Festival students exhibit creativity and innovation

30 June 2011

Design student Trevor Brinkman with Law student Isabel Mulinde

Students showcase their creativity at the 2011 Festival of Design and Innovation.

The designers and innovators of tomorrow have showcased their talents during Bournemouth University’s 19th annual Festival of Design & Innovation.

The Festival – sponsored by B&Q, the UK’s leading home improvement retailer – featured the creative skills of over 170 students from BU’s School of Design, Engineering and Computing. Students from Bournemouth were joined by others from the University’s partner institutions, Wiltshire College Salisbury and the University Centre Yeovil, for the four-day event.

BU Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Vinney, welcomed an audience of students, academics and employers to the Festival’s preview evening. He praised the students for presenting “a perfect example of what we hold in high regard at BU – exhibiting skills around creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and resilience which you see displayed in bounds as part of this year’s Festival.”

Keynote speaker Simon Vaitkevicius shared his experience as a Design Engineer which has led to a senior position at Nokia UK and close involvement in the research and development of new mobile technology. Simon declared to the students present that “the future is with you” and challenged them to “be enthusiastic about everything you do because at the end of the day, you are an ambassador for your profession.

“You’ve really only started your journey,” Simon enthused. “It’s worth remembering that today is not the end of your learning – you’ve got to be learning all of the time, you’ve got to be creating all of the time and developing yourself all of the time.”

Alumni speaker, Tom Lawton, echoed Simon’s call to keep learning. “Raise your game and believe in yourselves entirely – you’re the driving force behind your own careers,” said Tom who graduated from BU in 1998 before going on to create the highly-successful ‘WakeYoo’ alarm clock and has just released his latest invention, the ‘BubbleScope’ 360-degree camera.

“Once you’re empowered with a good education, which you are through BU as I was, some energy behind you and some passion and determination you can make it anywhere that you want to go,” Tom encouraged, “but it’s your responsibility to keep on learning; everything is an education and technology, design and culture is moving at such a rapid pace that you can’t afford to stand still.”

Prizes for the ‘Best Student’ from each course taking part in the Festival were awarded during the preview evening. Congratulations to the following winners:

Product Design student Amy Gardner received the annual Smith & Nephew Prize for Sustainable Design and Design Engineering student Daniel Stamp was awarded the Motiontouch Design Placement Prize.

Law students shared the stage with design students in receiving a number of prizes sponsored by Paul Turner, a retired patent attorney. The prizes reward teams and individuals who completed an innovative project which provides both groups with invaluable experience of protecting intellectual property. The winners for 2011 are:

“Our Festival is where higher education meets industry and commerce to provide a showcase for our students’ skills in design and innovation,” said Professor Jim Roach, Dean of the School of Design, Engineering & Computing. “We take great pride in our students’ ability to find solutions to very real everyday problems which you’ll see firsthand throughout this year’s exciting show.” 

Further information on the 2011 Festival of Design and Innovation at BU is available on the Festival website.

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