Two QUT initiatives, one bridging the divide between academia and industry and another placing QUT at the global forefront of design education, have been recognised in the 2024 Australian Good Design Awards.
Presented on Friday night at Sydney's International Convention Centre, the awards showcase the pinnacle of design excellence. The Research Innovation Sprints, run by the QUT Centre for Future Enterprise, took out the coveted Gold Design Research Award for exceptional design and innovation, while the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy won in its category of Service Design Education Services.
Led by Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz, Chair in Digital Economy at QUT Business School, and co-designed by Peter Townson, Principal Designer at the Centre for Future Enterprise, the intensive, hands-on Research Innovation Sprints have benefited almost 50 organisations across Australia, including businesses, government bodies, and nonprofits.
Over a six-week period, Professor Kowalkiewicz and his team lead client project stakeholder 'Sprint Teams' through a thorough qualitative research process. Using design-led principles, they explore the problem space, run engagement activities, ideate concepts, validate prototypes, and plan implementation.
"Our Research Innovation Sprints bring together researchers, industry partners, end-users, and stakeholders to tackle specific problems and develop practical solutions," Professor Kowalkiewicz said.
"First, we work side-by-side with the industry partner to define the problem, collecting data to understand user and stakeholder needs. Then we brainstorm and co-design solutions and select the best ones. This is where we tap into our academic research. After this, we create prototypes and test them with end-users.
"Finally, we provide the solution to the client for implementation. But there's no 'handover'—we literally lock ourselves in the same room with partner organisations during each sprint. We're down in the trenches, rather than up in the ivory tower."
The Good Design Awards Jury praised Research Innovation Sprints as "a transformative applied research method that fosters collaboration between design, academia, and industry, accelerating the translation of research into real-world applications".
The judges highlighted the program's "successful tackling of systemic challenges within the innovation ecosystem in Australia" and said it "aligns with QUT's commitment to practical, impactful research".
Professor Kowalkiewicz said the Good Design Award would help them expand the impact of the program which has already been adopted by the University of Borås in Sweden.
"We believe in the power of collaboration and the potential of academic research to create meaningful change. This award is a motivation for us to keep pushing boundaries and finding new ways to bridge the gap between academia and industry," he said.
The BMW Group + QUT Design Academy was launched in 2020, the culmination of a long-term partnership between BMW Group in Germany, and the QUT School of Design. Led by Associate Professor Rafael Gomez, it features three core programs: Internships, Research, and Special Projects.
Other key members of the academy include Jordan Domjahn, Tim Lim, Epi Pereira, Taharah Ali, James Dwyer, Alex Singleton, Zhengtao Ma, Jesse Goddard and Yueteng Yu.
Since its inception, the Academy has grown significantly, yielding impressive results including over 45 paid internships around the world at BMW Group, three PhDs, one masters, and numerous real-world projects in collaboration with BMW Group and its subsidiary, idealworks.
In awarding the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy the Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Service Design category for exceptional design and innovation, the jury made special mention of the successful partnership.
"It is an honour to be recognised by the Australian Good Design Awards which are internationally esteemed," Professor Gomez said.
"Such an accolade is a meaningful endorsement of our long-term effort to promote advanced learning, cutting-edge research and development focused on the application of emerging technologies.
"It wouldn't be possible without our industry partners, BMW Group and idealworks, and I would like to thank our key colleagues Marc Kamradt (BMW Group, Head of BMW IT TechOffice Munich), Jimmy Nassif (idealworks, CTO) and Dylan Sheppard (idealworks, Digital Lead)."
The judges commented "this design hub, focusing on advanced learning and cutting-edge research, positions QUT as a global leader in design education and practice, showcasing the value of integrating design at the core of such initiatives".
"We have just had news that two more of our graduates have secured jobs with BMW Group (David Quick) and idealworks (Isaac Bonora) which is another huge outcome of our ongoing internship program," Professor Gomez said.
"I was also pleased to see that one of our QUT Industrial Design graduates, Jan Hendrik Bekker, was awarded a Good Design Award in the Next Gen category for his real-time bushfire monitor for high-voltage powerlines, Phoenix."
"All of these successes underscore our ongoing commitment to excellence in design and our strength working with world-leading industry partners."
The Australian Good Design Awards 2024 celebrate the transformative impact of design. The theme this year was 'The Design Effect', underscoring the crucial role design plays in shaping better products, services, spaces, and experiences while driving the transition to a more sustainable, less carbon-intensive future.
The 2024 Awards highlighted excellence across 12 Design Disciplines, covering more than 32 Categories.
Main image (left to right): Professor Marek Kowalkiewicz, Peter Townson and Associate Professor Rafael Gomez
