Global Design Factory Network / Newsletter No. 6
The global network consists of Design Factories that operate based on the same principles and philosophies and also provides the same familiar environments to operate in. Currently the network reaches and is present in Shanghai (Aalto-Tongji Design Factory), Melbourne (Swinburne Design Factory), Santiago (DUOC UC Design Factory) and Finland (Aalto Design Factory). The monthly Global Network newsletter brings you news and information from Design Factories all over the world!
Read more about the Design Factories global network and the different ways of collaboration from the ADF website: designfactory.aalto.fi/network/
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SDF SDF gaining momentum! The year 2013 has started strong in SDF. In January we welcomed the new interim co-director, professor Ilpo Koskinen to the team. Ilpo, together with co-director Anita Kocsis, has kicked off strategic development and planning. Ilpo is a great addition to the team bringing in expertise in research engagement. Simultaneously, the preparations for the start of the academic year are finalised. SDF is doubling in size as the Factory Manager Christine will be leading seven industry projects and over 60 students this year, 5 of which were awarded a Dean’s Design Factory Scholarship to support their course fees. New experiments with engagement of researchers in the projects will see daylight during the year staring in March. While most Aussies spend their summer break far from university, three troopers have frequently visited the Design Factory. Will, Carl and Sally, our PDP-goers and honorary Aalto students have been workshopping away all summer. More information about SDF can be found here: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/design/design-factory/ |
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ATDF Aalto-Tongji Design Factory settled down for most of February to enjoy the Chinese New Year, as the Year of Snake begun on February 10th. The new year begins with new big plans, as the Tongji Entrepreneurs’ Valley starts to rise around the Design Factory. New plans will no doubt bring also new opportunities for anybody who is interested to work or study in Shanghai, but only time will tell how and when these opportunities will emerge. More information in the next newsletter! More information about ATDF from the webpage of Sino-Finnish Centre (SFC): http://sfc.tongji.edu.cn |
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ADF ADF is again hosting various courses, supporting student project teams and developing its own activities, but it has also spread its wings and started co-operating with CERN in Switzerland. Design Factory and the Atlas experiment of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, started co-operation in January to design and build a new kind of environment for technology development. The new entity within Cern, IdeaLab (working title) is interested in applying Design Factory’s approach of bringing young researchers, students and companies together to work and share ideas to develop new technology that benefits not only Cern and their basic research but also the companies and the society as a whole. Technology transfer, quantum leaps, return on (human) interest are the buzzing words here. George, Harri and Tuuli have visited Cern in Geneva two times now to do initial needfinding, benchmarking, interviewing and location scouting. In February they were at Edusafe ITN and Talent ITN annual assembly to present their findings and to engage with the people involved in these two pilot projects which will eventually move to IdeaLab once the space is ready. In February and March Harri and Tuuli will be collecting some more data and working to produce service scenarios and design requirements for the new IdeaLab building. Also, Design Factory will host several visitor groups from Cern in the upcoming months to strengthen the collaboration. “This is extremely interesting project for us as we want to apply our learnings and tools in a technology centric field where research and development is 10-20 years ahead of what is available in the market today.” Harri comments enthusiastically. More information about ADF from the webpage: http://designfactory.aalto.fi |
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DDF DDF (Duoc Design Factory), hosted by DUOC UC in Santiago, is the fourth official member in the Global DF Network. The project was officially launched in November 2012 and now this new family member is also presented for the first time in our Global DF Network newsletter. In March, when the academic year starts at Duoc, the implementation of the Design Factory activities will start running on full speed at the San Joaquin campus, located south of Santiago. Two faculty members of Duoc moved to Finland for a month to get to know the people and the facilities of the Aalto Design Factory and to learn about the passion, project and problem based learning. During this cold winter month, which is usually a nice and warm summer holiday in Chile, Andrea and Karen have been working with students, interviewed teachers and researchers, visited all Aalto University’s campuses and taken part to different courses and workshops with Aalto University’s researchers, teachers and other staff members. They have been able to collect valuable information and knowledge as various stakeholders have shared their own experiences and given great contribution to their learning process. Additionally, Andrea and Karen have been especially looking at the interdisciplinary projects, as they are also interested in launching an interdisciplinary Product Development Project –course in Santiago. As they get back to Chile, the staff will start to implement the learning outcomes and build the content to the DF space in headquarters of San Joaquin campus. They want to offer this inspiring place to work for the students as soon as possible. The plan is to develop the DDF project first for one semester and bring together disciplines from biomedical engineering, design, information engineering and other. Especially during this first semester full of planning, testing and new challenges, the support from the Global DF Network is warmly welcome. Stay tuned for the development process and news from Chile! |
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