New timetable for level 2 Design Studies 2009/2010

This timetable is a work in progress but shows how next year's programme is shaping up.
You can view it full screen by clicking on the spanner icon (or "wrench" if you're American!)

Recycling trucks printed with textile patterns

Visit TreeHugger for the full story - some great-looking vehicles!

Replacing remote controls with gestures

Coming to a TV near you soon...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Dundee's Future Green Thinking Winner

Future Green Thinking Winner: Dundee Geography student Craig Frew.

"Creating environmentally-friendly solutions for everyday living

An adaptation of the Neighbourhood Watch scheme, the Environmental Watch Group is a scheme designed to reduce carbon emissions at a local level.

Community environmental watch groups are responsible for observing, monitoring and educating the environmental activities of local residents in a bid to tackle the low carbon challenge.

Used as a vehicle to cut the carbon output of communities, the onus is on the Environmental Watch Group to encourage local people to consider the negative effects of climate change and adopt new measures to help reduce their carbon footprint.

The groups meet regularly to come up with innovative ideas, incentives and schemes that are relevant to the local area and undertake a range of activities including waste management and monitoring biodiversity."

Entrepreneurs to compete for free retail space

Three retailers will be offered business support worth £250,000, including free space in a Scottish shopping centre as part of a “Dragon’s Den” style scheme.

The Project Retail initiative is organised by property investment manager Prupim and has been designed to fill vacant retail space in its Wellgate shopping centre in Dundee, which currently has 12 of its 60 retail sites sitting empty.

Aspiring retailers will pitch their ideas to a panel of business experts in a bid to win the three-year package. Winners will be given use of a fitted-out shop in the Wellgate Centre, as well as mentoring and marketing support from business experts for three years. The first six months will be rent free and retailers will then be able to negotiate ongoing rent based on their turnover during that period.

Vacant retail space caused by the recession is a problem in several of Prupim’s shopping centres and the company said that if this scheme was successful it will be rolled out across its other outlets.

Prupim, which is part of Prudential, owns or co-owns many of the UK’s best-known shopping centres, including Westfield London, Bluewater in Kent and the Arndale Centre in Manchester.

Project Retail was launched by entrepreneur Michelle Mone, who runs designer lingerie brand Ultimo, and is backed by Dundee University and the city council. Deadline for entries is July 31.

Go to www.project-retail.co.uk for more details.

Wearable technology

Thanks to Steph in IPD

The most kissed girl in the world becomes a guy

BBC News reports:

If you have ever done a first aid course, the chances are you have been intimate with Resusci Anne.
Launched in 1960 to solve the problem of how to practice life like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, she has been nick-named "the most kissed girl in the world" and to put it plainly, she is getting on a bit.
More sophisticated mannequins have been manufactured in recent years and Resusci Anne's creators Laerdal have now brought out SimMan 3G, the next generation of simulator, able to mimic an array of medical complications.
He has a pulse, he can cough and wheeze, his eyes can water, his jaws can lock and his body can breathe and convulse.
Those are just the visible features but he can also simulate breathing complications, cardiac arrests and reactions to drugs.

Read the rest

The 5 Most Innovative Eco-friendly Fibres

When I hear the words “green” and “fashion” in the same sentence, I immediately think of organic cotton and hemp. From you vantage point, what are some of the coolest innovations in sustainable fibers happening right now?

Read about the five most innovative eco-friendly fibres. Some of them may surprise you

Thanks to Eilidh Ellery via Twitter

Posted via web from Jonathan's posterous

Social Innovation Camp comes to Dundee

Social Innovation Camp is an experiment in creating social innovations for the digital age, they are looking for brilliant ideas that use the web to tackle stuff that matters.

"Absolutely anyone can enter an idea: if you’re a hacker with an itch to scratch, we want to hear from you - but you don’t have to be technically skilled to get involved. We’re looking for software developers and designers, people with business brains and seriously creative minds, together with those of you who simply know about a problem you want to solve. And there’s no need for you to be based in Scotland - or even the UK - to enter.

We’re looking for the best ideas that use the web to change stuff that matters - be that in education, health care, the environment; it could be something on your doorstep or stuff that effects the world as a whole.

There’s only one thing that every idea must have in common: that it uses the web to help people do something for themselves."

This fantastic initiative is going to be in Dundee from the 28th to 30th of April. Sign up and come along!

Heston Blumenthal leads £10,000 kitchen product design competition

You could win a £10,000 cash prize courtesy of Finish and see your very own kitchen innovation produced by Lakeland – in total a package worth an estimated £50,000. You’ll work with Lakeland to develop the design and help bring your innovation to market, receive royalties from future sales, and you’ll benefit from extensive business support and publicity.
Ten finalists will be invited to attend a judging event in London in August 2009, where you’ll pitch your design to the judging panel. Four runners up will receive £1,000 worth of Lakeland vouchers and a year’s supply of Finish Quantum dishwasher tablets.

Read more at finish.co.uk

Posted via web from Jonathan's posterous