration and variable smell to maintain drivers’ vigilance when they get tired, thereby providing a reliable solution for long journeys and tiring rides.
One in ten households have no working smoke alarm, meaning ten percent of domestic fires are not alerted quickly. This heavily reduces the chance of a successful escape. Mobile Refuge helps its users gain an extra hour to survive in an environment filled with smoke and toxic air, staying alive long enough for help to reach them. Designed for a person with limited mobility, the Mobile Refuge shortens the transfer time between the bed and safe refuge. As it can be difficult for this person to crouch in a low space to avoid smoke, the Mobile Refuge is designed to get them closer to the ground and provides life-saving equipment, lighting, and an alarm to help firefighters locate them quickly.
As an inquisitive person, curiosity powers my ideas. While logic brings them to life. I’m an engineer who loves to build. As a design student, I learned how to optimize what I build, for users. Science and technology interest me. I would love to work at the frontiers of design innovation. Juggernaut is a concept for exosuit gloves; its working principles can be extrapolated to a full body exosuit. The gloves are primarily designed to aid climbing. Wherein they enhance the hand grip power(strength) of a human hand. Achieved using artificial muscles, they are soft-devices that mimic the motions of a human hand. Mountain rescue is a tenuous situation, where many factors are at play. Generally, air support is unavailable and the injured party must wait for rescue workers to climb to the scene. Juggernaut can critically aid inexperienced climbers to reach the injured more quickly for first aid, which may be decisive in saving their life.
Szu Hua Chen
17 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
↘ issuu.com/365635 ↘ note2szuhua@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/szu-hua-chen-378834130
Originally from Taiwan, I am a practical, result-oriented product design engineer who loves to observe problems in our daily lives and create solutions that bring joy and convenience to people. During my year in Glasgow, I focused on implementing human-centred design processes, methods, and engineering theory. I aimed to improve user experiences by factoring in the human perspective. For my final project, motivated by the Grenfell Tower Fire in 2017, I chose to address domestic fire incidents as my topic. Through my research, I not only learned more about the incident itself, but I also gained insights into the difficulties experienced by disabled people when faced with a fire in their home. My project aims to improve their potential for survival.
Tanuj Piplani
↘ tanujpiplani@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/tanujpiplaniup
Tridib Ray
Since 2020, COVID-19 has changed many people’s lives. When in quarantine, most communication is through mobile phones, and people cannot even give or receive a simple hug. With HUGGIN, I have conceived a product that transmits physical contact over a long distance. The product senses heart rate and squeeze pressure and transmits it to another product through the internet. HUGGIN simulates the heartbeat and hug through motors. When people hug the product, they feel the heartbeat and hug of their loved one - physical feedback that enhances emotional communication. Couples use the product when watching movies, listening to music, and having video calls online. They feel the company and support of each other, which improves the experience of emotional communication.
↘
Tiansho Yang
tianshuoyang1@gmail.com
I am a Product Designer. I have a background in Architecture and four years of multi-sector experience in India in retail design, design research and teaching. I have worked within diverse teams, leading design development, and co-managing design incubation. I am currently pursuing a Master’s in Product Design Engineering at Glasgow School of Art, learning the engineering side of product development while enhancing my design skills in a multi-national and multi-disciplinary environment. Striving to apply and enhance end-to-end product design knowledge from visioning, form, user experience, manufacturing to marketing and management, I have arrived at the postulate of ‘autonomy being the evident future of humanity’.
I am a product designer and engage in people-oriented design that can enhance our daily lives. I am also proficient at using Arduino and other development platforms that help develop prototypes that verify my concepts. In my design practice, I aim to realise the value of products and improve the user experience by looking for the relationship between people and products. The challenge of my major project is to combine interaction design with product design to improve the core functions of the product.
↘ tridibray02@gmail.com ↘ instagram.com/trdb.ray/
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THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
Constant movement towards an era of post-naturalism, changes in our relationship to this planet by the emergence of significant technological developments, now comes the dawn of autonomous vehicles and robots. Autonomous delivery robots today are realising the concept of fully autonomous transit. Emerging in the time of the pandemic, these are now archetypal elements for sustainability, lowering transportation costs in a world of urban congestion and restricted parking spaces for loading and unloading commercial vehicles. But for adding a crowd of unaccompanied machines to a space that is intended for pedestrians (and is supposed to be designed for accessibility), there will need to be cognitive systems that induce amicable interactions and acceptance between the two.
I am an aspiring product design engineer from China with a passion for consumer intelligent products and user-centred design. I am keen on exploring how to better integrate technology into products through design to provide services for people. I believe that design can change the world and bring people a better life. My final year project focuses on how to help meditation beginners develop and maintain effective practice that can help them improve their mental health. As the stress of modern life increases and people are more aware of mental wellbeing, more and more people are trying the practice of meditation to improve their mental state. This project explores an intelligent product for beginners to practice meditation. It guides the breathing rhythm by interacting with users to help them enter the meditation state more effectively. At the same time, the product has Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Electrodermal Activity (EDA) detection functions, which can identify the effective meditation state of users during their practice. Users can check the levels of their meditation state through biofeedback transmitted to their smart phone, providing positive feedback to help motivate the person to continue with the practice.
