Design, Robotics, and Collective Making - Open Discussion and Showcase/Demo

What happens when design, robotics, and reactive material structures meet through open-ended, hands-on cooperation?

Join us for a two-part event reflecting on the outcomes and implications of our workshop Matters of Behavior, where five teams of designers, artists, engineers, and researchers made animated objects.

• Open discussion

  A multi-voiced conversation focusing on how robotics fosters interdisciplinary dialogue, how making serves as research, and how open-ended experimentation can shape pedagogical approaches within design and beyond.
  
  Speakers
  Prof. Filipe Pais (EnsadLab - École des Arts Décoratifs, PSL University Paris and Noroff University, Norway), Prof. Samuel Bianchini (EnsadLab), and Prof. Pierre Renaud (ICube Laboratory - INSA University of Strasbourg), with workshop participants from PolyU and HKUST.
  
  Host and moderator
  Dr Luis Vega (PolyU Design)
  
  Living Lab (V050), G/F, JCIT (Block V)
  Wednesday, September 9, 16:00 — 17:00
  
  

• Demo/Showcase

  A pop-up exhibition featuring the physical prototypes created during three days of collaborative making.
  
  Gallery B, P/F, JCIT (Block V)
  Wednesday, September 9, 16:00 — 17:00
  
  
  This event welcomes all PolyU students at all levels of study and staff. Registration is required using the link no later than September 8, 2026. If you are not from PolyU and need an access code to attend, please email luis.vega@polyu.edu.hk.
  
  This initiative is possible thanks to the Start-up Fund for Research Assistant Professors under the Strategic Hiring Scheme of the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong (Project ID P0058205) and the French government, managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the framework of Investissements d’Avenir (reference numbers ANR-22-EXOD-0001 & ANR-22-EXOD-0005) of the Priority Research Program and Equipment (PEPR) Organic Robotics.