At the Brunel Design Research Centre, we specialise in three key areas of research: sustainability, inclusion, and technology, each led by experts in their respective fields.
Sustainability
The Brunel Design Research Centre excels in Design for Sustainability, led by Dr Fabrizio Ceschin, Co-Director of the Centre. Dr Ceschin has been involved as an investigator in over 20 international and national research projects funded by the European Commission, EPSRC, Innovate UK, British Council, SMEs, and multinational enterprises. His work has resulted in more than 60 academic publications, including four authored books. Notably, he is the author of the book Design for Sustainability: A Multi-level Framework from Products to Socio-technical Systems’ (Routledge, 2019), which has been adopted by many universities.
Inclusion
Professor Hua Dong, Director of the Centre, leads research in Inclusive Design. As the convenor of the InclusiveSIG of the Design Research Society (DRS) and an organiser of the Cambridge Workshop for Universal Access and Assistive Technology, she is well connected with the inclusive design research community internationally. Professor Dong has won several research fellowships and has been the Principal Investigator of research projects funded by EPSRC, AHRC, Innovate UK, and NESTA. She has provided inclusive design consultancies to businesses in the UK, China, and Finland, and her research outcomes have been exhibited and published in design museums in London and Zurich. Professor Dong has edited more than ten books, including Design for Inclusivity (2007) and Inclusive Design: Chinese Archive (2019).
Technology
Professor Eujin Pei leads research on Additive Manufacturing at the Centre. He chairs the British Standards Institute AMT/8 Committee for Additive Manufacturing and is the UK Head of Delegate for ISO/TC261. Professor Pei is also the convenor of ISO/TC261/WG4 and ISO/TC261/JG67. In 2018, he became a member of the EPSRC Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research, participating in EPSRC strategic advisory activities. Professor Pei is the Editor-in-Chief for the Progress in Additive Manufacturing Journal (Springer), Associate Editor for the Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing (Springer), and Associate Editor for the Assembly Automation Journal (Emerald). He is also an editor of the Springer Handbook of Additive Manufacturing (2023).