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Design and Technology

Home > Design and Technology > Innovation and Emerging Technologies > Trends in designing and producing > Trends in designing and producing in Australia

Design and technology

Innovation and emerging technologies

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Trends in designing and producing in Australia

In your study of innovation and your development of your major design project it is important to be aware of trends in designing and producing. This tutorial examines some of the major trends in designing and producing in Australia.

Outcomes

This material addresses aspects of the following syllabus outcome:

H2.1 The student explains the influence of trends in society on design and production.

Source: Board of Studies NSW, Stage 6 Design and Technology Syllabus, Preliminary and HSC Courses (2007)

Trends in Australian society today are largely governed by the needs of the community. The following examples are a small indication of innovative design activities that are currently being undertaken by Australians either independently or as part of a team, they include the following areas:

1. Biotechnology
2. Environment and energy
3. Information technology
4. Manufacturing
5. Research organisations

1. Biotechnology
   The mission of Prana Biotechnology is to develop therapeutic drugs to treat the central disease pathways that cause degeneration of the brain and the eye as we age.
   
   Prana aims to play a major role in providing therapies for age-related disease, initially focusing on the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease and thereby preserving the "life force", the "Prana", within each and every sufferer of the disease. Other potential applications for the Company's technology include Cataracts, Tardive Dyskinesia (a major brain disorder that is caused by prolonged treatment with drugs used to treat schizophrenia), Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD or Mad Cow Disease), Motor Neuron Disease and Parkinson's Disease.
   
   Prana Biotechnology is developing therapies for a broad spectrum of age-related diseases, based on technology arising from a series of discoveries about the causes of major age-related diseases.
   
   The discoveries have emerged from the laboratories of Professor Ashley Bush and Professor Rudolph Tanzi, at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and the laboratory of Professor Colin Masters at the University of Melbourne and the Mental Health Research Institute.
   
   Extract from: Prana Biotechnology Ltd web site, viewed 30th July, 2003,
   < http://www.pranabio.com/>.
   
   
2. Environment and energy
   The Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSES) is part of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the Australian National University (ANU). The Centre was established in 1997, and amalgamated pre-existing activities in photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. The Centre currently has 33 staff and 8 PhD students and an annual turnover of about $2.5 million. About 80% of its income is from commercial projects, the balance being support from ANU and ARC grants.
   
   CSES invented a thin crystalline silicon solar cell technique called Epilift. In this process a thin layer of silicon (50 microns thick) is grown on a conventional silicon wafer. The grown layer is peeled off and converted into a solar cell, while the silicon wafer substrate undergoes many further growth and peel cycles. The cost of silicon ingot sawing is eliminated and the mass of silicon per solar module is reduced by a factor of 5 to 10.
   
   Origin Energy made a major investment (~$4 million) into Epilift technology. The research phase of this project is scheduled for completion in the middle of 2002. Over the next year Origin Energy will make a decision about commercialisation of the technology. Recently Origin Energy was awarded $1 million by the Australian Greenhouse Office (RECP6) towards the cost of building a pilot plant.
   
   
3. Information technology
   Lastek Pty Ltd
   The Lastek Group of Companies was formed in 1988 and operates today from a large, fully-restored factory located in the University of Adelaide at Thebarton, Adelaide, South Australia. The Group offers laser and optical technological resources to the Australian and New Zealand photonics industry.
   
4. Manufacturing
   Hypersonic aerodynamics has been a major research activity at The University of Queensland over the last 20 years. The researchers in this group have been active internationally and, during that period, have been involved in collaborative research programs with about 20 universities and research organisations around the world. In November 1997 the University of Queensland Centre for Hypersonics was formally established jointly between the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Physics
   
5. Research organisations
   The development of cooperative research centres enables both government and private sponsorship organisations to develop design solutions in many varied areas especially those that are related to scientific technological advancement. University research centres also act independently and in cooperation with the CSIRO in many endeavours.

Essential New Reading:

Trends in manufacturing to 2020: A foresighting discussion paper - published September 2011. The Future Manufacturing Industry Innovation Council (Future Manufacturing Council), in collaboration with the Department of innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and the CSIRO Future Manufacturing Flagship, prepared this discussion paper on trends in manufacturing to 2020 at the request of the Enterprise Connect Manufacturing Advisory
Committee.
The paper describes Australia's manufacturing industry as it is currently and discusses a number of emerging issues and trends that are affecting, and are expected to affect and influence, Australian manufacturers in the period leading up to 2020 and possibly beyond.