the roles of design
Charting the Way for Design Education Reform
IMPACT REPORT 2022
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Dean’s Message
Design plays an integral role in providing a great user experience and has become an essential part of problem-solving in the world today - it is the bridge between technology and people, enabling us to create meaningful and engaging experiences. Designers are responsible for creating cohesive branding through the use of visual elements, tackling complex tasks and transforming them into intuitive, easy-to-use, and accessible designs, and understanding cultural nuances of users in order to make sure products are culturally relevant. Designers are also increasingly responsible for shaping business strategy by taking into account user behaviour, preferences, and perceptions.
Hong Kong, being one of the most services-oriented economy in the world, offers tremendous opportunities for modern services through design by leveraging technology to create innovative and personalized customer experiences. Designers will need to embrace technologies like AI, ML, and NLP to generate multiple solutions to a given problem, with the goal of creating the most efficient design that meets a specific set of requirements. Content designers can use tech to analyse a video’s content usage and suggest optimal placements for video advertisements or other elements in a scene. Service designers will be able to create automated services, personalized customer interactions through data-driven insights, and provide customers with offline and online tools to better manage their needs. Product designers can develop product and service ecosystems that are more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable. I am grateful that we were able to grow our team in the past two years to support learning in these areas. We have also expanded our Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD fellowship programmes to allow more students with outstanding accomplishments to pursue a career in design.
None of the above opportunities have simple solutions and they cannot be achieved by one individual. Designers' entrepreneurship and leadership skills are required to drive innovation. At the PolyU Design Education Leadership Forum 2022, we have already begun the conversation about Design and Entrepreneurship. Soon this year, we will see the learning outcomes of our first cohort of students under the new common first year curriculum, as well as our reformed Master's programmes, which are designed to meet the demand for more innovative and diverse designers.
I am delighted to share with you the achievements from our community over the past year despite the ongoing public health challenges. These are the people who exemplify the dedication to excellence that keeps this school running so smoothly. As we gradually return to normality, I eagerly anticipate charting new territory with a body of experts in a vibrant and inspiring environment once again.
Sincerely,
Kun-Pyo LEE, PhD. HonFDRS
Dean
Swire Chair Professor of Design
Alex Wong Siu Wah Gigi Wong Fook Chi Professor in Product Design Engineering
Design is the bridge between technology and people, enabling us to create meaningful and engaging experiences.
Teaching &
Learning
2022 has been a fruitful year for our faculty and students. Throughout the year, we have celebrated many shining moments for their outstanding efforts.
Our undergraduate students have shown a desire to reach for the stars by winning numerous awards from international competitions and film festivals, such as the Design for Asia Awards 2022, IFI GAP 2022, Architecture Masterprize, Red Dot: Brands & Communication Design 2022, European Product Design Awards 2022, Illustrators 65 and Five Continents International Film Festival. Some have also won themselves internships from Disney Imaginations Hong Kong 2022.
Kaleidoscope
Winner in Education/Toys for Pre-school Learning & Winner in Toy Design/Toy for Toddlers, Professional Category
INFUSE
Winner in Home Interior Products/Household Appliances, Professional Category
Caps Coiner
Winner in Packaging Design/Sustainable Design & Winner in Toy Design/ Educational Toy, Professional Category
Shift
Honorable Mention, Professional Category
Teaching & Learning
The cost of preserving the past can be prohibitively high. Wincy Kung, a recent graduate of the Environment and Interior Design discipline, proposed an annual Bamboo Craft Festival (Tutor: Peter Hasdell) to engage people in exploring local street cultures and craftsmanship through workshops and performances, embodying the spirit of Hong Kong tradition. Wincy was one of three student winners of the Architecture MasterPrize, taking Best of Best in four of the five categories for which she was nominated. Her work was also awarded a Gold Medal from Illustrator 65.
Teaching & Learning
The Integrated Capstone option was newly introduced to undergrad students. Sharon Choi was awarded the CreateSmart Young Design Talent Special Award at the Design for Asia Awards 2022 with her work with a team of interdisciplinary design students to create a smart future experimental city mechanism prototype for the San Tin/Lok Ma Chau Development node. The design is based on extensive research on the integration of work, home and leisure to provide greater autonomy, higher flexibility and closer connection for the inhabitants.
Teaching & Learning
Environment and Interior Design students (Tutors: Anneli Giencke; Peter Hasdell) swept more than half of the total seven prizes available under the Student Category at the prestigious IFI GAP DDA Global Awards 2022.
