Ryan Donoghue

Product Design Engineering

Hello, I’m Ryan Donoghue.

I am a Product Design Engineering student with a burning passion for coffee brewing and the technologies used to turn bean into beverage.

As an engineer, I have a deep interest in materials and manufacturing processes, and I thrive on delving into the fine details of my products to ensure that manufacturing constraints are met and that each step can be performed efficiently.

I love how Product Design Engineering allows me to combine creativity with technical design, and that I can use these skills to bring my ideas into reality. My latest project is all about pushing the limits of my own detail design and engineering ability, whilst also innovating within a space that I am incredibly passionate about.

Vault.

A coffee grinder and storage solution for waste reduction and consistent, quality coffee in the home.

Zero-waste retail.

Returnable and reusable hoppers can be purchased at your local cafe or roastery. These hopper store coffee in an airtight, oxygen free environment extending the overall shelf life.

This retail coffee packaging solution eliminated the waste created by single-use packaging, and protects the volatile flavour and aroma compounds of your coffee.

Integrated vacuum sealed grinder.

With your new coffee at home, simply remove the retail caps, attach the hopper mount and lid to the hopper, and screw the hopper to your Vault grinder.

Turning the mechanical pump in the lid of the hopper removes air from the system and holds your coffee in a convenient location whilst maintaining an ideal storage environment.

Innovative dosing solution.

An entirely original solution for accurate dosing comes packaged within the Vault product ecosystem.

Combined volumetric and gravimetric dosing means that coffee beans remain in the hopper just until they're needed, and an accurate weight-based dose can be provided at the touch of a button. This system allows hoppers to be removed for maintenance, or to switch between coffees with zero wastage of beans left in the burr chamber.

Precision engineering.

The internal grind chamber and burr adjustment mechanism are precision engineered to ensure alignment between grinding burrs and accurate grind size adjustment. This further improves consistency of every coffee produced by the 83mm flat burrs installed in the grinder, with minimal variation in grind size distribution at any given setting.

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.