PolyU Design collaborated with Sino Group to design eco-friendly benches for the community

  A bench is more than a seat. It builds a community. PolyU Design collaborated with Sino Group on the Green Public Seating Design Project to utilize upcycled materials for making public benches. As part of the Cooperative Project in our BA Scheme, three groups of year-4 design students majoring in Product Design, Social Design, Advertising Design and Environment and Interior Design co-worked from start to finish, turning their ideas into concrete products.      The benches were later displayed in Lee Tung Street, giving a decorative touch to the public space, entertaining the pets, encouraging interactions among the community, promoting eco-friendly living and more.     Corporate collaborations are valuable opportunities for students to learn in practical situations and business operations. PolyU Design welcomes collaborations with companies from different industries in our Cooperative Projects of BA Scheme. We anticipate partnering with Sino Group and more corporates in the future.           

PolyU Design is now accepting 2 types of portfolios

Aligning with the reformed BA (Hons) Scheme in Design curriculum, we are branching out our reach to prospective students from more diverse backgrounds. Students with or without a design or creative background could apply by submitting either Creative or STEAM/Maker portfolios.

DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award 2022

  Congratulations to our fresh graduates and alumni on winning DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award (DFA HKYDTA).    Established in 2005, DFA HKYDTA is sponsored by Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the School of Design of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong Design Institute.    It nurtures and recognises promising Hong Kong young design talent, providing awardees with financial sponsorship to work in overseas renowned design companies or study abroad in the hope of having their contributions to the city’s design industry upon their return.       Four PolyU Design graduates were awarded at DFA HKYDTA for their excellent works and recognized potential:        CHOI Yuet Sum Sharon  BA(Hons) in Communication Design         CreateSmart Young Design Talent Award 2022 DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award 2022  https://ydta.dfaawards.com/en/winner_detail/?w=1&id=dNOnQnIOVmE       CHEUNG Tsz Ching Emily BA(Hons) in Environment and Interior Design      PolyU School of Design Young Design Talent Award 2022 DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award 2022  https://ydta.dfaawards.com/en/winner_detail/?w=1&id=fD9bvrlwQhE       AU Tsui Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Design (Environmental and Interior Design), 2015 CreateSmart Young Design Talent Award 2022 DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award 2022  https://ydta.dfaawards.com/en/winner_detail/?w=1&id=uh9pImYNGho     KONG Sin Yan Lisa             BA(Hons) in Communication Design, 2018 CreateSmart Young Design Talent Special Award 2022 DFA Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award 2022  https://ydta.dfaawards.com/en/winner_detail/?w=1&id=beJHpkwZJYI  

Education Corner Creative Workshop 2022

  At Education Corner Creative Workshop 2022, a concurrent event of the Business of Design Week, we welcomed students from 6 secondary schools to join our design-introductory workshops, inspiring our young guests with various aspects of fundamental design thinking and providing them an opportunity to get involved in hands-on creations. To better demonstrate what students can expect from studying PolyU Design’s BA scheme and to arouse students’ interests in design and creativity, we invited our alumni to host interesting craft workshops in 2 different themes—exploring possibilities of materials and 3D printing. Students constructed their own version of plant models using paper, wood and metal, and created Christmas ornaments through 3D printing technology at the workshops. We were happy to see students taking their creations home along with joy, knowledge and inspiration. Throughout the year, PolyU Design holds numerous talks and workshops to help secondary students recognize their goals and find their future paths.

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Design Students experiment with community food waste collection and eco-farming to promote eco-friendly lifestyle

