Sarah van der Schans

Product Design Engineering

Hi, I’m Sarah!

I’m a product design engineer who is passionate about using my skills to make an impact on the world. Throughout my time at Swinburne, I have gained key skills and put them into practice. This has included an Engineers without Borders design summit in Cambodia and a makeathon with Tikkun Olam Makers. Another highlight has been a project with AboutSpace Lighting which resulted in my lamp being selected for commercialization. I have also had experience as an industrial engineering intern with Cummins for the past two years.

For my final year project, I designed Bounce, an active and independent play product for non-mobile children.

Cerebral Palsy is the most common mobility disability in children with 1 in 3 being unable to walk. Being non-mobile greatly hinders a child’s ability to take part in fundamental development activities.

Bounce provides these children an opportunity to play independently and take part in an enjoyable, highly rewarding, physical activity. The user is kept supported with elastic straps so that they can bounce and move freely and safely.

Designed in partnership with TOM: Melbourne, Bounce will also have an open-source design to help children around the world. This version uses accessible manufacturing such as 3D printing. The bottom two images show the open-source product. A final prototype will also be delivered to an 8-year-old girl who has informed the project as she struggles with the limitations caused by being non-mobile every day.

Bounce - Independent and active play for non-mobile children

Assembly process

Injection moulded connector piece

Open source design (left) and mass manufacture design (right)

Open source assembly

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.