PhD Students

Email: Abdul.Al-Ghareebi@brunel.ac.uk

Office: Howell Building H214

Supervisor: Dr. Olinkha Gustafson-Pearce,

PhD project title: Meaningful spaces, Reclaiming the Urban environment for its residents

This research study seeks to evolve a methodology for the study of urban spaces (zones) within a cultural context. Also including a new scope for introducing ‘local’ views to the developers and planners, when developing urban projects, at the conceptual stage. The study aims to include the views of ‘indigenous’ residents within the projects, which would enable them to reclaim their social and cultural spaces.

Email: Santos.Bunga@brunel.ac.uk

Office: HL030 – Halsbury Building

Supervisor: Dr Tony Vilches

Research project title:  Low Power Biomedical and Self-powered Smart Electronics

Research area: Novel, flexible, electronic materials & low power smart electronic devices and systems

Research into Implantable biofuel fuel cells with the aims to create an Implantable Bio-Fuel Cell (IBFC) capable of utilizing glucose and oxygen from the blood to produce voltage through the chemical reactions flowing into it. Because the use of fuel cells capable of harvesting energy directly from body fluids has considerable advantages in the field of implantable biosensors; low-power application for medical purpose needed to improve patients’ lives; medical implants such as Pacemakers, hearing aids, transdermal drug delivery, are required to have long-term battery life.

Email: Nicola.Combe@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Prof. David Harrison, Dr Hua Dong

Research project title: Product design for a more inclusive and sustainable built environment

Course title: Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Environmental Technology sponsored by Buro Happold

Research area: Inclusive Design, Sustainable Design, User Behaviour

With the twin issues of reducing the UK’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and a rapidly ageing population there is a need for engaging and including the widest possible range of people to reduce CO2 emissions. If the required reductions in emissions are to be achieved our behavior within our homes must change.

One area where behavior contributes largely towards emissions is space heating in the home. Heat energy consumption is responsible for 60% of the emissions from homes and hence is an area where even small reductions would have a significant impact.

The overarching hypothesis of this research is that inclusive design may contribute to energy savings within the home. The research aims to contribute the scale of user exclusion and the reasons for this exclusion relating to digital programmable thermostats. Thus a more inclusive heating control system is under development based on the data generated in the descriptive studies.

Publications:

Journal:

• Combe, N., Harrison, D., Craig, S., & Young, M. S. (2011). An investigation into usability and exclusivity issues of digital programmable thermostats. Journal of Engineering Design, 1-17. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.1080/09544828.2011.599027
• Combe, N., Harrison, D., Dong, H., Craig, S., & Gill, Z. (2011). Assessing the number of users who are excluded by domestic heating controls. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 4(1), 84-92. doi:10.1080/19397038.2010.491563

Conferences:

• Combe, N., Harrison, D., & Way, C. (2011). Enabling Sustainable User Interaction with Domestic Heating Controls. “Buildings Don’t Use Energy, People Do?” – Domestic Energy Use and CO2 Emissions in Existing Dwellings (pp. 89-96).
• Combe, N., Harrison, P. D., & Way, C. (2011). Modelling the impact of user behaviour on heat energy consumption. 2011 Conference Proceedings, Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference, The Berkeley Institute of the Environment, UC Berkeley.

Other:

• Design Principles for Energy Management Systems available online http://bit.ly/inclusive-interfaces

Email: Ozlem.Edizel@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Professor Graeme Evans
 
Research project title: Event-led Regeneration Governance:  Understanding Sustainable Development Outcomes of London 2012 Olympic Games

Your Research area: Ozlem Edizel graduated from City and Regional Planning and has MS in Regional Planning from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Throughout her master study, she worked as a researcher in the METU-Research and Implementation Centre for Built Environment and Design (RICBED) and took part in several projects undertaken for the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, the EU and UNDP. She has started her PhD at the Cities Institute, LondonMet as a V.C. scholar and taught parts of several modules and seminars at LodnonMet. Ozlem is currently studying for a PhD in the Department of Design, Brunel University. Her research interests include urban regeneration and mega-events, sustainable development, urban governance, regional and local economic development and cultural and creative industries management

The aim of the research is to understand the governance structure of mega-event led regeneration and assess how organisers and other stakeholders can optimise the sustainable development outcomes of event-led regeneration as the London 2012 Olympic Games/Lower Lea Valley being the case study. Since the early 1990s, there has been a widespread trend towards the use of mega-events to promote a city, stimulate the local economy and regenerate rundown post-industrial areas and communities. Accordingly, the importance of mega-events in city regeneration has gained increasing attention. In the context of mega-event based regeneration, multiple stakeholder perspectives are essential and the stakeholders should be in consensus in order to deliver sustainable events. Research methods include qualitative interviewing conducted with London2012 stakeholders, focus group meetings held with local residents of four London 2012 host boroughs and document analysis. 

Publications:

Conferences:

• September 2012, ATLAS annual conference 2012 Re-creating the Global City: Tourism, Leisure and Mega Events in the Transformation of 21st Century Cities
• July 2012, AESOP 2012, Turkey (publication of full paper in Proceedings)
• June 2012, LMBS 5th Annual Research Conference, LondonMet
• November 2011, 2nd Annual PGRS Conference (poster presentation)
• September 2011, Mega-Events and Regional Development Research Seminar, Maastricht University
• July 2011, LONDONCITY 2011- The First Annual London Studies Conference
• June 2011, Games and the City: Impacts and Legacies Conference, University of Greenwich
• June 2011, LMBS 4th Annual Research Conference, LondonMet
• November 2010, 1st Annual PGRS Conference (poster presentation)
• September 2008, Attractions and Events as Catalysts for Regeneration and Social Change Conference, University of    Nottingham (publication of full paper in Proceedings of the EUTO Conference 2008)

Other:

• Member of Regional Studies Association and the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS)

Email: sebastian.fraser@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Professor Joseph Giacomin

Research project title: Quantifying the subjective existence of iconicity: Examining the metaphysical coding of sensory iconic experience and emotional response towards iconic perception

Research area: Human Centred Design Institute, based specifically in the Perception Enhancement Research (PER) group at Brunel University- Research area: Design/Perception etc.

