Home > News and Events
News and Events
Seminars
The Design Group hosts a number of seminars during the year. Click on the links to find out about past and forthcoming seminars.
Forthcoming seminars
Seminar archive
Stephen Peake involved with Science Museum - Prove It! Exhibition
Added 22 October 2009
Stephen Peake acted as an expert advisor for the materials for the new "Prove-it" exhibition that was launched this morning. Stephen also attended an early creative workshop/brainstorm to help deisgn the visitor experience.
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/proveit/about.aspx
New edited book on 'Embracing Complexity in Design'
added 14 September 2009
Embracing Complexity in Design is a new book edited by Katerina Alexiou, Jeffrey Johnson and Theodore Zamenopoulos and published by Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group).
Outlining state-of-the-art developments in the area of complexity and design, this book collates them into a unique and authoritative resource for both the design and complex systems communities. The book is based on research which focuses on a variety of different themes and domains, including architecture, engineering, environmental design, art, fashion and management.
For more information check the publisher's website.
Peter Lloyd's new book 'About: Designing' is Published
added 9 July 2009
About: Designing - Analysing Design Meetings, a new book edited by Janet McDonnell and Peter Lloyd, has been published by Taylor and Francis. This cutting edge book derives from the research project Design Thinking Research Symposium 7: Design Meeting Protocols which distributed the same video data of actual design meetings to leading researchers in Design Thinking Research. 21 different analyses resulted, and are included in the book.
Stephen Peake Awarded Charter Studentship
added 8 July 2009
Stephen Peake, together with Robin Laney, has been awarded an Open University Charter Studentship in the area of in Climate Change/Design/Requirements Engineering. This interdisciplinary project will look at how computer systems can be developed that are sensitive to large-scale changes in the world around us.
Interested applicants, further details and contact information can be found on the group's Opportunities page.
PhD success for Gareth Paterson
23rd June 2009
Gareth Paterson, full-time research student in DDEM, has recently received notification that the OU has approved him being awarded a PhD, subject to corrections and modifications to the thesis. His thesis is titled ‘Form Generation in Design’.
Congratulations to Gareth on this achievement.
Claudia Eckert and Chris Earl's Journal Paper makes Open Research Online Top Ten Most Viewed
Added 12th June 2009
The Open University's Open Research Online (ORO) database provides downloads of all staff publications. Claudia Eckert and Chris Earl's paper on comparative design was one of the top ten downloads for May.
Blackwell, A. D, Eckert, C. M., Bucciarelli, L. L and Earl, C. F. (2009). Witnesses to design: A phenomenology of comparative design. Design Issues, 25(1), pp. 36–47.
Stephen Peake Talks Climate Change and Design at the British Museum
Added 12th May 2009
Stephen Peake will give a talk about climate change and design at the British Museum on Sunday 17th May. Stephen's talk will look at how creativity in the form of design and innovation has transformed the world and how it is critical to our coping with climate change and wider sustainability challenges that lie ahead. The talk will be illustrated with examples of ideas, attitudes, technologies, and processes that have shaped the world and will do in the future.
Further information about the talk
Steve Garner in Design Week
Added 29th April 2009
Design research at the Open University appeared in an article in the trade magazine Design Week describing Steve Garner's recent £196,000 grant from The Leverhulme Trust to look at how eye-tracking technology could recognise which parts of sketches the designer is interested in and automatically suggest developments.
European Conference on Complex Systems
Added 31st March 2009
Iain Kusel, a part-time PhD student in the group, is currently coordinating a workshop for PhD students at the Satellite Meeting of the European Conference on Complex Systems. The date of the meeting is 23rd September 2009 and will held at The University of Warwick, Coventry.
Green Jobs - Radio 4 Interview featuring Godfrey Boyle
Added 18th March 2009
Godfrey Boyle recently featured in an interview with Sarah Mukherjee, the BBC's environment correspondent. The interview was used in a feature about 'Green Jobs' and was broadcast on the Radio 4 programme The World Tonight on 17th March. Godfrey pointed out that the Open Universeity is already running courses on sustainable energy for professionals and the general public, but a lot more needs to be done if the 'Green New Deal' is to take off in the UK.
The Green Jobs piece is about 20 minutes into the programme
New Leverhulme-funded research: Designing with Vision
Added 3rd March 2009
Steve Garner is the PI on a new two-year project funded by The Leverhume Trust and which begins in May 2009. ‘Designing with Vision’ is worth £196k and will employ post-docs Miquel Prats and Iestyn Jowers. Alison McKay, Professor of Design Systems at Leeds University is the co-investigator.
The project will use eye tracking technology to identify participant interest in emerging sketch designs. Using a design shape computation tool (developed in a previous project funded by the AHRC) in conjunction with eye tracking the system should be able to use data on points of interest to offer designers variations on their preferred images as an aid to shape creation.
Given that much current commercial design concerns the definitions of product variations, knowledge from this project will also enable the automation of the process of generating product ‘families’ through shape conjecture.
Godfrey Boyle: The Oil Crunch
Added 17th February 2009
Despite the recent falls in oil prices, the world could still face an 'oil crunch' in which supplies fail to meet demand as early as 2012-2015. That's the conclusion of OU Energy & Environment Research Unit director Godfrey Boyle, in his contribution to a new UK Industry task force report 'The Oil Crunch'. Even before the price reductions, oil companies wreren't investing enough in expanding supplies. Combined with the effects of the 'credit crunch' and the need to meet the threat of climate change, what's needed now is a big investment in energy efficiency, combined heat and power production and deployment of renewable energy sources.
Peter Lloyd: New Associate Editor of Design Studies
Added: 7th January 2009
Peter Lloyd has been announced as one of two new associate editors for the leading journal in Design Research: Design Studies. Since it's beginning in 1979 the journal has built up a considerable reputation and now has a strong impact factor. Nigel Cross remains as Editor-in- chief with three associate editors - Peter Lloyd, Norbert Roozenburg, and Rivka Oxman - all together managing the paper review process for the journal.
RAE2008 OU Art and Design Submission 3rd in UK
Added 19th December 2008
Our submission to the 2008 Research assessment exercise was ranked 1st of all Open University submissions, and 3rd out of 72 Art and Design submissions. 35% of our work was graded at 4* (World Leading), with 45% graded at 3* (Internationally excellent). This is an excellent result, and confirms our position as one of the top group of design researchers in the UK. Submissions to all three previous research assessment exercises have achieve a '5' rating.
RAE2008 Art and Design Ranking (All Institutions)
RAE2008 Open University Submissions
New Transport Research Projects
Added 15th December 2008
Professor Stephen Potter has secured a €73,100 grant for our contribution to the CEC FP7 project 'User-driven Stimulation of Radical New Technological Steps in Surface Transport' (or U-STIR for short). Dr Sally Caird will also work on this project, which involves a Europe-wide consortium and the project will run for two years from January 2009.
Stephen Potter is also part of a consortium led by the Transport Research Laboratory that has won a 4-year Framework Contract to provide Workplace Travel Plan Research for Transport for London. This success follows on from existing work with TfL that has included their part-funding a suite of CPD courses for travel planners.
General News and Events Enquiries Contact:
Rachel Sargent - r.sargent@open.ac.uk
Page Last Updated: November 11, 2009