Design Education as a Catalyst for Change

Designers play a role in shaping our world, both literally and figuratively. Human lives are spent interacting with designed artefacts, systems, and processes. From this perspective, designers could be considered examples of Gramsci’s definition of intellectuals: the people who organize society and define or reinforce the cultural hegemony of the dominant class (Gramsci, 1989). If we accept this account, then what role does education play in instilling hegemonic values in designers? And could changes in design education help to foster counter-hegemonies? Put differently, if designers really do shape the world, and if education shapes designers, then could design education serve as a “leverage point” for achieving broad social change? Scholarship in the field of science and technology studies (STS) tells us that the relationship between technology and society is not a simple one: neither pure technological determinism (the idea that technology shapes society) nor pure social constructivism (the idea that society shapes technology) is accurate. Rather, technology and society “co-produce” each other (e.g. Bijker et al., 2012). It seems reasonable to expect that a similar model of co-production could be used to understand the relationships between design education, design practice, and social changes.Non peer reviewe

Additive Manufacture of Composite Soft Pneumatic Actuators

This article presents a direct additive manufacturing method for composite material soft pneumatic actuators that are capable of performing a range of programmable motions. Commonly, molding is the method used to manufacture soft fluidic actuators. This is material, labor, and time intensive and lacks the design freedom to produce custom actuators efficiently. This article proposes an alternative semiautomated method of designing and manufacturing composite soft actuators. An affordable, open-source, desktop three-dimensional (3D) printer was modified into a four-axis, combined, fused deposition modeling, and paste extrusion printer. A Grasshopper 3D algorithm was devised to implement custom actuator designs according to user inputs, resulting in a G-code print file. Bending, contracting, and twisting motion actuators were parametrically designed and subsequently additively manufactured from silicone and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) materials. Experimental testing was completed on these actuators along with their constitutive materials. Finite element models were created to simulate the actuator's kinematic performance. Having a platform method to digitally configure and directly additively manufacture custom-motion, composite soft actuators has the potential to accelerate the development of more intricate designs and lead to potential impacts in a range of areas, including in-clinic personalization of soft assistive devices and patient-specific biomedical devices.European Commission - European Regional Development FundScience Foundation Irelan