Students awarded by leading design companies for responses to their real-world industry briefs

Building on our long-standing relationships with partnering industry contacts, six Design companies provided our final year students with a brief to respond to by asking them to work to a design and present an appropriate solution.

The companies setting the briefs were DCA Design, Cambridge Consultants, TTP, FSW, PDD, and Triton. Representatives from each of the companies visited the School of Design and Creative Arts to present their briefs to the students who then chose which brief to respond to.

Industry briefs are often launched to our students, and as part of this, the live projects module forms part of the students' final degree, whilst also providing the invaluable opportunity to connect with industry and work on real-world solutions.

An exhibition showcasing all of the design responses was held in the Design School building and on show for a few weeks leading up to a presentation evening where each company met with the students who responded to their briefs to provide them with feedback, as well as hosting an awards ceremony to announce their top students.

The winning designs to each brief were as follows:

DCA Design

Brief: Propose a physical product that a brand could launch to enrich lives and aid the cost-of-living crisis.
Winner: Will Everett, Product Design and Technology BSc
Response: Google Puck

Will Everett: Google Puck

Google Puck is a product and system for visualising streaming service subscriptions to allow the user to see what they are paying for at any given moment. The user can pause or activate subscriptions by removing or adding the ‘pucks’ to the board. The Puck service runs alongside a Modular ‘Buy What You Need’ TV system with a return and repair service for component repair and upgrades.

Cambridge Consultants

Brief: How might we help people build a better relationship with personal finance.
Winner: Karin Cheung, Industrial Design and Technology BA
Response: pengu

Karin Cheung: pengu

Pengu is smart device that teaches children 6+ the value of money in a digital cashless society. It's difficult to understand the tangibility of money without physical cash. Pengu makes digital money physical, so children can touch, play, earn, save, and spend to build financial responsibility. Giving them access to their finances by linking pengu to respective relative cards on wechat pay.

FSW Design

Brief: A solution for domestic roadside EV charging stations for housing environments with no off-street parking.
Winner: Liliana Duque-Alexandre, Industrial Design and Technology BA
Response: EV Charging Station

Liliana Duque-Alexandre: EV Charging Station

This EV Charging Station was designed to blend into any urban area where there is the desire to increase accessibility to charging facilities, taking inspiration from architectural elements, and incorporating different material panels that allow personalization for each location, whist also facilitating ease of repair and maintenance. This device also provides battery health tips to help users preserve and maximise their vehicle's battery life, in addition to the LED lights to increase the charging point's visibility and indicate plug availability.

PDD

Brief: How can the load on the NHS be reduced?
Winner: Rowan Myall, Product Design and Technology BSc
Response: The all in one at-home punch biopsy kit

Rowan Myall: The all in one at-home punch biopsy kit

After a virtual consultation, the kit allows patients to painlessly collect a sample of a skin lesion without the need for a hypodermic needle. Patients can easily post the sample to a lab to get quicker answers to concerns about skin lesions without needing to wait for an appointment. More than 50,000 punch biopsy procedures could be managed and completed entirely remotely, without any risk of patient non-attendance. Clinicians could focus their time on other aspects of healthcare delivery. The kit also facilitates earlier detection of conditions like Melanoma, BCC, and SCC, which saves lives and reduces the complexity of excision surgery and follow up treatment due to metastasis.

TTP

Brief: Design a product that provides an ambient healthcare experience for individuals.
Winner: Imogen Baggs, Industrial Design and Technology BA
Response: Stat

Imogen Baggs: Stat

Stat is an arm-to-arm bioimpedance testing device that aids in the early diagnosis of secondary lymphoedema, a condition that can develop in breast cancer survivors if damage has been caused to their lymphatic system during treatment. A small, painless electric charge is passed through the user’s body, indicating if there is a presence of lymphatic fluid in the users’ arms, which is an early sign of secondary lymphoedema. This process is integrated into a household thermostat, allowing the test to take place as the user changes the temperature on their thermostat. The results of the test are sent to the user and their doctor to allow for consistent monitoring for development of the condition.

Triton

Brief: Re-imagine showering in a net zero context.
Winner: Christopher Lim Xian Da, Industrial Design and Technology BA
Response: Triton Every%

Christopher Lim Xian Da: Triton Every%

Triton Every% is a tech demonstrator for a next-gen net-zero showering platform, built with sustainability at heart to make every per cent of the planet’s resources count. The concept builds its foundations on four key features: adaptive temperature, sensory augmentation, auto flow reduction, and mist shower technology. Each feature is designed to be self-contained, enabling independent implementation in future products to scale across different categories/price points. Combined, these features enable over 70% reductions in water and energy usage over a standard 10.5kW electric shower.

The exhibition was a successful event, where industry also gained the opportunity to work with our highly skilled and employable students and to tap into their knowledgeable, creative thinking, and original ideas. The School of Design and Creative Arts are proud to nurture a vibrant, innovative, and creative community of staff and students.

Professor Rebecca Cain, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation said that:

“It was amazing to see our students responding so professionally and creatively to these industry briefs.  This type of activity really gives the students a flavour of what it would be like to work on a professional brief to short timescales, and the students really delivered!  We are very grateful to our industry partners who gave their time and expertise to work with our students in both setting the challenging briefs and providing feedback to our students.”

Interested in partnering with us? Discover a variety of ways to collaborate with our students and staff on our dedicated webpage.