Sebastian Fraser is a Ph.D. design researcher, within the Human Centred Design Institute, based specifically in the Perception Enhancement Research (PER) group at Brunel University. His research project is entitled “Quantifying the subjective existence of iconicity: Examining the metaphysical coding of sensory iconic experience and emotional response towards iconic perception”. Sebastian’s research is involved with quantifying the perceived subjective existence of iconicity within a generalised context of products; with a particular interest in the automotive field. This entails the examination of the metaphysics of sensory iconic experience and the emotional responses of product perception. His research also involves understanding the neurophysiological responses and mechanisms associated with perception, emotion, memory, consciousness and experience. He also explores the role iconicity plays in other contexts such as commerce (investigating branding influence, purchasing behaviour, culture, trends etc.), philosophical and sociological (exploring perception, experience, communication, semiotics, linguistics and semantics) and also meaning-centred design (emotion, product pleasure, psychology and semiotics etc.) Research methods include quantitative and qualitative research, case histories, and ethnographic research.

Sebastian’s main goal is to define the multidimensional constructs both subjective and objective, which influence our ideals of the putative representation of ‘iconicity’ or ‘iconic’ thought whilst determining how iconic qualities in a generalised sense can be established, rationalised and quantified. His research aims to create or define a framework for achieving iconicity or iconic thought experienced within the mind of a consumer.

Email: islam.gharib@brunel.ac.uk

Office: ML358, Michael Sterling Building

Supervisor: Dr. Sheng Feng Qin

Research project title: Sketch-based Interface for modelling for Conceptual Product Design

Research area:

• Computer-Aided Conceptual Design
• Sketch-Based Interface and Modelling
• Conceptual Design
• Design Cognition
• User-Centred Design

Designers used to express their ideas by drawing them on paper using a pen or a pencil. This way allows them a wide range of freedom in expression and helps ideas to flow better. With the development of computer hardware and CAD systems, designers tend to use these new technologies to implement the detailed design of products. But they still use paper and pencil to sketch out conceptual design ideas and explore design space freely. The reason for that is because CAD applications are not suitable for handling vague, ambiguous, and inaccurate information (e.g. freehand sketches). Therefore, freehand sketching remains one of the most powerful and intuitive tools at the conceptual design stage.
Within our search, we investigate sketch nature, designers’ habits and the way designers express their ideas to develop an intuitive 3D sketch system which can be learnable and compatible with other CAD system. This work depends on investing designers’ experience and design cognition technology. 

Publications:

(2010) Islam Gharib & Shengfeng Qin, A Multi-Windows Approach for Sketch-Based Conceptual Design System, Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics 2010, Sheffield, UK, 6-8 September 2010, pp 231-239.

Email: Jie.Hong@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr. Jinsheng Kang

Research project title: Human gait analysis

Research area: Human 3D gait capture, motion analysis, gait identification and recognition.

Overview of research:

Research was focused on individual identification from gait based on 3D motion capture techniques. Human gait identification has become an active area of research due to increased security requirements. It is a potential new tool for identifying individuals beyond traditional methods. This research built a practical method of gait identification and investigated the individual characteristics of gait.  Besides, the attractiveness of gait towards the opposite sex was investigated. Human seated motion was also investigated.

Publications

Papers:

• Extraction of bodily features for gait recognition and gait attractiveness evaluation, Hong, Jie; Kang, Jinsheng; Price, Michael E.,  Multimedia Tools and Applications, DOI 10.1007/s11042-012-1319-2.

Conferences:

• Gait analysis and identification, Hong, Jie; Kang, Jinsheng; Price, Michael E.,  18th International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC), 2012.

Other:

• Enlightenment of the Silicon Valley Bank Supporting the Hi-tech Business, Hainan Finance, Nov 2005.
• Portfolio and investment selection with transaction cost — a solution to this problem, Operation Research and Management Science, December 2000.

Email: hojung.kim@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Professor Joseph Giacomin, Professor Robert Macredie

Research project title: Human Centred Design of Recommender System in Social Network Service

Research area:

• Social media and social network service
• Recommender systems in social network services
• User types of social network service
• Human centred design of software agents
• Legal and ethical issues in social network service and software agent development

Overview of research:

Hojung Kim is a Ph.D. design researcher at the Perception Enhancement Research (PER) group, Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI), School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University. He is undertaking his research project entitled “Human Centred Design of Recommender System in Social Network Service”. Hojung Kim’s research focuses on the role and impact of the recommender system, which is one of representative software agents in social network service (SNS), in order to discuss and suggest possible benefits of the software agent as a personal agent through identifying users’ behaviour, needs and emotions. His research includes understanding general concept of SNS, types of social media and SNS users, characteristics and typology of software agents, legal and ethical issues in social network service and software agent development, and recommender system framework. The research methods include expert interviews, ethnography, prototyping and questionnaire survey.

Hojung Kim’s main goal is to classify key human centred design criteria that can possibly contribute to the development of recommender systems in using SNSs. His research aims to define a framework of a human centred recommender system as a personal agent in SNS.

Email: Hyun.Kim@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Prof. Joseph Giacomin; Prof. Graeme Evans

Research project title: Public Service Design to Address the Issue of Fear of Violent Crime

Research area: Fear of Crime, Appraisal of Emotion, Gender, Stereotype Threat, Public Service, Service Design

Overview of research:

Fear of crime is a common and widespread social problem which leads to a fractured sense of community, neighbourhood, and public places.  In the underground, females express more fear of crime than males and consequently exhibit behavioural changes like avoiding use of isolated places in the underground and tubes at specific times.  Recently, design has been researched related to crime in terms of the influence of the physical environment and products on crime prevention (Colquhoun, 2003): Defensible Space (Newman, 1972) Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (Jeffery, 1971; Crowe, 1991) and Design against Crime projects.  Typically, design research on crime has focused on crime prevention and fear of crime has not been researched as a separate domain unlike in criminology or criminal psychology.  However, even though fear of crime and crime are somewhat correlated with each other, research on fear of crime claims that it should be dealt with as a separate problem from crime itself due to the paradoxical aspect of fear.  Females express higher fear of crime contrary to their relatively low victimization rates compared to males who express low fear of crime but have a high possibility of being involved in crime. Therefore, the aim of this research is to create a design model for the public tube service which addresses gendered fear of crime in order to ameliorate females’ fear of the underground.

