2023: The Exciting Adventure Continues…

This world class partnership between QUT and BMW Group has officially been running for 3 years in February of this 2023. What an incredible achievement for the entire team and all involved! However, we are not resting on our previous successes as we continue to push the boundaries and scope of this incredible collaboration. It is with great anticipation that we can give you a insight into the existing goals and initiatives we have for this coming year.

Academy Transformation

2023 marks the third year since the official birth of the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy, and so it is time to consider the next major steps towards growing the relationship. At the end of 2022 Design Associate Jordan Domjahn and I were lucky enough to travel to Germany to meet with our friends and colleagues at BMW Group and idealworks and begin planning for the next phase. Already, as our workload increased at the end of 2022 we’ve had to employ three new Design Associates and Junior Design Associates to the academy on short-term contracts including Mo FaramarzianJacob Ho and Daniel Fisher to assist us with our workload. We’re also seeing most of our current Special Projects expand in scope as our expertise becomes more valuable within the BMW Group network. This, among other achievements, are indicators of the growing partnership that has served as the foundation to take the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy to the next level. Without giving anything away we are in the midst of discussion with BMW Group colleagues on what this next phase of the partnership looks like, and we can’t wait to update you on this as soon as we can.

Internship Program

Now that we have reinitiated our cornerstone Internship Program with BMW Group, we are so excited to be sending 8 new interns to Germany and the UK to work on some cool and exciting projects at BMW Group and idealworks. As our design students and graduates settle in we are already seeing an uptick in interest from colleagues across the BMW Group network requesting QUT interns. It is also very promising to see that the interest has expanded beyond Design for the first time to include students from Engineering and Business. We are confident that demand will continue to grow in 2023 as we begin to plan the next round of interns. Further, the projects we are being offered to work on as part of the Academy internships are becoming more serious. We are offering some excellent projects through our Academy internships at QUT, as well as some majorly awesome projects for students in Industrial Design and Games Design capstone. We can’t wait to report on these later in the year!

Special Projects

Our Design Associates continue to outperform and are asked to be involved in some very cool projects allowing them to flex their design muscles. It’s so exciting to see projects emerging from BMW Group and idealworks that are transforming the future of BMW Group factories, manufacturing plants, robotics, logistic chains and a host of other super cool leading-edge areas and topics. Although we can’t discuss any live projects, you can check out some of the previous projects our Design Associates have been involved in over the past year on our website with regularly updated content.

Research Program

It is with great pride that we announce that our former Research Associate, James Dwyer, has completed his Masters! Congratulations to James on this outstanding achievement and for having completed his Masters on time and on a complex topic titled: Using communication mechanisms derived from social cues in industrial autonomous mobile robots to improve interactions. James will be continuing his research journey as a PhD candidate at the Australian Cobotics Centre but will continue to be an important part of the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy. We’re also excited about our next cohort of research students which will expand our research footprint by some way. We initiated a concerted effort to grow our Research Program in 2022 and we’re glad that we’ve been able to do that. The new projects will branch out into new areas of opportunity by focusing on two important areas: advanced and emerging knowledge in design thinking; and future human-machine interfaces for autonomous supercars. Keep an eye out for more exciting news in the coming months as we begin to establish these research tracks.

As you can read from all of the upcoming initiatives it is clear that the partnership between BMW Group and QUT continues to go from strength to strength. All of our Programs have increased in scope, relevance and significance, while our other initiatives and external engagements help us connect our work with other high-profile researchers and academic groups, industry collaborators, the broader design community, and young students interested in the design and technology fields. All of this just points to the incredible success that BMW Group and QUT have achieved together over the previous 3 years. It's difficult to express how proud we are of our achievements and we look forward with incredible confidence and enthusiasm to 2023 and beyond because we know that the best is still ahead. For now, make sure you stay connected with us on this journey and explore our website, read our newsletters, blog posts, and publications to stay up with the latest news and information!

Take care,

Rafael Gomez
Founder and Head of BMW Group + QUT Design Academy

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2022: The year of the supercar!