Northumbria University,
Newcastle has cemented its reputation for design excellence and innovation
after becoming the first academic institution in the UK to become a forum
member of the Design Management Institute (DMI).
Bringing together design and
business leaders, educators, researchers and practitioners from around the
world, the DMI aims to explore how design and industry can work together to
create new innovations which could transform business.
Northumbria is now one of
just a handful of universities to join the Institute, sharing the platform with
the likes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Philadelphia
University.
Plans are now in place to
host a DMI event at Northumbria’s School of Design next year, which it is expected
will attract major international businesses, as well as regional partners.
Mersha Aftab is a Lecturer
in Innovation at Northumbria and said: “Joining the DMI will allow us to
continue in our work connecting businesses with design practitioners and
researchers and showing how they can work together to produce truly innovative
results.
“As a design school we are
business focussed and industry led and hosting a DMI event in Newcastle will
allow us to reach out to new, international partners, as well as building on
the strong relationships we have built with business in the North East.”
The focus for the event will
be ‘Be Local, Think Global’, with plans to include a variety of speakers
discussing a range of topics.
Academics from Northumbria
have already taken part in a number of DMI events, with five new papers
presented at the Academic Design Management Institute Conference in Boston, last
year.
Among them was a case study
showcasing how design research meets design practice, entitled The Growth Department: How Industrial
Design, Strategic Marketing and Engineering Combine to Drive Innovation at
Parker Hannifin Corp, by Neil McPherson, Matthew Leivesly, David O’Leary
and Ian Hewitt.
Northumbria School of
Design has a strong history of collaborating with businesses on live design
projects – giving students real world experience and allowing businesses to
access creative thinking and the latest research.
One of the University’s
longest running partnerships is with Unilever, with staff and students from
Northumbria’s School of Design working alongside Unilever’s research and
development teams over the last 12 years to help establish new and innovative
ways of meeting the company’s sustainability targets in relation to packaging,
water-use and energy.
Northumbria University has also
established a Responsible Innovation Practice Group that aims at create positive change
in the world. Through generative practice-based research this group works with
organisations facing big challenges. Creating one team, clients work directly
with the energy and creativity of the students and the analytical expertise of
academics to use design and multidisciplinary thinking. The group examines
their stance and strategic objectives by considering their possible and
plausible future offers and the impact these might have on society and the
important issues we all face.
This
work contributes to the University’s strategic initiative to bring together academics
from across different departments and faculties to share knowledge and
expertise to find innovative solutions to some of the world’s greatest
challenges. Researchers within the multi-disciplinary theme IDEATE are exploring how
creative design can be put into practice to realise and explore possible
futures, and, in turn, foster innovation. To find out more visit https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/changing-challenging-world/ideate/
The Northumbria DMI event is
expected to take place in summer 2018. For more information about the School of
Design visit https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/academic-departments/northumbria-school-of-design/
The academic papers
presented by Northumbria academics at the Academic Design Management Institute
Conference in Boston, last year.were:
- Aftab, Mersha, English, Stuart, Lievesley, Matthew, Antonio De Filho, Marcos,Agustine Rusli, Helen, Smith, Penelopeand Hunt, Pete (2016) Design Entrepreneurship in Innovation.In: 20th DMI: Academic Design Management Conference Inflection Point: Design Research Meets Design Practice Boston, 28th - 29th July 2016, Boston, MA.
- Bailey, Mark and Smith, Neil (2016)Making it Work; Integrated Academic Practice. In: 20th DMI: Academic Design Management Conference Inflection Point: Design Research Meets Design Practice Boston, 28-29 July 2016, Boston, MA.
- Fridlington, Lauren, Mckay, Laura,Spencer, Nick and Watson, Bruce (2016)The Co-creation design framework. In: Academic Design Management Conference ADMC16, 28th - 29th July, Boston, USA.
- Gaith, Kawar and Aftab, Mersha (2016)The Value of Design in an Enterprise Cloud Solution. In: 20th DMI:Academic Design Management Conference, 28th - 29th July 2016, Boston, USA.
- Gribbin, John, Young, Robert and Aftab, Mersha (2016) Towards a holistic framework of design competence. In: 19th Academic Design Management Conference, 28th - 29th July, Boston, USA.
More details available at http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/
