We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands the UTS campuses now stand. We would also like to pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.

As the pandemic continues to disrupt our lives, our graduating students have once again, needed to work through difficult circumstances to complete their degree. Persistent and critical environmental, social and technological challenges, despite the complications of the pandemic, remain a focus for our students. These final projects represent a very important opportunity for them to demonstrate their technical skills, design processes and design values at a high standard, for future employment or further advanced study. I am very proud of the projects presented here. The covid lockdown prevented all access to campus this past semester, including workshops for prototyping support and computer labs. Yet our students have worked through their research and design work with superior agility and absolute professionalism to produce excellent results. I congratulate them all on this significant and outstanding achievement.

The Product Design Major Studio subject integrates research practice and design practice in the development of innovative product design outcomes. These projects are self-directed, meaning that students must in the first few weeks of semester identify through research, a responsible and meaningful opportunity for product design intervention. The project requires students to develop concurrently both a new product design outcome and an academic design report. These two outcomes represent the same project from differing perspectives. The design outcome is a product of the research and report is an academic analysis of design theory and demonstration of research practice that led to the product outcome. Students must demonstrate competency in communicating visually with sophisticated design renderings and models, as well as through a structured and carefully articulated written method. The subject calls upon students to think carefully about their responsibilities and potential as a product designer beyond form-giving and design for manufacture, though these remain important. The projects presented here require the ability to research and argue for an innovative step in connection with a strategic approach to scoping the project precisely for an actionable product design response. I believe that completion of the Major Project at UTS demonstrates a unique combination of product design and innovation development skills necessary for the socio-ecological and technological challenges of the future. I am very proud of the way our students managed the restrictions of the pandemic this semester and I sincerely wish them all the very best on their career path.

The Product Design Honours program is an opportunity for our students to concentrate on a single self-initiated project guided by seasoned studio leaders; a rare opportunity in this day and age for focus and application to a singular task. Honours provides a platform for students to understand the relationship between theory and practice through a lengthy personal project where they challenge assumptions and build confidence in their ability.

Often the topics that emerge are of a personal nature, being based on their interest or significant concern. The students learn how to explore these interests and concerns through the lens of design theory and then communicate the significance of their research to a wider audience. They are required to develop a topic definition, a research strategy, as well as a product design outcome, inspired by prototyping and forerunning research. They must present their work on many occasions throughout the year in group situations, produce a product design artefact to a high standard and document their work in a printed and bound book; which in itself is a great achievement necessitating development of graphic sensibility and writing technique. The results of the projects our students have undertaken are culturally relevant and should challenge and advance the industrial design profession they will shortly join.

I am surprised by the energy and intensity our Honours students demonstrated this year, working so well under significant pressure and without access to university facilities for most of it. We began 2021 with a group of 7 students, and we finished the year with a very different group of people that have grown and advanced themselves irrespective of the impediments of society’s ongoing health crisis. Well done students, take pride in what you achieved in 2021, be productive and make use of your talents and skills in the future.