Kicking Goals

My name is Søren Waldmann and I am studying industrial design at QUT. I just completed my final year and have recently finished my internship at the BMW GROUP + QUT Academy. Since starting at QUT one of my goals was to intern at the academy. Stemming from my heritage, love for BMW and previous occupation at BMW as a mechanic, this has been a major goal for me to reach during my time at university. Having now finished the internship I couldn’t be happier.

At the beginning of the internship, I set two main goals; to create a design that has a real-life impact for colleagues in Munich and to learn Blender, a modelling, rendering and animations software which the academy uses frequently. I was set with the task to design a peripheral device to the Idealworks hub (iw.hub), an autonomous logistics robot found in BMW factories. Throughout the internship I designed and developed the ideal.vision concept which uses laser light technology to display movement intent and operating boundaries by mimicking basic human behaviors and interactions. This information helps build a foundation of understanding between robots and factory workers resulting in a reduction in traffic incidents, improved efficiency, and collaboration. Throughout the design process I learned a lot about human-robot interactions and how autonomous robots are transforming the industry.

To bring the design to life I started learning Blender, a daunting task considering the short amount of time I had at the academy. A steep learning curve followed which ultimately paid its dividends as I was able to use the newly acquired skillset in all my projects during this semester.

On top of kicking my own goals the most rewarding aspect of the internship was being able to engage and learn from the talented designers at the academy and experience working in a professional environment. I felt the academy staff had a lot of confidence in me as I was left to manage my own project and keep on track throughout the internship while always receiving help when needed. I’m also excited by the fact that my design is now being considered by the idealworks team in Germany for testing and potential future application.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience where I learned new skills, gained further confidence for when I graduate and made some new friends.

Thank You,

Søren Waldmann
BMW Group + QUT Design Academy Intern, Semester 2 2021