Email: zheng.li@brunel.ac.uk

Office: H312, Howell Building

Supervisor: Dr Mark Atherton and Dr David Harrison

Research project title: Design research: evaluation methodology in design management

Research area: Design evaluation methods in intellectual property management

This research aims to develop a critical, reliable methodology which integrates and restructures the current design evaluation methods in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of independent innovations and IP strategy formulations in different organisations.

Publications:

Journals:

• (2011) Design evaluation: an evaluation model of conceptual design for intellectual property protection, MA dissertation, Brunel University

Other:

• (2011) Patent reinvention: a research on intellectual property strategies for design managers, Made in Brunel 2011
• (2010) Research on theories and practices in multifunctional furniture design, MEng dissertation, Northeast Forestry University

Email: Thomas.Maltby@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr Vilches

Research project title: Piezoelectric Thin films and Fibres for Energy Harvesting

Research area: Energy Harvesting

My research involves Creating thin films and fibres using piezoelectric polymers by the electrospinning method for use in energy harvesting applications and transducers.

Email: Christopher.McGinley@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr Hua Dong, Prof Rob Macredie (2nd supervisor)

Research project title: Supporting People-centred Design Through Information and Empathy

Research area: inclusive design; people-centred design; design ethnography; empathy

The central concept of this research explores the potential role of information and empathy for professional designers, and ways in which ‘human information’ resources can provoke and promote people-centred design thinking in their work.

Towards this goal the research investigates the existing practices of designers within contemporary design studios; exploring the ways in which they come to understand those they design for, and the role of information and empathy combinations (i.e. ‘human information’ as defined by the author) to inform their design process.

Empirical research included the co-creation of resource concepts during two workshops, each with 20 design participants (a combination of students and professionals); in-depth probe studies and follow-up interviews with 10 designers; active participation as lead researcher in two four-month commercial design projects; and finally ‘MHIRROR’ (Means of Human Information Retrieval, Representation, Organisation and Reflection), a mixed media human information resource was developed and trialed with six experienced user-centred design practitioners.

Publications:

Books:

• McGinley, C. and Gaudion, K. (2012) 'Green Spaces: outdoor environments for adults with autism’. Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design
• McGinley, C., and Till, C. (2010), ‘Design Out Crime: Using design to reduce injuries from alcohol related violence in pubs and clubs’, Design Council. Online publication available since March 2010

Journals:

• McGinley, C. and Macredie R. (2011). 'Towards Diversity and Empathy in Design Development', In Zoontechnica: The Journal of Redirective Design, Volume 1, Number 1, November 2011
• McGinley, C., and Dong, H. (2011), "Designing with information and empathy: delivering human information to designers", The Design Journal, 14(2), pp. 187-206.

Conferences:

• McGinley C and Dong H (2010) 'Co-design insights: workshop with designers and the public' (The 3rd Universal Design Conference, Hamamatsu, Japan, 30 October-3 November 2010)
• McGinley C, Macredie R and Dong H (2010) 'Probing for Insight: developing human information resources' (Include 2011, London, UK, 18-20 April 2011)
• McGinley C, Bound J and Dong H (2010) 'Contextualising data for design' CWUAAT2010, Fitzwilliam College, 22-25 March 2010, Cambridge, UK
• McGinley C and Dong H (2009) 'Design Bugs Out: a real world investigation of hospital bedside chairs and commodes'. The 17th World Congress on Ergonomics (IEA'09), 9-14 August 2009, Beijing, China
• McGinley C (2009) 'The collection, communication and inclusion of user data in design', Research Student Conference, ReSCon09, School of Engineering & Design, Brunel University, London, UK 22-24 June 2009
• McGinley, C., and Dong, H. (2009), “Accessing user information for use in design”, In Stephanidis, C. (Ed). Universal Access in HCI, Part 1, HCII2009, LNCC 5614. Heidelberg: Springer Berlin, pp. 116-125.
• McGinley C, Gheerawo, R. and Slater, A. (2008), “Enlightened: Designing domestic lighting for older people”, International Federation of Ageing 9th Global Conference 'Ageing & Design' Montreal, pp. 4-7, September 2008
• McGinley, C., Gheerawo, R., and Matsunami, H. (2006), “Inclusive Konro - Improving Kitchen Stoves in Japan”, The 2nd International Conference for Universal Design, Kyoto, pp. 22-26, October 2006

Other:

• McGinley C (2010) 'Bridging the 'human information' gap between professional designers and those they design for'. Inclusive Design Research in Action, in Design for All newsletter special issue 5(6), June 2010, Design for All Institute India, pp19-27

Email: jeahoo.na@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr. Youngok Choi

Research project title: Corporate Level Design Policy for Innovative Manufacturing in the UK

Research area: Design Policy, Design Management, Innovation and Manufacturing

The competitive advantage of UK manufacturing has shifted towards advanced and high value manufacturing, but  concern is growing for the future of UK manufacturing because of the  increased capabilities of emerging economies such as the BRIC countries. To address this the UK government is encouraging innovative manufacturing development, such as creating research centres, where innovation is a key driver for creating and sustaining the competitive advantage. However, there are indicators which suggest general lack of design utilisation in UK manufacturing. According to many experts, extensive innovation can be difficult to achieve without design implementation throughout the whole company. The research seeks to create new knowledge in corporate level design policy that enable and encourage design-led innovation within manufacturing companies.

Publications:

Journals:

• Choi, Y. and Na, J. (2012) Shaping the Future: National Design Support for Innovative Manufacturing in the UK, Journal of Design Management,  3(1), pp. 17-25
• Na, J., Boult, J. (2010). What Next? Future Strategy for UK Product Design Consultancies, Design Management Journal. 5(1) pp. 87-97

Conferences:

• Na, J., Choi, Y. (2012). The Future of Manufacturing: The Development of Corporate-Level Design Policy for UK Innovative Manufacturing. In DMI International Design Management Research Conference. Boston, USA, 8th to 9th August 2012
• Na, J., Boult, J. (2009). Future of UK Design Consultancies. In DMI/KIDP International Conference: Design Korea 2009. Incheon, Rep. of Korea, 2nd to 4th December 2009.