Teaching & Learning
Teaching & Learning
Digital Media students (Tutor: Adam Wong) grabbed multiple awards at the Five continents International Film Festival, Druk International Film Festival and Athvikvaruni International Film Festival with their short film In Sky, Full of Stars (Tutor: Adam Wong) that tells the story of a man dreaming of becoming an astronaut to land on the moon.
Undergrad student team beat over 90 teams at the Disney Imaginations Hong Kong Design Competition to win up to 8 weeks of internship for Walt Disney Imagineering Asia at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.
Teaching & Learning
Postgrad students from Master of Design Kelly Tang and Zhengtong Lin (Tutor: Dr Newman Lau) were selected by the Global Grad Show 2022 in Dubai to present their project "Carebase," an AI-driven device that provides purchasing advice to the elderly, under the theme "Prototypes for Humanity".
Teaching & Learning
Capstone project “Nature Jar: Design for Facilitating Nature Connectedness and Restoration in the Home Scenario”, created by MDes graduate Xiaoge WANG (Tutor: Dr Huaxin Wei), was awarded the Most Innovative Vision Award of TEI 2022 Student Design Challenge (SDC). The tangible jar lamp collects plants through a web app and will nurture an animated tree.
Teaching & Learning
Xiaoge also co-authored the study on Designing Parents-Adolescents Relationship in Future Mobility in China for an industry-sponsored teaching led by Prof. Stephen Wang with Guangzhou Motors.
Programmes
New entry scholarships were introduced.
Outstanding freshmen of our 2022/23 bachelor of design programme were recognised at the Entry Scholarship Award Ceremony.
Programmes
Our master of design programme announced the offerings of two entry scholarship schemes: International Excellence Scholarships (IES) and Top Universities Scheme (TUS), for the 2023 entry to outstanding non-local creative talent to further their studies in Hong Kong.
Programmes
Research
2022 has been a year of breakthroughs and rewards.
funding granted and new projects initiated, our research faculty and graduates are well equipped to build new design knowledge for years to come.
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The new Research Centre of Future Caring Mobility, founded by Prof. Stephen Wang, will address issues such as the future of caring transportation, transit UX, communication and integration of personal information in mobility, automobile cybersecurity, smart city fluidity and liveability, and UX in emerging transport modes such as versatile and on-demand transportation, as well as wellbeing aspects in connected and autonomous vehicles.
Research
Research on The Effect of Distance Design Collaboration Necessitated by COVID-19 on Brain Synchronicity in Teams Compared to Co-Located Design Collaboration by Dr Yi-teng Shih is a timely study that examines changes in behaviour (e.g., body language, thinking patterns, etc.) of design teams working remotely during COVID-19.
Research
The article "Urban volumetrics: From vertical to volumetric urbanisation and its extensions to empirical morphological analysis", authored by Dr Ir Gerhard Bruyns (PolyU Design), Christopher Higgins (U of Toronto), and PhD graduate Dr Darren Nel (PolyU Design), was awarded the Best Article Prize in the Urban Studies Journal.
Gerhard was editor-in-chief for the Cubic Journal (SCOPUS) and Design Commons - Practices, Processes and Crossovers. Gerhard and Dr Huaxin Wei (PolyU Design) also co-edited the [ ] With Design: Reinventing Design Modes: Proceedings of the 9th Congress of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR 2021).
Research
The participatory design House of Dreams by the Insitu Project research platform, led by Peter Hasdell (PolyU Design) and Kuo Jze Yi (Shenzhen University) received the Human City Design Award Grand Prize, adding to their stellar list of recognitions including the 2022 International Union of Architects 2030 Award, the 2022 Azure Magazine Award for Social Good, a Golden Award in the Taipei International Design Award 2021, and First Prize in the 2021 Architecture MasterPrize.
Research
Daniel Elkin received the Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2022 from PolyU in recognition of his continued contribution to the Tai O village pedestrian traffic monitoring project, stilt house 3d scanning project, and Lantau conservation fund village revitalization project. Daniel and his collaborators are looking to address challenges posed by changing urban environments and the contests between individual choice, collective needs, and collective resources.
Research
From computational brand mark design to urban spatial resilience, 11 PhD students successfully defended their theses in 2022. Consider what the future of design may hold.
Knowledge
Transfer
When design knowledge is applied, we count on it to bring change to towering issues.
