2021; Another Mammoth Year!
It has been a tumultuous year for many around the world, but we are thankful to reflect on 2021 as the year our collaboration with BMW Group - and idealworks - grew substantially. This success is a testament to the depth of the relationship and the trust that has formed between QUT and BMW Group, and which will propel us into an exciting year ahead.
It was a year for nurturing existing projects and expanding the partnership across new opportunity areas. There is so much success to celebrate! It began with a significant increase in support from BMW Group, which was a very positive response to the partnership we had built in 2020; and our partnership continued to expand. Our three Programs; Internships, Research, and Special Projects - all grew in scale and size. Our team had to expand as well to include our superstar Design Associate, Jordan Domjahn, as well as two new talented Junior Design Associates, Tim Lim and Epi Pereira, both were BMW Group interns in 2020 and continue to work on incredible projects at the Academy. We also added James Dwyer, our Research Associate, to the team as a Masters research student.
Our Internship program grew in scale and breadth this year. In all we had 14 students working at the Academy including 8 through the Internship Program, 5 through Impact Labs and 1 Industrial Design Capstone student. This was a significant increase in capacity and scale but the team handled it wonderfully. The outcomes of the various projects were incredibly professional, which was pleasing to see. Further, some of the work from our Impact Lab students will be used by the Academy team for various new projects in 2022, so keep an eye out for that! Our interns also began to collaborate with new divisions at BMW Group on projects at the forefront of Infotainment, logistics, manufacturing and robotics. It is our hope that as border restrictions ease in 2022 we will be able to send some of these students to BMW Group in Munich to continue working on the cutting-edge projects.
Our Research Program expanded with James Dwyer being announced as our lead Research Associate for the Academy. James is completing his Masters exploring advances in human-robot interaction for manufacturing and logistics contexts. He is developing some amazing insights into the ways that future humanoid and non-humanoid robots could engage with people in advanced manufacturing contexts to create safer, effective and collaborative interactions in Industry 4.0 settings. He has already published various short papers of his research (check them out in our Publications section of our website) and once border restrictions ease it is our intention that he will travel to Munich to work with colleagues at BMW Group on his research. We are very happy with the progress off our Research Program and hope to expand this significantly in 2022.
Finally, our Special Projects Program continues to grow in strength. These are live, real-world projects that we work with BMW Group on an ongoing basis. Our projects are creating massive impacts and positive change within BMW Group and its subsidiaries across logistics, manufacturing, VR, AR, robotics and design. Although we can’t say much given the sensitive nature of the projects, you may hear about some of these through our newsletters and updates, so make sure you stay connected.
Beyond our Programs, we’ve had other wonderful achievements we are very proud of this year. This includes the launch of our BMW Group + QUT Design Academy 2020 Photobook. If you haven’t checked it out make sure you download it! It was also great to celebrate the success of our previous and current interns and Design Associates win international and national design awards including the IF Design Award, Good Design Awards and Design Institute of Australia Graduate of the Year Award. Although we couldn’t send any students overseas to complete internships as a result of travel restrictions, it was great to formally collaborate with the BMW Group team at Hams Hall (in the UK) to employ a new design intern from Loughborough University.
For much of the year we’ve also been hinting at an incredibly exciting new initiative with BMW Group. Although we still cannot share details of this until early 2022, we can certainly confirm that it will be by far our most prestigious and exciting initiative since the founding of the Academy, and will form the foundation for new projects for many years to come.
We look forward to 2022 with great anticipation. We will announce exciting new initiatives, launch our 2021 Photobook and a new revamped website, and reveal new premises for the Academy as our footprint grows and expands at QUT!
The team and I are very proud once again of our progress and achievements in 2021. Although it has been a mammoth year, 2022 appears to be another year of growth and expansion, which is very exciting! We are incredibly thankful to all the student interns, collaborators and supporters throughout the year who have made much of this possible - something of this calibre and scale is not possible without significant support from QUT and BMW Group. I also want to personally thank the Academy team who are central to the ongoing success. Finally thank you to our amazing partners and colleagues across BMW Group in Germany, especially to our friends Jimmy Nassif and Dylan Sheppard.
Wishing everyone a safe and happy festive season and Happy New Year!
Rafael Gomez
Founder and Head of BMW Group + QUT Design Academy
