Recently, the 2017 International Symposium on Design Education was held in the Administrative Services Building of Peiyang Campus, Tianjin University (TJU) by the School of Mechanical Engineering. The symposium was sponsored by multiple enterprises to discuss the theme “Design Education Strategies for the Era of Design 3.X”. Topics such as design education, new media, film, graphic design, textile and regional culture, and other related fields about industrial design were all included in discussions and seminars. The symposium brought experts from the industrial design realm together to carry out in-depth analysis and debate on design education strategies in the Era of Design 3.X. TJU had achieved yet another milestone to get closer to its vision of becoming one of the leading industrial design institute in research and innovation in the world.
Zhang Fengbao, vice president of TJU, and Xiang Zhongxia, Dean of the Industrial Design Department, hosted the opening ceremony, then delivered an inspiring opening speech. He mentioned that this 4th International Symposium on Design Education is aimed at further promoting the internationalization of industrial design in TJU and continuously exploring innovative methods for its educational reformation. Next, Wang Shuxin, Dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering, delivered a brief speech to express gratitude and appreciation to staff members who had contributed to the symposium. In his speech, he emphasized that the conference had provided opportunities to develop networks and increase energy and connected world and it would be productive for future research projects. This conference was a massive learning experience for everyone present.
Well-known scholars in this realm were afterwards invited to give their speeches, discussing future research directions and exchanging precious application experience. Keiichi Sato first delivered a speech about Systems Approach in Advanced Design Education. His presentation discussed the challenges facing advanced design education in attempting to address the complexity of social and technical environments and designing opportunities for innovation from human perspectives.
The next lecturer, He Renke, Dean of the School of Design from Hunan University, introduced New Channel and Xiang Home to the audience. New Channel is a social innovation team which creates new opportunities for Dong minority cultural development by virtue of local ethnic cultural characteristics, while Xiang Home is a cultural and creative industrial public welfare platform. Xiang Home has reached the goal of producing public benefits from the cultural innovation industry as well as realizing precise poverty relief. Another scholar, Michael Kin Wai, whose topic was Design Education for the Era of Design 3.X, demonstrated that as many recent design studies have illustrated, design practice has shifted from artefact-centric to human-centric, and further still to socio-centric.
On the second day of the symposium, seven professors from both domestic and foreign universities and colleges delivered lectures to the audience, continuing the discussion and centralizing the seminar theme. Associated Professor (tenured) of the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University shared his practical experience about industrial design and introduced a mature cooperation system established between his university and various renowned global enterprises, which enormously impressed other participants. Then a Professor of the Rhode Island School of Design, David Morgan, delivered his ideas about stimulating intrinsic motivation by designing appropriate-level challenges and scaffolding course design. The interesting interactive activities Professor Morgan conducted with listeners aroused interest around the symposium.
Scholars shared their ideas and experiences during the tea break. A number of undergraduates and graduates from the School of Mechanical Engineering, TJU scholars also had the chance to interact with the scholars. The entire symposium proceeded harmoniously and came to a successful conclusion, providing a wonderful opportunity for the scholars and experts in this field from universities around the world to gather together at TJU, to discuss, connect, and exchange ideas for design education.
BY: Zhang Wanying and Wang Huiting
Editors: Qin Mian and Christopher Peter Clarke