Kuk Po Get Together is Michael Chan's Oral History Documentary, Illustration, and Design initiative for Kuk Po, a mostly deserted village historically inhabited by Hakkanese just across the closed Hong Kong-Shenzhen border town of Sha Tau Kok. The project, which has received significant funding from the HK Government's Countryside Conservation Funding Scheme, investigates the development of the village as well as the stories of villagers' families, agriculture, fishery, and business development. The research allows for knowledge transfer by collaborating with villagers and other organisations to identify and solve village development issues.
Knowledge Transfer
The Omni Study System is a project to design a subdivided units-friendly furniture set for children who are at risk of scoliosis and myopia due to a poor sitting posture caused by limited space and lack of natural light in these shoebox dwellings. Dr Tulio Maximo, Dr Paul Lo and three student assistants of School of Design joined an interdisciplinary research team with members from Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation, the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the School of Optometry to deliver the first batch of 180 furniture to subdivided units in November 2022.
Knowledge Transfer
Dr Sylvia Liu, who has been studying design management capability, was awarded the PolyU Outstanding Achievement Award in Knowledge Transfer. Her work has been applied in national innovation and manufacturing policies, and the research on Transforming Design Management Capability in the Manufacturing Industry and Influencing National Design Policy in Mainland China, was chosen as an Illustrative Case Study for the Research Impact in Hong Kong Universities Report.
Knowledge Transfer
Our knowledge transfer unit SD Plus facilitated an MOU with the Chinachem Group to begin a study for Intergenerational Housing in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, leveraging the School's strength in social design.
Knowledge Transfer
Throughout the year, faculty members were appointed to serve in various sectors. Prof. Kun-Pyo Lee has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Design Centre; Prof. Stephen Jia Wang has been appointed as Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University's Future Lab; Horace Pan has been appointed Chairman of the Hong Kong Interior Design Association; and Dr Anthony Kong has been appointed as Chairman of the Hong Kong Designers Association's Design Education Council and Vice-Chairperson of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority's HKDSE Applied Learning Subjects Committee, among other positions.
Knowledge Transfer
Design needs to see and be seen. PolyU Design hosted over 2 public activities per week on average in 2022 to facilitate the two-way transfer of knowledge.
Exhibitions were held on and off campus, from hosting the PolyU Design Show 2022 and the collaborative exhibition Designing Central to participating in the Hong Kong Interior Design Week 2022 and creating retired coke bottle trays installation display at The Mills. The magnificence of our students' creations was on display in public, bringing endless visual surprises and inspiring ideas to the local community.
Knowledge Transfer
Taking a step outside of the city, our students' work was praised all over the world. Our design spirit has traveled from Dubai to Shenzhen to Taipei to the UK.
Knowledge Transfer
Upwards of 30 International Seminars, Lectures, Forums were held.
Knowledge Transfer
To maximize awareness of what design is from a young age, our programmes for secondary school students are ever growing. The What Design? summer programme, Workshops, and Exhibition guided tours were held throughout the year, all conducted by current students for a rewarding two-way learning experience between the facilitators and the visitors.
Knowledge Transfer
In an effort to attract more science and technology-savvy students, we began accepting STEAM portfolios for undergraduate admissions. Dr Clifford Choy is passionate about expanding secondary school students' knowledge of how to use technology in design. The STEAM workshops and research he organized on campus are meant to supplement the university's Junior Research Mentoring Program, which allows participants to hone their research skills and use advanced 3D modeling software.
Knowledge Transfer
Assets
We are a community of academics and professionals dedicated to bringing knowledge and service to society. When it comes to offering a thorough student experience with innovation and expertise, especially during difficult times, our human resources are the School's most important assets.
For nearly three years, the School operated in a pandemic response mode. From teaching and learning to knowledge transfer activities to organising an entire competition online, that meant double to triple the workload for simultaneous online and offline delivery of content. Education must go on, and our professional teams worked in true service design thinking fashion to gather resources to ensure both positive teaching and student experiences.
Assets
Notwithstanding the obstacles, our faculty worked hard to maintain the quality of education. For their contributions, they are recognised through the University's Outstanding Achievements Awards. Dr Sylvia Liu received the Knowledge Transfer Award; Manto Yiu, Prof. Henry Ma, and Kam Ching Tsang received the Teaching Award; Dr Yi-teng Shih received the Research and Scholarly Activities — Outstanding Researcher Award; and Dr Hailiang Wang received the Research and Scholarly Activities — Outstanding Young Researcher Award. Our heartfelt congratulations on their well-deserved recognition and rewards with grants and cash prizes!