Vinayak
XaiotengAroraLi
19 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
↘ linkedin.com/in/vinayak-arora01 va011297@gmail.com
Combining my interests in sustainable design, prototyping and usercentred design, my final-year project is focused on improving driver’s safety from the distractions that a driver faces whilst driving. The project is motivated by personal experience and the desire to develop a potentially life-saving product. ‘HUSH’ – (Head-Up Show Hielaman) is a modern day ‘car sun-visor’, that helps protect from the sun rays and also acts as HUD to display important information. This would result in all the essential information being displayed in the driver’s line of sight, therefore reducing the distractions that a driver might face during driving. Visual and cognitive distractions are the most common causes of accidents while driving.
I am a passionate and creative product design engineer, driven by two key aspects, curiosity and challenges, which have been fundamental to being where I am today. In my designs, I like to combine unique and creative ideas, pursuing a perfect balance between reality and imagination. I strive to create human-centric products that are pleasing to the eye without compromising on the performance, and where feedback and insights are paramount throughout the process. My favourite part of this course was, and is, the understanding of the design-process that goes behind the design and development of a product – right from research planning, to sketching, prototyping, and creating scintillating computer simulations. I am inclined towards a hands-on approach for problem solving, via iterative prototyping.
My product is intended to provide an improved, comfortable infusion (IV) experience for medical patients. It offers reduced costs through simple functionality and a rental model that may be applicable for various healthcare resources. The product is safe, cost effective, rechargeable and portable - deployed as a multiple device from a suitably located base/charging unit (in ward, nurse’s station etc). The design allows the infusion tube to be warmed to heat IV fluids to a suitable temperature that is comfortable to the body. The temperature-controlled process is monitored and is reassuring for the user and for medical staff. When the infusion is complete it is automatically, mechanically stopped and alerts the user and notifies the base at the nurses’ station.
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
Xiangyu
Xiaoyuan Sun
↘ harryxiangyu@163.com Jin
I am a designer from Shenzhen, China. I design products, animations, logos and even dishes. As a product designer, innovation and practicality are the most important aspects to me. I like to find design inspiration from my own experiences and find design opportunities in the way things work in the world and try to solve problems through innovative methods. Design can change the world. I always put the user at the centre of the design; hopefully they feel the care, consideration and unique thinking of the designer when using the product, and I believe this is a key factor in the product’s ability to touch the user.
The playing of traditional instruments is a fun and healing activity. This is the reason why many people learn to play instruments. But for people with physical disabilities, the disability should not be a reason to stop them from learning the instrument. The traditional way of playing the guitar requires the left hand to press the strings. The pressure must be at a certain level to make the guitar sound right. In my research I have found that many guitar players lose the strength to press the strings due to ageing or illness, and this stops them from playing their beloved instrument. This project allows the player to do this with a simple touch, using electrical circuits and some mechanical structures.
20
I am a product designer from China. I studied mechanical design engineering. Identifying problems that people encounter and solving them through design is what drives me in product design. My design philosophy is both innovative and rigorous, using creativity to generate interesting and innovative design solutions and realising them through rigorous technology. Every step of the design process feels particularly exciting to me. My main project was to address the fact that many guitar players do not have enough strength in their left hand to hold down the strings as they get older. This may seem like a small problem, but during my research I found that many people with too little finger strength also have this problem.
↘ sherry_sun150@163.com
↘ xuxuexiangbj@163.com
MSC
I am a practical product designer from China. In my four years’ work experience on Internet of Things products, several of my products have had sales of over a million. I was the winner of Red Dot, Good Design in 2019. The large sales number makes me realise how big a responsibility we carry for each design; a simple line we draw might be reproduced over a million times. Thus, I believe that justifying our decisions is essential to our design. And as for me: I love the journey to discover what people need and make it come true as a product. I have applied this journey to my final project. This product is aimed at strengthening a couple’s long-distance relationship. In my research, I have found that if each member of a long-distance couple shares the details of their lives with their partner, it will help them to understand each other and lead them to have more quality conversations. This product, worn as a pendant, makes it easy for users to make video and audio recordings of their feelings and what they did during the day. At the end of the day, the product will create a short video based on this record and send it to the partner. Thus, both partners can give more appropriate responses to each other.
I am a product design engineer from Taiwan. I like the process of creating human-centred products, and I believe that design is the most effective way to tackle human problems. During my time at GSA, I learned about the importance of merging creativity with engineering, as well as gaining essential knowledge and insight into the everyday responsibilities of a product design engineer. I am particularly interested in the cycling industry, and my major project is also related to bicycle use improvement. In the past few decades, bicycles have played an indispensable role in human life. Cycling also has well-established advantages for one’s health and the environment. However, bicycle theft has been a problem since the bicycle’s invention, and has become a social problem in many places. Bike theft has increased in recent years. Thieves can sometimes steal your bike even if you have locked it. This project attempts to improve the user experience while lowering the rate of bicycle theft. It can deter thieves from taking the bike by preventing the lock from being broken. If the lock is damaged, the handlebars are rendered useless and the bike cannot be ridden.
