IdeaSquare CERN

Design Factory Melbourne

Improving airport security.

As part of DFM’s Challenge Based Innovation A3 (CBI A3) project, a team of Design Factory Melbourne students devised a solution to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) using advanced CERN technology.

During a two-week intensive at science organisation CERN’s Ideasquare lab in Geneva, the team generated ideas for possible solutions. Their concept, HALO, is a border checkpoint designed to tackle the illicit drug trade in Australia and have potential for directing other substances, pathogens from entering the country.

The HALO is a checkpoint designed for Australian Border Security, combining immigration, customs and declaration into a holistic solution. It helps with the micro-imaging and scanning of incoming passengers, luggage, cargo and mail to identify any drugs crossing Australian borders through airports, ensuring minimal human intervention and negligence. The HALO is built with CERN technology, allowing for the detection of illicit substances that might be carried on a passenger, in cargo or a corrupt officer by Medipix3 – a micro imaging device. ROOT – a data analysis technology – gathers data from Medipix3 and compares it to data already stored on the HALO system outlining illicit drugs through supervised machine learning.

Concept by Amandeep Narula (Architecture), Tzu Wei Su (Communication Design) & Evan Broumos (Design Strategy & Innovation).

Industry Partner: IdeaSquare CERN.

Final render of HALO at Melbourne Airport

Sectional view of the HALO shows the process of human circulation

Exploded Isometric Exploded view of the HALO

Early Sketches and ideas of the HALO

Early prototypes of the HALO tested out to understand anthropometry, sequence of events and get user feedback

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.