News & Events

Product Design Engineering student wins prestigious design award

Lochlan receiving the $10,000 check from Mr Adrian Palumbo from Reece

For the second time in three years, a Product Design Engineering student has won the student category of the Reece Bathroom Innovation Award.

Lochlan von Moger, a final-year student, designed the 'Ishi' shower that includes several water saving features, winning $10,000 for himself and $5000 for Swinburne's Product Design Engineering (PDE) program.

He set out to design a shower that could allow the user to have a number of water saving options yet stood out as a feature piece within a bathroom.

“The main aim of this design was to create a sense of styling not seen in the current market place,” Lochlan said. By adjusting a slider in the shower head, two water flow states can be selected. A unique water saving option of a pause button allows the user to wet themselves and pause the flow of water to lather up before rinsing.

Lochlan's design was commended by the judging panel for “the innovative application of materials with groundbreaking functionality and outstanding design”.

The Reece Bathroom Innovation competition is one of the highest standard design competitions in the country. It was established by Reece Australia to encourage and recognise original and outstanding bathroom product design. This year 115 student entries were received with three of the 10 shortlisted designs being submitted by Swinburne students. The two other Swinburne finalists were PDE students Edward Taylor and Sebastian Bradilovic.

The competition finalists and winners designs can be viewed at:

http://www.bathroominnovation.com.au/2008winners

The Dyson Student Design Award: Product Design Engineering finalists

The Dyson Student Design Award is an annual competition run in parallel with the Australian Design Awards. These awards aim to recognise and reward the outstanding talent that exists amongst future Australian designers.

Each year hundreds of student design projects from universities across Australia are submitted in this competition, and are shortlisted for final judging through a rigorous process of assessment by industry professionals.

The Product Design Engineering course at Swinburne has four recent graduates short listed for the Dyson student Design Awards from a national shortlist total of 21.

Their outcomes are the result of extensive research and collaboration with specialist industry partners and are strong in both design and engineering resolution.

Marika Mulqueen has developed an Ovarian Cancer Screening Device using non invasive MRI technology. Easily transportable, it has been designed for use in doctor's surgeries allowing for the early detection of ovarian cancer which dramatically increases survival rates.

Paul Sparks has designed Disaster Relief Housing for use by displaced communities devastated by natural disasters. It is extremely lightweight and easily transportable with a modular construction that allows unskilled assembly without the use of tools.

Suzanne Hurst's wheelchair for paraplegics who live independently supports both manual and powered operation allowing the highest level of physical activity and independence. It utilises ‘nanotube construction and incorporates manual recharging and regenerative braking.

Steven Kelliher's Microdyn Pathogen Lab, is a handheld device that enables quick and discreet testing of foods and utensils to address the escalating problem of foodborne illness. It has the capability to test liquid, solid and swab samples for up to six types of bacteria and viruses with quantifiable results in less than 10 seconds.

We wish all these students the best of luck in the final round of judging for the Student Design Award and much success in their careers.