Assets
Dr Tulio Maximo was awarded the prestigious 2022 University Grants Committee Teaching Award, one of only three recipients among all publicly funded universities in Hong Kong, for his teaching that went the “extra mile”, as noted by the panel of judges.
Assets
Beyond the campus, communication design programme leader Brian Kwok was named Persons with Outstanding Contributions to the Development of Arts and Culture by The Secretary for Home Affairs' Commendation Scheme.
Assets
Digital Media deputy programme leader Step Cheung was shortlisted for the Best Animated Short Film at the 58th Golden Horse Awards with her work ‘Depths of Night’.
Assets
On December 2nd, UNESCO celebrated the first World Futures Day, and Dr Jörn Bühring was among a group of UNESCO Chairs in futures literacy to ignite futures thinking skills and capabilities across all sectors of society. Jorn was named Distinguished Scholar at Abu Dhabi University's College of Business earlier in 2022. He has joined scholars from top universities around the world to share his knowledge on design foresight as part of strategic design and innovation management on HSTalks.
Assets
Heritage
2022 has been a year of pushing the boundaries for our alumni.
The PolyU Design Outstanding Alumni Awards announced 6 inaugural winners for their remarkable professional accomplishments and continued service to the design industry and their alma mater.
It was double happiness for James O (Advertising Design, 2008), co-founder of GoGoX (GoGoVan) – first company to have reached unicorn status in Hong Kong in 2017 and launched its IPO in 2022 – when he also received the Outstanding PolyU Young Alumni Award 2022 from the University as a successful business leader.
Heritage
International designer and alum Vivienne Tam (University Fellow 2006/2007 and Awardee of Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award 1997) of the same-named fashion brand had a great year launching her NFTs and participating in the panel "Hong Kong Heroes: Making Hong Kong Proud Again!" at the Hong Kong Fintech Week 2022. She also told SCMP about her experience building an international fashion brand.
Heritage
Planning for PolyU Design's 60th Anniversary in 2024 with our alumni.
Heritage
PolyU Design's heritage is built on generations of designers working in different sectors of society to drive innovation by design, with our strong tradition of play!
Heritage
Leadership
For 2022, entrepreneurship and interdisciplinarity led our way to design education redesign.
The Leadership Forum on Design Education 2022 proposed discussions on the interplay of design and entrepreneurship, as well as the future development of the two aspects in design education. Six academic and industry leaders were invited to participate in the discussions. The School's new BA curriculum development was presented.
Leadership
We introduced the Integrated Entrepreneurship Project as a new form of the Integrated Capstone Project that incorporates entrepreneurship into design education. It aims to train students to have an entrepreneurial mindset and the ability to create a start-up business.
Leadership
2022 marks the first year of the School's Interdisciplinary curriculum, which allows students to learn design in a cross-disciplinary mode before deciding on a cluster study area in communication, environment, product experience, or service design. This encouraged a broader range of talents to enroll in design, resulting in an increase in the applicants' average GPAs.
Leadership
Collaboration
Building meaningful collaborations allows both teachers and students to put classroom knowledge and theories into action to solve business and societal challenges.
We continued to expand our international network with countries known for their innovation cultures.
Meeting with the Consul-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Meeting with the Consul-General of Czech Republic
Collaboration
Collaboration with Hong Kong Public Libraries to hold the “READiscovery / LIBRARY” Interactive Multimedia Exhibition to display the transformation in library services in the past 60 years.
Major public programme Designing Central featured a 4-month long programme to promote design in the heart of the Hong Kong financial district.
Meeting the Aberdeen Kai-fong Welfare Association to explore floating restaurants. Aberdeen is an area on southwest Hong Kong Island known for its fishing industry and the Tanka people who live on boats.
Locally, we worked with more than 20 organisations for different types of collaboration and a range of projects from floating restaurants to interactive media guided reading at the public libraries.
Collaboration
Our students have participated in projects with a wide range of purposes and contexts. Students participated in The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups' Tai O Let’s Go Cultural Festival and the rebuilding of Bruce Lee's home by the Bruce Lee Club to preserve local history and culture. Another student project in collaboration with Towngas is the creation of animation to promote carbon reduction.
Collaboration
Cross-departmental cooperation gained recognitions for winning contests. Two Interactive Media students cooperated with PolyU AMA (Data Science) students in the ‘GoSmart’ project and received funding of HK$25,000.
Collaboration
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