What would you think of organic fertilizers? Living compost? Animal feces? Stinky and disgusting? Have you ever heard about a clean, good-smelling fertilizer for farming made from the uneaten leftovers on your plates? A group of social design and communication design students joined hands for an eco-farming project—Soil Trust, that experiments with community food waste collection to be made into Bokashi compost. This is not only aimed towards an eco-friendly lifestyle, but also highlights the importance of local farming for reintegrating organic resources and for providing eco-system services. Bokashi is an age-old resource recovery method made popular in Japan since the 80s, that turns food waste into soil amendment by means of fermentation. During the fermentation process, it releases a fruity and malty scent of wine, instead of a rotten smell. The Soil Trust team established its base on organic farmland in Tai Kong Po, Yuen Long. There, they process the collected food waste into soil-regenerative eco-enzymes and bokashi compost. The enzymes and compost undergo months of fermentation and care before they can be applied to the fields: Yes, it requires more work than conventional farming practices. That’s why bokashi is not widely adopted in Hong Kong,” said Shing, the Soil Trust farm manager.   Despite the extra work and processing time required, bokashi can not only help to cope with food waste from various sources but also has great potential for bringing crucial microbial life back into the soils of small-scale plantations in a self-sufficient way. “We hope to bring farming into urban households so that people can produce their food and learn more about and appreciate the food they consume every day,” said Kit Tsang, one of the student team members.     “Hong Kong is over-reliant on extremely long food supply chains, which depend on imports from mainland China and around the globe,” said Annie Lee, a team member. “If we could build a self-sufficient way of food cultivation, especially for fresh fruits and vegetables, the price and supply of food would be more stable—more independent of external factors. This way the city would have higher resilience to uncontrollable situations like the COVID pandemic and bad weather.” The farm is yielding a variety of crops, such as corn, sweet potatoes, strawberries, lettuce, broccoli, and more. Before becoming food, the crops are nurtured by food. This cycle of food production sets an example for the regeneration of resources.        In the coming months, the team is expected to make use of the materials and experience acquired to create a design intervention to tighten the connection between food waste collection, bokashi-based farming, and the promotion of an eco-friendly lifestyle in their Integrated Entrepreneurship Project.    

Recent external appointments of staff (Oct-Dec 2022)

Dr Anthony Kong, Assistant Professor Chairman of Design Education Council, Executive Committee, Hong Kong Designers Association Secretary, Executive Committee, IEEE Hong Kong Section Computer Society Chapter External Examiner (Module), The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong External Examiner, Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong Vice-chairperson, HKDSE Applied Learning Subjects Committee, Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Dr Jörn Bühring, Assistant Professor   Distinguished Scholar, Abu Dhabi University College of Business  

Winners of Faculty/School Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2022 announced

PolyU Design announces the winners of Faculty/School Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2022 organized by the University. Categories Awardees Teaching Teaching (Team) Mr. Kam Ching TSANG, Prof. Henry MA, Mr. Manto YIU Research and Scholarly Activities Researcher (Individual) Dr SHIH Yi-teng Young Researcher (Individual) Dr WANG Hailiang Knowledge Transfer Industry (Individual) Dr LIU Sylvia All nominations received were reviewed by cross-department senior members chaired by AVP(UP) on behalf of the Chairman of School Board.   Congratulations to the winners and gratitude for their dedicated work. 

Leadership Forum on Design Education 2022 invited discussions on design and entrepreneurship

Leadership Forum on Design Education 2022 was successfully held last Friday (25 November). The forum was held in physical mode and live-streamed online simultaneously. With both local and non-local audiences from 3 online platforms (Zoom, Bilibili and Vshibo), there were a total of over 7000 cumulative audiences joining the forum. We were glad to have 6 international design and business leaders—Prof. Francesco Zurlo, Mr André Nogueira, Prof. Peter Childs, Mr Hiroshi Tamura, Dr Jun Su and Mr James O — from both academic and industry to share their ideas on the significance of having the mindset, process and methods of design entrepreneurship under the vast development of business and technology in the modern age, and how education can keep up with the footsteps to nurture challenge-prepared talents. To prepare students to face today’s multi-faceted challenges, soft skills and crossdisciplinary knowledge should be incorporated into the education of design. Notions like entrepreneurship, leadership, technology, diversity, and communication are addressed in the forum as elements going along with design thinking. Such a trend in the change of design education has been adopted in PolyU Design’s new BA curriculum, to train students to have the mindset of entrepreneurship and the ability to create a start-up business. When it comes to entrepreneurship, risks, uncertainties, and failures are inevitable. At the forum, our speakers encouraged the embracement of risks, uncertainties, and failures and the building of a fearless mentality in business and innovations. Aside from accepting the existence of possible obstacles, these leaders also suggested solutions to manage and minimise their impacts, by researching and prototyping. The interactive dynamics between design and entrepreneurship was further illustrated in the panel discussions, divided in three aspects: (1) Design in Entrepreneurship, (2) Design for Entrepreneurship and (3) Design with Entrepreneurship. Conversation covering designers’ participation in an entrepreneurial organisation, effective design methods and tools in entrepreneurship and success in product and market performance allow further discussions and researches to shape the future of design, education and entrepreneurship. To revise the speeches and discussions, stay tuned for videos at designedasia.com.