ANSTO nandin Startups

Design Factory Melbourne

In a collaboration between Design Factory Melbourne, ANSTO and their Design Factory, nandin, this program saw two Design Honours students undertake internships to explore design innovation processes applied to topics concerned with science and technology. Each student worked with a nandin startup on a specific real-world challenge, applying their design skills to propose new physical, digital or experiential applications that aim to increase the impact of scientific and/or technology-based research. The outcomes were:

Startup: Cool Engineering

Concept: Carbon Converter Demonstration Model – A simplified digital overview of Cool Engineering’s innovative process of removing CO2 from the atmosphere to produce green products, split into stages and presented as a spherical shape in orbit. The demonstration will allow clients in the industrial sector to better understand the technology, potentially increasing sales for Cool Engineering and helping businesses to lessen their carbon footprint.

Student: Jackie Lin (Interior Architecture)

Startup: Hou Horizon

Concept: Chronic Illness Management Device – a discreet and portable breath analyser utilising Hou Horizon’s technology for reading Volatile Organic Compounds and Biomarkers within human breath, providing users with chronic illnesses a non-invasive management option.

Student: Mark Vandersteen (Industrial Design)

Industry Partners: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Cool Engineering & Hou Horizon.

Chronic Illness Management Device - final render

Chronic Illness Management Device - ideation sketches

Chronic Illness Management Device - 3D printed prototypes

Carbon Converter Demonstration Model Exposed Isometric View

Carbon Converter Demonstration Model in case

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.