Email: Nico.Nelson@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor:  Dr Richard T Rakowski (Design), Dr Ben Jones (Experimental Techniques Centre)

Research project title:  Multi-layered nano-structured diamond and diamond like carbon coatings for the machining of aluminium

Research area:  amorphous carbon coatings; wear resistance; adhesion; metal cutting.

The commercial benefits from ‘smart tool’ technology will add considerable economic value to the machining/manufacturing industries by:

1. energy savings using low friction coatings
2. reduced environmental impact due to dry cutting
3. improvements in surface finish through force monitoring
4. extending tool life through force monitoring

Publications: 

• Geometrical effects on diamond-like carbon thin films deposited by plasma enhanced CVD N.Nelson, J.Franks, R.Rakowski, B.J.Jones. 14th International Conference on Applications of Surface and Interface Analysis (ECASIA’11) organised by the Institute of Physics, Cardiff, 4th to 9th September 2011.

Email: Helen.paine@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Yanmeng Xu

Research project title: Investigation of Advanced Joining Methods for Textiles and Related Materials

Research area: Textiles

This project seeks to research alternative and novel methods of joining polymeric and textile materials, including dissimilar material combinations between textiles and film and rigid materials, and their applications. The project is funded by Brunel University and TWI (The Welding Institute) situated in Great Abington, Cambridge. The main aim of the project is to investigate laser and ultrasonic welding in comparison with other processes for joining textile and polymeric materials. The majority of this research will be carried out at TWI who has a strong and multi-faceted base of knowledge in this area. Throughout this project Helen intends to build upon her background in design, extending her technical knowledge to make significant developments in textile joining.

Email: bruna.petreca@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr Sharon Baurley

Research project title: Development of a method to assess users’ preferences and expectations to feedback in the design of textile products.

Research area: Design, fashion and textiles, emotion, sensory evaluation, product experience

In this project textiles will be explored both in terms of their physicality as to the sensory and aesthetic properties. Design methodologies and materials characterisation will be employed, pursuing information that can be transposed into the design of textile products. The investigation of people’s appreciations elicited through tactile interaction with textiles seeks to enable communication of their sensory perceptions in the development, production, marketing and use of these products.

Acknowledgment

This work is supported by the CNPq – Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, of the Ministry for Science and Technology of Brazil.

Publications:

Conferences:

• Orzechowski, P. M., Padilla, S., Atkinson, D., Chantler, M.J., Baurley, S., Bianchi-Berthouze, N., Watkins, P.,  Petreca, B.  Archiving and Simulation of Fabrics with Multi-Gesture Interfaces. British Informatics Society Ltd. Proceedings of HCI 2012.
• Petreca, B. B.; Arduin, R. H.; Luiz, D. M. O Refugo da Moda: Ensaio sobre a saturação do consumo na capital paulista. Anais do XXIII Congresso Nacional de Técnicos Têxteis, São Paulo, 2009.

Technical reports:

• Petreca, B. B.; Arduin, R.H.; Oshio, K.U., Pahl, R. Relatório final do Projeto Interno N˚ 8807.02.A – “Avaliação de têxteis técnicos para a área esportiva: capacitação laboratorial com foco na megatendência de saúde e bem-estar”. Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo. São Paulo, 2012.
• Petreca, B. B.; Pahl, R. Investigação da composição e propriedades relacionadas à(s) fibra(s) de uma saia para caracterização técnica e levantamento de possíveis causas de degradação. Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo. São Paulo, 2011.
• Petreca, B. B.; Pahl, R. Evaluation of the physical and comfort properties of cotton fabrics in different constructions, as the part of IPT in the collaboration with the project “Digital Sensoria: design through digital perceptual experiences”. Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo. São Paulo, 2011.
• Pahl, R.; Petreca, B. B. Parecer técnico investigativo sobre a tecnologia utilizada para a produção do efeito decorativo aparente e permanente da indumentária RG3147. Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo. São Paulo, 2011.
• Petreca, B. B.; Maluf, E.  Parecer técnico sobre os tipos de entrelaçamentos detectados utilizando-se a metodologia prescrita na norma ASTM D 4724-99(2005) Standard Test Methods for Degree of Filament Yarn Entanglement by Needle Insertion Methods - Option 2 - Manual measurement of degree of filament entanglement. Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo. São Paulo, 2009.
• Petreca, B. B.; Pahl, R.; Maluf, E.; Silva, A.P.S.; Queiroz, R. S. Avaliação da causa de furos em mangas filtrantes. 2009.
• Petreca, B. B.; PahL, R. Parecer técnico sobre tapetes confeccionados com dimensões definidas, classificados na NCM 57.03, quanto à sua caracterização como material de construção ou artefatos decorativos. 2009.

Text in magazine:

• Petreca, B. B. Na sala de jantar. Revista Key, 01 ago. 2008.

Email: Robert.Phillips2@brunel.ac.uk

Personal Webpage: http://www.rdphillips.co.uk

Twitter: @rob_dphillips

Supervisor: Dr Sharon Baurley

Research project title: Open design & citizen science, how can the accessibility of open technology enable new insights.

Research area:

Design has evolved due to the democratisation of digital manufacturing processes. These means of manufacture and product creation are changing the products that we can create. Design has a greater power to create mass production quality objects by the unit number of one opposed to the normal fifty thousand. Bespoke solutions enable user-designers to fabricate their own consumer goods from a designed system with fixed parameters. This “open design” will not replace conventional manufacture, far from it, it will allow more niche, bespoke objects to be created to the same standard as their mass produced counterparts. This approach can lead to more custom goods specific to that user.

Open design is the accessibility of technology to the people that want to use it, this balance will exist with designers aiding it to; ease the transition, optimise processes, ensure translation from user to finished object. People will still buy objects from large retail brands but they will have the freedom to construct their own products to.