↘ a.yafangcheng@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/yafangcheng17
Xuexiang Xu Ya Fang Cheng
21 PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
I come from a multidisciplinary background and now work as a product designer. My study in material science, together with my professional experience as a car body engineer, has equipped me with a unique perspective on the product development and design process. I strive to develop solutions that not only provide users with a pleasant experience but also have a positive effect on their life. As a designer, one of my favourite things to do is to hear about the stories of others and learn about various cultures through practices such as humancentred design and design ethnography. People who work remotely enjoy greater workplace and time flexibility, but they also face the problem of isolation and a lack of the informal interaction with coworkers that used to occur in the office during coffee breaks and water cooler moments. This can be detrimental to health and well-being. In this project I intend to restore serendipity by providing opportunities for employees who work from home to engage in social interactions with coworkers. This product allows you to catch your work friends and coworkers who happen to be taking a rest at the same time as you for a cup of tea and chat, in much the same way as you would have bumped into them in the office kitchen until a few years ago.
I am a product designer with a mechanical background who enjoys exploring many different academic fields and embracing various human cultures through my studies abroad and experiences in Israel and the UK. Previously, I have worked in the field of scientific development of medical technology. My Master’s project explores psychology. The reasons for doing this project is I have known several people with depression since I was a child, and one of them passed away because of it. Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, it is estimated that 5% of adults suffer from depression, and is reportedly a factor in 50% of suicides. Fubetter was developed to help alleviate this type of Fubettermisery.is a product which combines breathing and mindfulness with aromatherapies to help people with depression to feel better during their low periods. It can be used at home or while travelling. The user selects an essential oil from the recommended list – a few drops within the top of diffuser. The product can be placed in the home, on its charging dock, or ready for travelling. When a person feels anxious or depressed, they pick up the device and breathe in deeply to sense the aromas. Breathing can be moderated by a light, to assist with relaxing and focusing on sensing the air flowing through their body. The product can be applied to specific areas of the body to enhance the feelings of slowly relaxing.
22THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART
Yalan Zhang
Yuting Bai
↘ yalanzhang20@gmail.com
↘ baiyuting2021@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/yutingbai
↘ behance.net/844109601d5f2 ↘ lobohu1114@gmail.com
Flying is by far the safest, and an efficient form of transport, but at least 1 in 6 people experience varying degrees of anxiety about flying. The product is aimed at the less frequent solo flyer. To have a deeper understanding of the problem, I communicated with many people with flight anxiety through the Internet and conducted interviews, focusing on their psychology, their behaviour, the effective methods they use and the precise times they feel anxious. The features that the product offers are providing more relevant information, offering a sense of companionship and relieving breathlessness in times of flight anxiety.
Zhihao Hu
I am a Product Designer from China with a background in Product Design and Engineering. I like to be creative and have a passion for visual experiences. I believe only by understanding users can we design products that provide better experiences. I am passionate about the product design process - using multiple methods to learn more about the problems and context that users encounter, step by step, to produce a product that actually improves an experience or solves a problem.
I am a creative product design engineer from China, with a strong interest and passion for electronic product design. I consider the natural environment and people’s lives and believe that the combination of design and technology can not only facilitate people’s current lives, and solve people’s current problems, but also extend to the future to change people’s lives. When designing, I consider the technical possibilities and human factors, paying attention to the user’s feelings and moods when using the product, to optimize the user’s experience. My Major Project focuses on the contamination of land by farmers’ excessive use of chemical fertilizers and explores a method of fertilization suitable for farmers on small farms. This product is designed to help farmers control fertilizer use. More than 70% of farms in the world are small family farms of no more than 1 hectare. Small-farm farmers rely mostly on experience in the use of chemical fertilizers and the demand for crops, which often leads to overuse of chemical fertilizers, resulting in land pollution and low crop yields. The Dev small-farm robot can help farmers quickly detect the Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium (NPK) content of the land, calculate the total required amount of fertilizer and the average amount of fertilizer according to the demand of crops, and then automatically fertilize the crops. Precise fertilization by robots can reduce soil pollution and help farmers save on fertilizer costs.
23 MSC PRODUCT DESIGN ENGINEERING
Zhijie Zhang
It is important for designers to have a keen eye for problems - during my GSA studies I learnt to focus on how to find issues overlooked by others.
↘ zzj305@gmail.com ↘ linkedin.com/in/zhijie-zhang-1a168a244/
Staff Portrait
The School of Design would like to acknowledge the contributions of postgraduate Core Research Methods and Elective course staff, the administration team, and GSA’s technical support staff who have all helped enrich the graduating students experience.
Headline is Triptych by The Pyte Foundry. Printed by The Newspaper Club on 55gsm improved newsprint.
Design:
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www.gsapostgradshowcase.net
Cover image: Xuexiang Xu Alan McAteer photography: Shannon Tofts Kat Loudon and Phoebe Willison
Studio Photography: