Talented student designers from across Asia Pacific recently gathered for the 8th Panorama Student Bootcamp .
Hosted by Feng Chia University (FCU) and held in Taiwan for the very first time, each team secured their highly-coveted spot in Panorama by emerging national winners of Autodesk-organized design competitions.
The intensive four-day program saw students honing their software proficiency in Fusion 360, and pitting their design skills against one another in a Designathon under the mentorship of industry professionals.
Students touring the Sustainability Green Lab and Water Pavilion on the FCU campus
The challenge: Conceptualize and design an original piece of audio technology or “hear-able” in Fusion 360.
Students had a Fusion 360 masterclass by Jake Fowler, Principal User Experience Designer from Autodesk in Shanghai
Mentors critiqued the students based on their innovation, software proficiency, suitability, and creativity.
Joining this year’s panel of mentors and judges were Jake Fowler, Associate Professor Chou Te-Ming from Far East University, Assistant Professor Kane Yanagawa from National Cheng Kung University and Wu Tien Yu, Architect & Designer from TYarchistudio Consulting Co., Ltd.
Jake Fowler, who reprised his role as Panorama mentor for the second time, said, “I was completely blown away by the creativity and design expertise of the students. In just one day, the teams were able to develop professional product ideas that solved real-world problems in ingenious and original ways. I hope the Panorama Bootcamp and Designathon were helpful and inspiring for the students; it was certainly extremely inspiring for me to meet the next generation of product designers and to see them in action.”
The winning team from Kyushu University in Japan created the Diversity Speaker to help the hearing-impaired enjoy music using vibrations.
The three-man team from Kyushu University in Japan took top honors in the Designathon with Diversity Speaker. By creating a hybrid between a speaker and a chair to help the hearing-impaired experience music through vibrations, they wowed the judges with their concept that explored the possibilities of wearables, installations and open source technology.
“Nobody has to miss out on the joy of music with the Diversity Speaker. We can all enjoy together,” said Ryodai Mizuno of Kyushu University.
Top – Best Presentation: Twisties by Ang Wei Shan and Jonathan Ng from Singapore University of Technology and Design
Bottom – Best Design Visualization: Sound House by Lee Wan Ki, Kim Jungyeon and Kim Siwon from Korea
Also taking home top honors were the team from Singapore University of Technology and Design who won Best Presentation for their Twisties earphone design, and the Korean team (Sungkyunkwan University, Hongik University and Kookmin University) that nabbed the Best Design Visualization award for their eye-catching Sound House smart speakers.
Visiting like-minded makers in Taiwan
It wasn’t all work and no play in Taipei though. To round out the Panorama experience, students paid a visit to the WuGu makerspace in Taipei as well as the Design Dream Voyage, a traveling 3D maker lab on wheels.
“This Panorama Bootcamp was a great learning experience, and the opportunity to work with industry mentors in particular really helped me to grow as a designer. Thank you, Autodesk,” said Jonathan Ng from Singapore University of Technology and Design.