There are pitfalls to this process; Intellectual property of product, safety standards applied to personally created products, the initial cost and many more that are being discovered on a daily basis.

Overview of research:

Understanding the relationship between open design and citizen science. Reviewing their paths and processes on practice based work.

Acknowledgment

This PhD is funded by Horizon Digital Economy Institute.

Email: Simon.Ramm@brunel.ac.uk

Personal website: http://www.simonramm.com

Supervisor: Prof Joseph Giacomin

Research project title: Naturalness framework for person-automobile dialogue

Research area: Human centred design, interaction design, car design

Overview of research:

The car plays a central role in the lifestyle for many in developed and developing nations alike. While giving freedom, status and privacy on the move, it also subtly creates dependence and brings with it huge responsibility and skill demands. Yet little thought has been given to the deeper non-instrumental role the car plays in people’s lives and the metaphors and meanings it holds – and how these inform the way we should communicate with it. All this needs to be understood urgently: firstly because mobile communications advances are blurring the boundaries between car and computer (and adding to visual-spatial task demands), and secondly because emergent communication, safety and driver automation technologies are now coming onto the market with little consideration of how they should best be controlled – or indeed if the driver should even control them. What is the most naturalistic way for drivers to control the multiple features of the car of the future? Where should the information boundaries lie? The project will take a qualitative human centred approach to find out what drivers really feel as well as testing a selection of person-automobile communication scenarios.

Email : Anthony.Samano@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr. Yanmeng Xu and Professor David Harrison

Research project title: A Study of Metrology for Printed Electronics

Overview of research:

This is a collaborative research between National Physical Laboratory and Brunel University aiming to develop a novel metrology technique for printed electronics systems.  Printed Electronics are becoming popular because it can be manufactured at low cost and high throughput.  The investigation of novel measurement on lifetime performance and degradation of printed electronics during or after the fabrication would help improve the quality and cost of printed electronics. 

Email: esteban.schunemann@brunel.ac.uk

Office: TA042, Tower A

Supervisor: Dr. Sarah Silve, Dr. Richard Bateman

PhD project title: 3D Deposition of Silicone and Metals: An Exploration into Real World Applications

The primary focus of Esteban’s research is to investigate the possibility of using 3D printing as a means of manufacturing products, as opposed to the current use of the technology which is in prototyping.

Naturally every manufacturing process has limitations that determine what can or can’t be manufactured with that specific process. As such Esteban’s research has developed a range of products and applications keeping to the strengths and weaknesses of the process.

The machine developed for research is capable of printing in a large range of materials, including but not limited to: rigid polymers, elastic polymers, ceramics and metals.

Email: Arber.Shabani@brunel.ac.uk

Office: TC107, Tower C

Supervisor: Dr Marco Ajovalasit

Research project title: Development of a Sensory Evaluation Methodology (SEM) for encoding human tactile perception of steering wheel vibration character in automobiles

Research area:

Arber is a Ph.D. design student within the Perception Enhancement Research (PER) laboratory of the Human Centred Design Institute (HCDI) at Brunel University. Arber’s research focuses on the development of a sensory evaluation methodology (SEM) for enhancing automotive steering wheel feedback perception for an improved and positive driver experience. His research involves understanding typical driving experiences, driver feel and emotional attributes to driving scenarios, multisensory modalities in driving conditions and the vibrotactile perceptual drivers that elicit positive emotions.

Arber’s main goal is to define the vibratory semiotic language that communicates information of road condition, which in turn can produce human emotional engagement for the scope of situation awareness and brand coherence. His research project involves elements of physiology of tactile perception, psychophysics, human emotional response to hand arm vibration, automotive steering systems, sensory branding and digital signal processing.

Overview of research:

Arber’s research aims to quantify the extent of the effect of vibrotactile stimuli on the human emotional response to steering wheel vibration in current production automobiles. His research mainly focuses on the correlation between the objective measures of steering wheel vibration and the subjective human emotional response elicited during the driving experience. The research starts to identify the cognitive drivers which contribute to the user’s emotional driving experience and what type of correlation may exist between the driver’s expectations of positive driving experience and the actual felt experience during driving conditions in order to see patterns and trends of the vibrotactile stimulus.

His research aims to classify key vibratory stimuli properties that affect the driving experience such as the amplitude or the frequency of the physical stimuli, or even the presence of high peak events that can be used to facilitate communication and branding positioning of a unique steering wheel vibration signature through its vibratory properties. Special importance is placed on understanding the key vibrotactile properties of signal content which can be perceptually and emotionally meaningful to the driving experience.

The key questions being addressed by Arber’s research are:

1. What are the typical user experiences of everyday driving scenarios that can help to interpret driver expectations? And how these can be gathered?
2. Are the changes in automotive steering wheel vibration signal noticeable on an emotional perception level?
3. What are the key steering wheel vibration characteristics which can be associated with patterns of emotional response?
4. What is the driver’s semiotic language used to describe their feelings or emotional response perceived from steering wheel vibrations?
5. How can we predict or tailor an emotional response from a certain vibrotactile stimuli property for a positive driver experience?

The answer to these questions will contribute towards the development of a Sensory Evaluation Methodology (SEM) to be used to tailor the tactile steering wheel feedback for a positive driver experience. Understanding the mapping between the human perceptual, cognitive and linguistic reaction and the key steering wheel vibration features which correlate with the human emotional response will provide guidelines for developing the sensory evaluation methodology.

Publications:

Journal Papers:

• Ajovalasit, M., Tajadura, A., Shabani, A. and Giacomin, J., (2012), Human emotional response to steering wheel vibration in automobiles. Accepted for publication by the International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration.

Conferences:

• Ajovalasit, A., Shabani, M., Tajadura, A. and Giacomin, J., (2012) Affective reactions to vibro-tactile events: A case study in automotive applications. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Design and Emotion conference (Out of Control), London, United Kingdom, 11th – 14th September.
• Ajovalasit, M., Tajadura, A., Shabani, A. and Giacomin, J., (2012) Human emotional response to steering wheel vibration in automobiles. Techniques for Delivering a Positive Emotional Response to Products and Environments - Engineering Integrity Society Workshop, University of Warwick, United Kingdom, 17th April.

