Summer in Review | MDes 2025

At the beginning of the Fall term, Year 2, MDes students present their independent summer research to the ECU community. Please join us on Zoom to hear about the summer research activities of the second-year Interdisciplinary and Interaction Master of Design students!

8.30am Welcome

8.40am Natalie Chiovitti: Climate-Centric Communication Design for Sustainable Fashion Practices (supervisor: Katherine Gillieson)

9am Cici Qiu: Invisible Visible: Exploring the Multiplicity of Personality Narratives through Mandala Art (supervisor: Katherine Gillieson)

9.20am Yuchen Liu: Gamified Diet: Designing Around Behavior Science, Playfulness and a Healthier Future (supervisor: Katherine Gillieson)

9.40am Ayako Takagi: Developing Frameworks for Collaboration between Industrial Designers and Scientists for Sustainable Material and Product Development (supervisor: Katherine Gillieson)

10am Maria Azam: Muslims, Media, Machines: Towards A Hopeful Representation of Muslims at the Intersection of Stories and Computing (supervisor: Daniel Wildberger)

10.20am Break

10.40am Qianxuan Chen: Embracing Motherhood: No Little Thing (supervisor: Hélène Day Fraser)

11am Yahan Xing: Re-constructing the Closet: Exploring Sustainable Material Circulation through Personal Wardrobe Analysis (supervisor: Hélène Day Fraser)

11.20am Jefferson Alade: Listening Spaces: Reimagining Music Listening Experiences (supervisor: Haig Armen)

11.40am Lilian Chen: Embodied Interactions: Designing to Reveal Hidden Thoughts and Emotions Through Physical Behavior (supervisor: Manuhuia Barcham)

12pm Pritam Paul: Expanding CMF Design: A study on balancing Aesthetics, Functionality & Environmental Impact (supervisor: Manuhuia Barcham)

12.20pm Lunch

1pm Logan Wilkinson: Listening as Agency: A Participatory Approach to Designing Sonic Experiences in Institutional Spaces (supervisor: Peter Bussigel)

1.20pm Melody Chong: Designing for Mindful Moments: Fostering Sustainable Well-being through Interaction Design (supervisor: Louise St. Pierre)

1.40pm Morgan Martino: Collecting with/in the Pluriverse: Lively Collections as Creative Research Method (supervisors: Louise St. Pierre + Eugenia Bertulis)

2pm Dechen Nagi: Information Architecture, Designing Digital Information Spaces (supervisor: Eugenia Bertulis)

2.20pm Jojo Zhou: Feminist Perspectives on Language Reform in Simplified Chinese (supervisor: Chris Hethrington)

2.40pm Break

3pm Jennifer Lamont: Unspoken Inclusive Communication: Wearable Technology for Neurodivergent Children (supervisor: Keith Doyle)

3.20pm Asad Aftab: Rethinking Immersive Cinema: Exploring & Designing Frameworks around Spatial Filmmaking & Viewing (supervisor: Garnet Hertz)

3.40pm Joshita Nagaraj: Uncovering Deceptive Practices: Advocating for Ethical, Human Centred and Responsible Design (supervisor: Garnet Hertz)

4pm Rebecca Zhong: Leveraging Gesture Affordance to Shape the Future of 3D Interfaces (supervisor: Garnet Hertz)

4.20pm Wrap up