Press release -
Umeå Institute of Design atop Red Dot Ranking six years running
For a record sixth consecutive year, Umeå institute of Design at Umeå University, Sweden, has claimed top spot in the Red Dot Ranking, listing top design educations in Europe and the Americas.
Red Dot Ranking is a reflection of the designs created by students over a five year-period. This year’s winning student projects from Umeå institute of Design (UID) range from innovative tools for telecom tower technicians to equipment for the next generation of intensive care units.
“For a small industrial design school like Umeå Institute of Design, this result is a clear recognition of the pool of top talent that can always be found here. It’s a confirmation of the quality of the work that our students deliver and it’s testament to our dedication to prepare skilled and responsible designers willing to tackle the challenges of tomorrow”, says Demian Horst, Head of Umeå Institute of Design.
An intelligent helmet for high altitudes
One of the UID student projects that received special honours at the Red Dot awards is a design concept for a high-tech helmet, called SYNC, improving communications for telecom technicians climbing high-rise telecom towers. The operators typically work in extreme conditions that challenge the senses; strong winds, noisy surroundings, dusty environments or extremely cold conditions. The helmet, developed by Yilin Lyu, integrates a wide-angle camera, lidar scanner, laser sensor, earphone, and a microphone, allowing telecom technicians to communicate intuitively with team members and helicopter pilots in real-time.
Yilin Lyu is from China and is currently studying the second year of the Master’s Programme in Advanced Product Design. She believes that “the UID spirit” is the secret recipe behind the record number of top spots on the Red Dot ranking.
“I think all the awards and rankings are probably best explained by the quite unique atmosphere that exists at UID. As a student here I am able to learn a lot, not only from tutors, but also from my classmates. Throughout my education, the school has supported me a lot, not just during the projects, but also in my personal development”, says Yilin Lyu.
Pioneering the next generation of intensive care units
Another of the winning UID student projects explored new design solutions for vital sign monitoring in an intensive care unit (ICU). The student team - consisting of Jacob Jensen, Johannes Rieder, Marius Kindler, Tim Schwarz - identified a pain point relating to the messy jumble of cables that characterises ECG monitoring systems in today’s hospitals. The student design team developed a single-cable solution that feeds data wirelessly into the existing monitoring systems. The sensor, called Array, can be adjusted to different body shapes and its minimal shape makes it easy to clean, intuitive to handle and declutters the patient's appearance.
"Array hopefully represents the next generation of the ECG monitoring setup, where less cables are being used. We believe that it can be implemented into the current practices of intensive care. It is designed to help streamline the workflow of health care professionals and improve the patient's comfort during intensive care treatment", says Tim Schwarz.
About Red Dot Ranking
The Red Dot Design Ranking for Design Concept recognises pioneering design concepts created by enterprises and institutions. It is a reflection of sustainable design and innovation capability withing an organisation. The ranking takes into account all levels of awards at the Red Dot Award for Design Concept over the past five years and ranked into six distinct honorary lists for Companies, Design Studios and Universities, in the Americas & Europe and Asia Pacific regions.
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology emerged to claim first position at the list for Universities in Asia Pacific, with Massey University and Dalian Minzu University ranked second and third. Umeå Institute of Design and Savannah College of Art and Design maintained their first and second in the list for Universities in Americas & Europe for the sixth consecutive year while University of Montreal, School of Design made significant achievements this year and is now at #3 in the list for Universities in Americas & Europe.
Read more about Umeå Institute of Design
For more information, please contact:
Jens Persson, Communications Officer, Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University
Phone: +4690 786 50 63
E-post: jens.persson@umu.se
Topics
Categories
Umeå University
Umeå University is one of Sweden’s largest institutions of higher education with over 36,000 students and 4,000 faculty and staff. The university is home to a wide range of high-quality education programmes and world-class research in a number of fields. Umeå University was also where the revolutionary gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 was discovered that has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
At Umeå University, distances are short. The university's unified campus encourages academic meetings, an exchange of ideas and interdisciplinary co-operation, and promotes a dynamic and open culture in which students and staff rejoice in the success of others.
