News
W+SN Regenerate Event
2022, November
Many thanks to those existing and new members of the W+SN network who attended our W+SN REGEN EVENT in November 2022. This lively morning of talks, discussion and light refreshments was supported by the Design and Creative Practice and Social Change EIP’s in the lovely Garden Building.
The event hosted 5 speakers who discussed their recent Design and Health collaborations, around the prompt “What happens when you bring design to health and engineering projects at early stages? What value does design bring?” Keynote speaker Brendan Hutchieson, Design Director from Play & Co discussed his company's fabulous work with the Philips Sonicare team and how and why design value adds in health, tech and care.
The event provided attendees the opportunity to regenerate connections and find opportunities for new collaboration, please stay tuned for more follow up events in 2023 including a networking event for postgraduate students.
W+SN Member Micro-Interviews
2020, October
The W+SN member micro-interviews are a series of short videos that will showcase the abilities, skills and unique talents of our growing community.
The aim of this project is to enable W+SN researchers to learn more about the capabilities of their peers and locate research partners when opportunities arise.
W+SN members are invited to participate in these micro-interviews from September-December 2020. A growing collection of videos can be found on our Resources page.
Advanced Materiality Studio Pilot
2020, October
Image credit: Industrial Design students; Berryn Russo, Gizem Cherkez, Jasper Frostel, Fergus Ward, Brendon Jones.
Image credit: Industrial Design students; Berryn Russo, Gizem Cherkez, Jasper Frostel, Fergus Ward, Brendon Jones.
Image credit: Industrial Design students; Berryn Russo, Gizem Cherkez, Jasper Frostel, Fergus Ward, Brendon Jones.
During second semester 2020 Industrial Design lecturers Dr Judith Glover and Emma Luke are running an Advanced Materiality Design Studio in collaboration with researchers from the W+SN. For this trial they have teamed up with RMIT’s Sir Ian Potter NanoBioSensing Facility and Material Science researchers from the Centre for Materials Innovation and Future Fashion in the School of Fashion and Textiles.
It is hoped that the model for this studio could be applied to other cross-collaborations within W+SN. This will enable researchers to engage with each other, creating a link between technology research and creative practice through the speculation of new wearable technology applications by design students.
W+SN 1st Year Report + Mapping Report Released
2020, October
The W+SN Year 1 Report is now available, bringing together the W+SN activities for 2019-2020 and laying out the future 4 year plan.
The W+SN Mapping Report has also been released. Outlining the commercial and research environment in which W+SN is located. Global mappings of labs and research centres are brought together in this report.
Both reports are available on the Resources page.
W+SN Building New Languages Workshop
2019, November
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
On Friday 22 November we hosted the Building New Languages event at the RMIT Activator. The event brought together people from across the network to connect and share stories. In the lightening-fast talks experts from sensor development through to fashion design were challenged to share their research, ideas, technologies and labs - in 7 minutes! Following this, the network developed a giant mapping of the W+SN research domains, skills/capabilities and partnerships using Tactile Tools™.
W+SN Capability Mapping
2019, November
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
During the W+SN Building New Languages event, the whole network spent one hour creating a giant map of the W+SN research domains, skills/capabilities and partnerships. The activity helped researchers from across 9 Schools to bring their diverse ideas and skills to the table. It also enabled researchers from different areas to identify areas of overlap and connection.
For the Capability Map Leah adapted her Tactile Tools™ toolkit to include new tools - the blue sticks are research domains, the yellow leaves are skills and capabilities and the pink puzzle pieces are partnerships. White sticks were used as ‘spacers’ that could either be connectors or links to satellite research domains.
W+SN Launch & Workshop
2019, September
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
The W+SN launch brought together researchers from across 9 Schools to connect and map out next steps for collaboration. The event was officially launched by Professor Swee Mak, Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research Capability) and Professor of Innovation. Professor Laurene Vaughan provided a fantastic acknowledgement of country that focused on the living culture of indigenous innovation in which the W+SN is situated. In the first of a series of panels, members of RMIT’s ECP Directors body were invited to share their ideas on possible megatrends within the realm of wearable health technologies.
W+SN Megatrends Mapping
2019, September
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
Image credit: Wearables and Sensing Network
The first Tactile Tools activity during the W+SN Launch helped to initiate the collaboration process between participants in the network. Although the participants came from different backgrounds, the activity encouraged them to share their knowledge and expertise with one another and establish common themes between the different disciplines. Interdisciplinary table groups were asked to identify and map what megatrends W+SN should aim to focus on. The methodology encouraged participants to collaboratively overlay, link, and cluster megatrends into themes and research domains. These recurrent themes were concerning health and wellbeing, sustainability, and data.