Monash University received honourable recognition at the 2023 Good Design Awards, winning a total of 11 awards, the highest number achieved for the university.
Now in its 65th year, the Australian Good Design Awards has a legacy of recognising, rewarding, and celebrating groundbreaking design and innovation, acknowledged as one of the most respected honours in the country.
Monash University's Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) Design Health Collab's Asthma nebuliser PALM took out a prestigious Good Design Award Gold and Best in Class in the Design Research category. The nebuliser reimagines the way chronic respiratory diseases are treated, using a personalised aerosol device.
In a further testament to the strength of Monash's research capabilities, an additional two projects won Good Design Award Gold in the Design Research category – a prestigious accolade presented to the top five projects in each category. These include the City Sensing Data Futures report and the Smart Home for Seniors documentary, both from the Emerging Technologies Research Lab.
Professor Mel Dodd, Interim Dean of ADA spoke of the achievement, "I am so proud of the impact that our researchers, practitioners, students and collaborators continue to achieve."
"These awards demonstrate the calibre of our faculty's research and teaching across a broad range of disciplines as well as the importance of bridging the gap between academia, industry and wider society as we respond to the challenges of our time," Professor Dodd said.
Associate Professor Gene Bawden, Head of Design at ADA said, "the Monash design community and its collaborators continue to be at the forefront of innovation. The Faculty's recent success at the 2023 Good Design Awards is a testament to our expertise, creativity and design excellence."
Monash Bachelor of Design alumnus, Amelda Norsworthy, took out the Good Design Award Gold for their graduate project Allevia, an efficient, non-medicinal wearable treatment for motion sickness.
Monash Industrial Design alumnus Alex Goad (Reef Design Lab) received the overall Good Design Sustainability Award for EMU (erosion mitigation units), a series of artificial reef modules that form a permeable barrier designed to reduce the height and energy of waves. The project also secured Gold for Commercial and Industrial Products and Gold for Engineering.
The Monash University winners are:
Good Design Award Gold
- Design Health Collab's world-first drug delivery technology, PALM (Personalised Aerosol Leading and Management), designed to improve the health of asthmatics.
- The City Sensing Data Futures report by Monash's Emerging Technologies Research Lab in collaboration with the City of Melbourne, which outlines an ethics-based approach to the capture and use of real-time city data in public spaces.
- The documentary Smart Homes for Seniors, a collaboration between Monash's Emerging Technologies Research Lab, researchers at Deakin University and McLean Care, shares the joys, frustrations and wisdom of Australian seniors in regional communities as they integrate smart devices into their homes.
Good Design Award
- Pride at Play, a curated collection of LGBTQIA+ games from Oceania and Asia Pacific.
Design Research Category
- Design Ethnography: research, responsibilities and futures which presents an ethical, inclusive and interventional design research approach that's tailored to the challenges of our world in crisis.
- Designing for Social Impact, a project website which shares the research findings, actionable outputs and creative methods for reframing research impact and shifting research practice.
- Design Health Collab and SensiLab's Pupil Matrix device, an automated tool for the measurement of individual circadian light sensitivity.
Architectural Design/Installation Design Category
- The inaugural Alastair Swayn Showcase - Light, Color, Humanity, a celebration of the career of Canberra Architect Alastair Swayn and his legacy to support and promote design research through the Swayn Gallery of Australian Design.
Medical Devices Category
- Design Health Collab and SensiLab's Pupil Matrix device, an automated tool for the measurement of individual circadian light sensitivity.
Next Gen (Student) Category
- Technology of Interactions (ToI) by Bachelor of Industrial Design student Jian Shin See is a series of home appliances investigating our relationships with data and technology.
Service Design/Education Services Category
- Monash Tech School's Superspace Program which engages and inspires junior secondary students to consider STEM careers in the space industry.
