An internationally renowned design festival in South Korea which aims to wrestle the environmental and social issues afflicting humanity will benefit this year from the creative minds of award-winning design students and graduates from Brunel University London.
For the first time, Brunel’s design students and recent graduates will showcase their projects and skills at the Gwangju Design Biennale, which starts this Saturday. Taking place every other year, the biennale brings together universities and industry experts to celebrate design as a means to shape the future and ultimately make our lives easier.
This is exactly what the talented group of thirteen Brunel students and recent graduates tackled in their final-year university projects, which featured in this summer’s student showcase ‘Made in Brunel’ and will be presented at the biennale, including:
‘ReCleft’, a 3D-printed anatomical model to train surgeons on cleft lip and palate operations, by Product Design Engineering student Rute Pereira Crespo Fiadeiro, winner of the 3D Hubs Student Grant healthcare prize.
‘Perceive’, a sensory headpiece which allows the blind to experience body language, by Industrial Design & Technology graduate Yasmin Ball.
Selective noise-cancelling headphones for young adults with autism, by Industrial Design & Technology graduate Olivia Creaney-Birch.
Brunel Design will also be represented by Dr Youngok Choi, Senior Lecturer in Design at Brunel. She will be giving a talk on the social impact of design, which will include examples from her social innovation research project focusing on how Makerspaces bring communities together to create, share knowledge and network.
“The biennale is an excellent opportunity for the Brunel cohort to introduce their projects at a high-profile design event and show what we can do for a better society and people’s wellbeing”, said Dr Choi.
Dr Vanja Garaj, Head of Design at Brunel, added: “There is no doubt that this event is the perfect occasion for Brunel Design to foster new links with the design community and industry at a global scale and make our international outlook even stronger.”
The Gwangju Design Biennale, which has been credited with transforming the historic city of Gwangju into an attractive design hub, runs from the 7 September to 31 October 2019.
To find out more about Design at Brunel please visit brunel.ac.uk/design
Reported by:
Simone McNichols-Thomas,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 266867
simone.mcnichols-thomas@brunel.ac.uk