Email: sanaz.shamshirsaz@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr Hua Dong

PhD project title: Improving quality in care homes based on residents’ needs and requirements

Research area: Quality improvement in health care organisation, Inclusive Design, Customer Satisfaction, Ageing.

The twenty first century will be seen as an acceleration of the aging of the global population. Due to increasing the life expectancy and the growing complexity of needs associated with the aging population it is estimated that the number of care home places in UK will require an 82% increase by 2030. Despite many advances in care homes quality over recent decades, serious quality problems such as the neglect and isolation conditions of residents have been reported. In most research the lack of voices of older people in care homes are obviously absent and usually other people such as professionals and families speak for them. The aim of this research is to discover residents’ needs and requirements in care homes for the improvement the quality and residents’ situation in care homes.

Publications:

Conferences:

• (2011) Shamshirsaz, A.S. and Dong, H., Voice of Customer (VoC) analysis in care homes, Brunel Institute for Ageing Studies Conference (BIAS)
• (2012) Shamshirsaz, A.S. and Dong, H., Increasing residents’ satisfaction in care homes, Post Graduate Poster Conference
• (2012) Shamshirsaz, A.S. and Dong H., Understanding and ranking residents’ requirements in care homes, Research Student Conference (ResCon12)
• (2012) Shamshirsaz, A.S. and Dong H., Investigating residents’ satisfaction in care homes, Emerging Researchers in Ageing Conference (ERA 2012)
• (2012) Shamshirsaz, A.S., Dong H. and Aghlmand, S., Using Voice of Customer (VoC) techniques to explore residents’ satisfaction

Email: hadeel.silsilah@brunel.ac.uk

Office: ML359 J, Michael Sterling Building

Supervisor: Dr. Busayawan

Research project title: Guidelines for using Islamic art & Culture in branding to deliver a distinctive customer experience

Research area: Design and Branding

This research aims to investigate potential advantages and disadvantages of applying Islamic Art symbols in commercial products in order to deliver a distinctive customer experience. Noticeably, there has not been any significant development in terms of applying Islamic art to brands/products. In addition, The study aims to provide better understanding of Islamic art and culture by creating a guideline tool that can assist designers to embed it more accurately in commercial products that widely recognised and acceptable. This is one of the first projects to explore how to appropriately apply Islamic Art designs and symbols in both Islamic and non-Islamic branded products to enhance customers' experience. This research could help businesses uncover unique values of applying Islamic Art in brands and their implications.

Publications:

Conferences:

• Silsilah, H, Lam, B, Silve, S, 2012, 'Challenges Of Integrating Islamic Art And Culture In Commercial Brands', paper & poster presented at the 2nd International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC2012), Glasgow, 18-20 September
• Silsilah, H, Lam, B, Silve, S, 2012, 'Guidelines for appropriate use of Islamic art and culture in branding', poster presented at the International Research Conference on Leading Innovation through Design, Boston, 8-9 August
• Silsilah, H, Lam, B, Silve, S, 2012, 'Using Islamic-Art in branding to deliver a Distinctive Customer Experience', paper presented at Brunel University Research conference (ResCon 2012), London, 18-20 June

Email: JiWon.Song@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr. Sheng Feng Qin (Brunel University), Prof. Donald A. Norman (Nielsen Norman Group), Prof. TekJin Nam (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)

Research project title: Interface Design for Connecting Multiple Devices

Research area: I am carrying out research on interface design of network connected digital interactive products from the perspective of human cognition and connectivity user model. Additionally I have studied on interaction design and UX issues.

Overview of research:

More and more products around us are connected to each other to provide various combined functions and conveniences. For example, an MP3 player can be connected to a car’s Bluetooth stereo system to expand the car’s audio system and a smartphone can be connected to a printer to print pictures. Although connected devices have become common, often the enjoyment of combined functions is distracted or damaged by the troubles we face when trying to make them work together. A coherent standard model of such interfaces does not exist, and many current interface designs do not effectively support ordinary users’ interaction model when connecting products. Because of the difficulties and fears involved, many users wait to enjoy the benefits of their products until they can get help from experienced users in a family or technicians.

The aim of my study is to understand the fundamental issues of user interaction and to suggest interface design implications for connecting multiple products. I have identified and explored the problems ordinary users face when configuring a connection and the causes of the problems. The specific research questions are as follows:

• What problems do ordinary users face while connecting multiple devices, and do how users address the problems?
• What are the differences between ordinary users’ interactions and engineers’ interactions that cause ordinary users’ difficulty when connecting devices?
• How can interface design reduce ordinary users’ difficulties when connecting devices?

Based on the answer to the questions, I pursue to identify the fundamental causes of user-system interaction and suggest interface design implications to improve user interaction.

Publications

Conferences:

• Ji-Won Song, Sheng Feng Qin, Tek-Jin Nam, A Conceptual Model of Interaction between Human and Networked Products, IASDR 2011, Delft, Netherland (Oct. 31–Nov. 4, 2011)
• Ji-Won Song, & Sung-Ho Yang, “Touch Your Way: Haptic Sight for Visually Impaired People to walk with Independence”, CHI 2010, Atlanta, USA (Apr. 10-15, 2010)
• Ji-Won Song and Sung-Ho Yang, "A Mobile Communication System Designed for the Hearing-impaired” Universal Acess in Human-Computer Interaction, LNCS 5615, 5th International Conference, UAHCI 2009, Held as Part of HCI International 2009, San Diego, CA, USA, (Jul. 19-24, 2009)

Email: adam.strang@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr Hua Dong

Research project title: User-Centred Design of Geographic Data Products

Research area: Spatial Analysis, Data Usability and Geographic Information Science

Investigating methods of improving data usability with specific reference to geoscience

Email: david.topham@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Prof. David Harrison

Research project title: The Conceptual Design of 3D Miniaturised / Integrated Products

Overview of research:

The EPSRC-funded project 3D-MINTEGRATION suggested that there should be benefits from miniaturisation and integration in 3 dimensions as opposed to the conventional 2D planar “chip” approach.

