International Higher Education Collaboration on Upcycling Design of Industry Left-overs, Round 4 Proposal for Upcycling Design of Industry Left-overs Round 4 Jiangnan University Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China April, 2015 Background Building on the first three rounds of International Higher Education Collaboration on Upcycling of Industry Left-overs which took place respectively in Guangzhou in 2012, Changsha in 2013 and Shanghai in 2014, the British Council has agreed with Chinese partners to run the 4th round in Wuxi in April 2015. These workshops have been successful and impactful, bringing concrete and tangible benefits to both institutions and individuals in both UK and China. Through participating and working together in the workshops in previous three years, a number of concrete links and collaboration projects between universities in UK and China as well as between university and industries were successfully generated and developed. Below is a glance of highlights of the outcomes and legacies of this project: Sustainable partnerships with Chinese central government department 1. This project has secured strong support directly from the Chinese Ministry of Education with the signing of a three-year MoU at the UK-China Education Summit on the occasion of the high level People to People Dialogue in April 2014. The MoE is committed to providing funding and support to subsequent upcycling events over the next three years. Institutional Partnerships between UK and China: 1. Students Exchange Programme between University of Central Lancashire and Hunan University 2. Joint publication between the University of Lincoln and Tsinghua University 3. Visiting Fellow Scheme between Tsinghua University and University of Lincoln Partnerships between Academia and Industry: 1. 100 Lights Project between the University of Lincoln and Guangzhou Valuda where the University of Lincoln will work with Valuda to create a collection of 100 different lights, to be professionally manufactured for retail. 2. Development towards Commercialisation: a professional website is being developed for the Upcycling project: http://www.upcyclemaster.com/ where all the design products created by the students will be exhibited online with the aim of seeking commercialisation opportunities (the English version is being developed). Eventually, products displayed on this website will be available for online purchase. The website is in the process of being linked with a similar, well-established UK website www.co-oproduct.org to increase international impact. Project idea 1
This event aims to bring together students and staff from 6 UK universities, 9 Chinese and 3 East Asian ones who are good at industrial design to attend a 10-day event in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province from 10 th April to 20 th in 2015. Students will be grouped and mixed together and design products with industry leftovers with guidance from teachers. Guangzhou Valuda Group Co. Ltd will supply different kinds of industrial leftovers. In addition to the design competition, a forum and an exhibition of the products will also be arranged during the 10-day event. 6 UK universities will be selected from all applicant universities: 9 Chinese universities will be invited, including 6 members of DESIS-China; 3 East Asian will be selected from all applicant universities Each university will send out a team, comprising of 1 teacher and 2 students; the host university Jiangnan University will have 2 teams; With professional coaching from experts, teachers and relevant businesses, each group of students will be able to work together to initiate and work out designed arts items with the leftovers provided, which should have potential market value and could be massively produced. Winners will be given certain amount of cash awards which is provided by Guangzhou Valuda Group Co. Ltd. Design Theme: Round 4 will take place in April 2015 and the theme will be around public facilities around Taihu Lake, otherwise known as Lake Tai. Taihu Lake is the central tourism area of Wuxi and a major tourist destination in China, you could refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lake_tai Wuxi Government will sponsor the programme. It is planned that all the designs will be exhibited around the lake during the Wuxi Expo in mid-may 2015. All the designs will be required to be related to public facilities of the Taihu Lake, this will provide you a real context for your designs. This will not only showcase the excellence of the students designs, but also deliver a message that UK and British Council care about the environment and is a contributor to low carbon emission. All designs will be made of industry leftovers provided by Valuda Group. Contributing Organisations On the UK side, the project will be led by: British Council China (operating as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy) On the Chinese side, the project will be led and hosted by: Jiangnan University on behalf of DESIS China; Guangzhou Low Carbon Industries Association Guangzhou Valuda Group Co. Ltd. On the East Asia side, the project will be led by: British Council offices Objectives: Students: by working together with students from the other countries, students will develop their language skills, team working spirit and intercultural skills, demonstrate their creativity and improve their employability. 2
Universities: we hope some institutional links will be set up as the results of the activities we organise. By working with industry, their curriculum will be improved to be more practical. Enterprises will find an environmental-friendly and energy-efficient way to deal with their industry left-overs. Activities: It is agreed that the following activities will be jointly organised to meet the objectives of the project: Duration: 10 th to 20 th April 2015 Country/City: Wuxi, China Venue: Jiangnan University Member universities of DESIS-China: Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University; College of Design Innovation of Tongji University; School of Design of Hunan University; Industrial Design School of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; School of Design of Jiangnan University and School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University We aim to have 19 teams from 18 universities in total; these will be 6 member universities of DESIS-China, 3 non- DESIS-China universities, 6 universities from the UK as well as 3 universities from East Asia area; There will be an Opening Day on 10 th April 2015; and during 10 th to 20 th April 2015, the following activities will take place: Design Workshop: please note that each team should have started design ideas as soon as they are informed of being successful at the application to this project before they physically arrive in Wuxi; During the 10-day workshop, team leaders (teachers) will be invited to deliver public lectures on low carbon industrial design topics, and those lectures will be compiled in a book together with students designs. The content will also be made available on http://www.upcyclemaster.com/, a dedicated website for this programme. Those who cannot go to the exhibitions can view those designs online. Exhibition, Selection & Awarding Ceremony and all arts items designed to be exhibited in the Arts Gallery in the host university. Awards Proposed 3 teams for best commercialization award; 3 teams for best innovation award; 3 teams for best teamwork award; 3
3 teams for best promotion award; 3 teams for best function award; 3 teams for best application award; 3 teams for best cost-effective award; 3 teams for best environment-friendly award; Notes: Awards scheme may be changed subject to the actual teams/universities participating. Project Timetable Jan 1 st, 2015: Application deadline for UK and East Asia. The fully completed application forms must be returned to BC before 1 st of Jan 2015, with detailed information on 1 teacher and 2 students. Feb 15 th, 2015, information on the materials provided will be sent to students and staff through emails; Mar 1 st, 2015, students will be grouped in mixed way by the organisers into 19 teams with a teacher assigned to each team; students in the same team are expected to start working remotely as soon as they got the groupings; April 9 th 2015, all students and teachers arrive in Wuxi and complete registration at the hotel; April 10 th, 2015 Opening Day of the programme; April 10 th to 18 th 2015: the design workshop goes on, April 19 th to 20 th 2015: presentation, selection April 20 th 2015: awarding ceremony April 21 st 2015: students and staff leave China Notes: This is a provisional timetable and subject to changes; in addition, a more detailed timeline will be published upon your arrival at Wuxi. Funding arrangements International, domestic airfares and visa application fees are covered by participants; Each participating university from UK and East Asia will need to pay GBP1500 for its 3 participants, in return they will be provided with accommodation, meals and local transportation during the stay in Wuxi, China; an invoice will be issued to you by BC if your application is accepted; Statement: Please note that all exhibits produced during the workshop belong to organisers and organisers can use them for any non-commercial purpose afterwards, i.e. Exhibition promotional materials. 4
However, the student/s who design and produce the work have the copy right as well. If any business is interested in any of the designed product, the IP issues should be discussed between the business and the designers. An agreement about potential IP issues between business and students will need to be signed at the beginning of the programme. Attachments: Attachment 1: Application Form Attachment 2: Participation Notes Attachment 3: Report on last round of Upcycling event in April 2014 5