RMIT excels in 2024 Good Design Awards

RMIT excels in 2024 Good Design Awards

Outstanding innovations by RMIT graduates, students and staff have been recognised at this year's Good Design Awards.

Showcasing the very best in Australian design and innovation, the Good Design Awards aim to demonstrate the critical role design plays in creating a better, safer, and more prosperous future.

Ranging from retrofit hybrid vehicle kits to sustainable acoustic panels and smart bedding systems for aged care residents, the winning RMIT designs reveal a broad range of design excellence.

REVR

By Alexander Burton

Designed by graduate Alexander Burton, REVR was named the Gold Winner in the Next Gen Category. 

Rapid Electric Vehicle Retrofit (REVR) is a retrofit kit for converting internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles into hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), offering significant cost and time savings. 

Burton’s design was also the national winner in the 2023 James Dyson Awards.

Speaking about REVR at the time of his James Dyson Award win, Burton said retrofit kits were no longer accessible to most people, due to current approaches focusing on rebuilding the entire inside system of the vehicle. 

“With REVR we aim to solve that with a bolt-on solution consisting of two-to-four motors and a battery and control pack,” he said. 

31 October 2024

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REVR REVR

Cadence: Assistive wearable for Parkinson’s disease

By Vivek Barapatre

Graduate Vivek Barapatre also won in the Next Gen category for Cadence, an assistive wearable device that improves mobility for individuals living with Parkinson’s disease. 

Built around visual and haptic sensory cueing technologies proven to alleviate gait disorders in Parkinson’s, Cadence promotes independence and confidence in daily activities whilst breaking disease stigma by integrating this technology into a fashionable shoe.

Before developing the design, Barapatre conducted extensive research and engaged with professionals and users to identify market gaps and effective cueing modalities. 

Ultimately, Cadence aims to enhance mobility and independence for individuals with Parkinson’s, fostering greater participation in daily life and improving overall quality of life.

Cadence Cadence

Sorbent Acoustic Panels 

By Sze Tjin Yek

Sorbent Acoustic Panels are made from 100% laundered and upcycled household textile waste, bonded together with a starch-based glue.

Designed by Sze Tjin Yek as part of her Industrial Design honours project, the panels were recognised in the Next Gen category. 

This win follows Yek and her design being named the national winner in the 2024 James Dyson Awards and among the top 20 international finalists. 

The design addresses the global issue of household textile waste and delivers a sustainable and creative solution for managing noise pollution in both domestic and commercial settings.

The acoustic panels feature three distinct colours: Red Velvet, Blueberry Lemonade, and Hundreds and Thousands.

Sorbent Acoustic Panels Sorbent Acoustic Panels

Zerotag

By Zertag Pty LTD, RMIT University

A team of RMIT design alumni received a Next Gen award for their product, Zerotag.

ZeroTag is a refill e-pantry that allows households to track what they have in their pantry and easily reorder from one of Zerotag’s partner brands when needed.

The design recognises that refill is the best way to avoid packaging waste.

Smart tags link refillable packaging to an e-pantry app, helping eliminating packaging and food waste across the value chain.

The smart tags are digitally rewritable and dishwasher-safe, so a single container can be used multiple times for different items. 

Zerotag Zerotag

Cliterate 

By RMIT Industrial Design, ThriveRehab and X-Product 
Dr Judith Glover, Charlie Richardson, Cara Jordan-Miller, Pete Hvala

Winning in the Product and Sport and Lifestyle categories, Cliterate is a sex-ed tool focusing on teaching sexual health and anatomy.

Created in collaboration with RMIT, the educational tool for healthcare professionals and educators pulls apart to show the relationship between the vulva, clitoris and pelvis.

It is designed to encourage respectful conversations between health practitioners, educators, clients and students based on accurate and scientific knowledge.

Lead designer and RMIT lecturer Dr Judith Glover said having a tool that can be pulled apart was important from an accessibility perspective.

"If someone has an intellectual disability, you need a model that is simple but accurate," she said.

“For too long these issues have been taboo and we need to treat devices for sexual practice and sex ed the same as designing for any other devices – built on good quality research and design methods.”  

Cliterate model pulled apart Cliterate model pulled apart

Sleeptite REMi smart bedding system for aged care

By Sleeptite, RMIT University, Sento, Monash University Design Health Collab

Sleeptite REMi offers a non-intrusive solution to discreetly monitor aged care residents and reduce the risk of falls from bed. 

The data-driven, user-centred technology won in the Design Research category at this year’s awards.

Developed using invisible technology designed by RMIT, sensors below the surface of a mattress provide real-time insights into residents’ position, posture and sleep health status.  

Alongside the bedding system, the Sleeptite REMi dashboard by the Monash University Design Health Collab, Sleeptite and RMIT FMM Research Group was also awarded in the Design Research category.

Sleeptite design team Sleeptite design team

MPavilion 10 Uniform

The MPavilion 10 uniform was designed by DNJ paper, a fashion label run by RMIT lecturer Dr Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran and alumni Jake Nakashima-Edwards. 

Their design was recognised in the 2024 Fashion category. 

Mohajer va Pesaran and Nakashima-Edwards designed a cardamon-green linen jacket and a pink paper vest worn on top, inspired by a Japanese-style work coat called a samue and traditional Japanese paper clothing called kamiko. 

The design was light yet durable, low waste, evolved over time and eventually wore away creating contrast with the rigid, unchanging nature of MPavilion 10.

Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran and Jake Nakashima-Edwards of DNJ Paper Daphne Mohajer va Pesaran and Jake Nakashima-Edwards of DNJ Paper

Congratulations to all winners and finalists in this year’s Good Design Awards.

Story: Rosie Shepherdson-Cullen

31 October 2024

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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