Candidate products are being explored to demonstrate and quantify the benefits of that concept, whilst at the same time investigating the special issues that may affect designers and design teams in the 3D micro-world, where physical effects differ from everyday experience

The experiences and observations arising during the course of the conception and development of the candidate products form the backbone of the work, which is proceeding in three main topic areas:

1. Conceiving of a mechanistic transform from a 2D diagram of a physical principle to generate a series of 3D instances, from which candidate structures could be selected and assessed according to their operational and manufacturability merits.
2. The difficulties of conversing about the intangible - increasingly, product designers need to use principles which are beyond human experience (eg, micro-, nano- , quantum etc). 
3. Determining whether there can be realisable benefits associated with designers being more directly connected to underlying physical principles rather than working through expert intermediaries.

Publications

Papers:

• Xiangdong Xue, Silvia Marson, Mayur K. Patel, Chris Bailey, William O’Neill, David Topham, Robert W. Kay, Marc P. Y. Desmulliez, Progress towards the design and numerical analysis of a 3D microchannel biochip separator, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering,  Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. (2011) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/cnm.1439
• Xiangdong Xue, Mayur K. Patel, Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas, Marc P.Y. Desmulliez, Chris Bailey, David Topham, Analysis of fluid separation in microfluidic T-channels, Appl. Math. Modell. (2011), doi:10.1016/j.apm.2011.07.009

Conferences:

• D. Topham, Product Vision In Action, Red blood cell separator, 3D-Mintegration Conference 2008
• D. Topham, D. Harrison, The conceptual design of products benefiting from integrated micro-features, Electronics System-Integration Conference  ESTC 2008, DOI:10.1109/ESTC.2008.4684544, 2008
• D. Topham Designing Smart Systems With Embedded Micro Features, European Technology Platform on Smart System Integration, Annual Forum 2009
• D. Topham, D. Harrison, The design of smart systems with embedded micro features, Smart Systems Integration Conference 2010. ISBN 978-3-8007-32008-1, 2010
• D. Topham, Self-Consuming Smart Systems and Naturally-Inspired System Integration, European Technology Platform on Smart System Integration, Annual Forum 2010
• D. Topham, D. Harrison, The Conceptual Design and Development  of a Novel Red Blood Cell / Plasma Separation Device,  Brunel AMEE-Design Joint Research Seminar,  July 2011
• D. Topham, Smartness in Manufacturing (poster), Smart Systems Integration Conference 2012
• D. Topham, O. Valentine, Fashioning 2020 Products: Exploring the design of Smart Systems as illustrated by the issues of Wearable Technology, European Technology Platform on Smart System Integration, Annual Forum 2012
• D. Topham, O. Valentine, Exploring Smart Systems Design via Wearable Technology, Forum “Be Flexible” 2012

Workshop:

• D. Topham, O. Valentine, Fashioning 2020 Products, Cambridge Summer Salon, 2012

Email: Priti.Veja@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr. Sharon Baurley

PhD project title: An Exploration of Multifunctional Woven Electronic Textiles by Design Practice

Research questions:

• How can a design led approach create multifunctional electronic textiles (e-textiles) through an integrated woven process?
• How can the weaving process be manipulated to push boundaries to make one piece woven e-textiles with integrated electronics?
• Can a woven e-textile modular system be designed to make adaptable configurations?
• How can these multifunctional woven e-textiles be applied to user workshops to investigate contexts of use?

Overview of research:

This research is an experimental enquiry of e-textiles materials development through hand woven design practice. Adopting a design approach, woven soft circuits are constructed by integrating electronic components simultaneously during the weaving process. The research aims to produce responsive and adaptive woven e- textile whilst pushing the boundaries of traditional weaving methods.  The main research interest is to enhance and advance the progression of e-textiles for more considered design through woven structural manipulations.

Modular formations will be employed as a design base for the e-textiles as these will be used to configure multiple modules that operate in sequence or as independent units. Some of the e-textiles will integrate an interactive element that will also be explored through user engagement design workshops to investigate potential contexts of use.

Publications:

• Veja, P. and  Baurley, S. (2012) ‘An Exploration of Modular Woven Electronic textiles by Design Practice’, Rescon12 extended abstract, Brunel University, London, UK
• Veja, P. (2012) ‘An Exploration of Multifunctional Woven Electronic Textiles by Design Practice’, Adjunct Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium of Wearable Computers (ISWC 2012), Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Featured in books:

• Hemmings, J., 2012 (in press), Warp & Weft: Woven Textiles in Fashion, Art and Interiors, A & C Black Publishers Ltd, London, UK
• Quinn, B., 2013 (in press), Textile Visionaries: Innovation and Sustainability in Textile Design, Laurence King Publishing, London, UK

Exhibitions:

• ‘The Warp & Weft Exhibition’, touring exhibition 2010 – 2011, held at Oriel Myrddin Gallery, Wales, Craft in the Bay gallery, Cardiff and Smiths Row gallery, Bury St Edmunds

Poster conferences:

• ResCon 2011 Poster Conference, Brunel University, School of Engineering and Design research conference
• Gradschool poster conference 2012, Brunel University, Graduate School
• Rescon 2012 Poster Conference, Brunel University, School of Engineering and Design research conference
• ISWC 2012 Doctorial Consortium poster exhibition, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Email: Ding.Wang@brunel.ac.uk

Office: ML358, Michael Sterling Building

Supervisor: Dr Sheng Feng Qin

Academic qualifications:

• BEng (BE), Industry Design, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China
• MSc, Integrated Product Design, Brunel University, London, UK

Research project title: PhD Design Research

Research area: Product Design (Industrial Design), 2D & 3D Design, Design Performance, Modelling and Management, Human-Centred Design, Design Inspired Service Design

Overview of research:

My research considers current recognised illustrations of Chinese traditional arts and crafts. Through both new product design solutions and design inspired visual communication solutions, the purpose of the new design is to apply the semantic features of Chinese traditional paintings and patterns to the modern design, and establish close contact with all aspects of social life. Also to promote a series of developable plans including product design, interaction design, system design and service design in China and Western countries proceeding from Chinese traditional arts and crafts, along with the integration of other elements of traditional paintings and patterns from other different regions all over the world.

Email: Yu-Han.Wang@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Sheng Feng Qin

PhD project title: Design principles of product design with cultural elements

Research question:

1. What are the key and transferable cultural/inspirable elements?
2. For each cluster of cultural elements, what are design rules that have been applied into products? (3) what are potential rules which can be applied in the future? 

Overview of your research:

Products during industrial revolution era were unfriendly to human concerns; in the postmodernism society, consumers have more willing to buy customized products that offer more variety than standardised products (Krippendorff, 2006). Furthermore, emotional design, humour design and cultural design which can raise people’s resonance are more attractive and make people feel the culture connection in their deep emotion. Meanwhile, one marketing strategy under the global economy is to promote products with local identity and cultural values (Moalosi, 2007). Designers have begun to apply exotic or national cultural elements not just simply copy but to transfer into a more creative and sophisticated into product design. There are some researches on applying cultural elements into product design or souvenir design, however there are rare papers mentioning about the design rules of applying cultural references.  Therefore, the research into product design with cultural inspiration will investigate what inspirational elements can be extracted from culture references and what potential rules can be offered for designers to apply into product design. Especially, future work of this research will use the culture-based tile design of relief for interior decoration as a case study.

Publications:

• 2009, A Study on Applying Wiki Platform for The Design of Group Activities in Visual Art Instruction (International Technology, Education and Development Conference 2009,Barcelona,Spain. )
• 2007, A Study on Applying Wiki Platform for the Design of Group Activities in Visual Art Instruction (Master Thesis)
• 2007 On the Establishment of a wiki for Taiwanese Native Digital Archive (NSC Number:NSC96-2422-H-025-001)
• 2007, On the Establishment of a Wiki for Exploring Taiwanese Native Art and Culture (International Conference on Digital Design Creativity, Tainan,Taiwan.)
• 2007, On the Application of Wiki Platform to Support the Group Activities of a Design-Oriented Painting Course (Taiwan Academic Network Conference, Taipei, Taiwan)

Email: Sze.Kwok@brunel.ac.uk

Office: ML358. Michale Sterling Building

Supervisor: Prof David Harrison

Research project title: Augmented annotation system to encourage sustainable behaviour

Your Research area: Sustainable design

My research aims to propose a device, which incorporates augmented annotation technology into environmental impact calculation, to aid user’s daily decision-making by providing relevant information in real time, ultimately to encourage sustainable behaviour.

Publications:

• Zhuxin Dong, Guanglie Zhang, Yilun Luo, Chi Chiu Tsang, Guangyi Shi, Sze Yin Kwok, Wen J. Li, Philip H. W. Leong, and Ming Yiu Wong, "A Calibration Method for MEMS Inertial Sensors Based on Optical Tracking," The 2nd IEEE Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems, January 16, 2007.
• Chi Chiu Tsang, Gary Chun Tak Chow, Guanglie Zhang, Yilun Luo, Zhuxin Dong, Guangyi Shi, Sze Yin Kwok, Heidi Y. Y. Wong, Wen J. Li, Philip H. W. Leong and Ming Yiu Wong, "A Novel Real-Time Error Compensation Methodology for μIMU-based Digital Writing Instrument," IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (IEEE ROBIO '06), December 17, 2006.
• Yilun Luo, Chi Chiu Tsang, Guanglie Zhang, Zhuxin Dong, Guangyi Shi, Sze Yin Kwok, Wen J. Li, Philip H. W. Leong, Ming Yiu Wong, "An Attitude Compensation Technique for a MEMS Motion Sensor Based Digital Writing Instrument," The 1st IEEE International Conference on Nano/Micro Engineering and Molecular Systems, January 18, 2006.

Email: bin.zhang@brunel.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr. Hua Dong

Research project title: Design-oriented Practice Studies on the Phenomenological Philosophy of User and Artifact

Research area: Philosophy of technology, philosophy of engineering, user-centred design, user studies

This research will analyse the design-oriented practice on phenomenological philosophy of user-artefact relations through the study of design practice, represented by user-centred design, aiming to promote and achieve the integration of the phenomenological philosophy and design practice, so as to establish the theoretical foundation for forming the harmonious relationship of user-artefact.

Other:

• Member of Inclusive Design Research Group.

Email: Ruirong.Zhang@brunel.ac.uk

Office: H214, Howell Building

Supervisor: Dr Yanmeng Xu, Professor David Harrison

Research project title: Development of Textiles for Electrical Energy Storage

Research area: Electrochemistry and New Energy Storage Materials

Overview of research:

The main objective of the research project is to develop the energy storage fibre materials and to test the mechanical and electrical properties of the energy storage fibres. The testing regime for the fibres and textiles produced will include: energy storage capability, stressed storage capability, stress and to failure, minimum bend radius, resistance to flexure and fatigue over time, performance as a function of hot/wet environment exposure over time, oxygen and water permeation properties over time, etc.

Publications

Papers:

• Ruirong Zhang, Ruiren Tang, Lihua Chen, Zhongying Li.  Preparation and properties of expanded graphite supported CuOx  catalyst.  Journal of Central South University (Science and Technology) 2012, 43(9): 3349-3354. (In Chinese)
• Fang Zhao, Ruiren Tang, Ruirong Zhang. Autoxidation of Cycloalkenes by the System “Molecular Oxygen-bis (acetylacetonato) Cobalt (II) Complex-butyraldehyde”. Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, 2009, 30(10):  2208- 2212  
• Ruiren Tang, Fei Li, Ruirong Zhang, Yaping Zhou. Catalytic synthesis of 1-hydroxy-4-oxo-α-ionone from 3-oxo-α-ionone with air supported by alumina. Journal of Central South University (Science and Technology), 2010, 41(4):1281-1286. (In Chinese)

Conferences:

• Ruirong Zhang, Lihua Chen, Ruiren Tang. Preparation and properties of expanded graphite supported CuOx catalyst. The 15th National Conference on Catalysis of China, Guangzhou, China. (In Chinese)