The 24 hour challenge: creating a multidiscipline environment for design and entrepreneurship in engineering and design. Enhancing Employability through Enterprise Education

This Innovation and Creative Exchange (ICE) is an inter-school enterprise opportunity exclusively for second year Engineering and Design students at the University of Huddersfield. Its primary objective is to bring the best of innovative design and industry thinking into the undergraduate curriculum and to embed the latest innovation and design methodologies into the curriculum for engineering and design students – the next generation of employees for UK knowledge-based industries

A New Methodology for the Integration of Performance Materials into the Clothing Curriculum

This paper presents a model for integrating the study of performance materials into the clothing curriculum. In recent years there has been an increase in demand for stylish, functional and versatile sports apparel. Analysts predict this will reach US$126.30 billion by 2015. This growth is accredited to dramatic lifestyle changes and increasing participation in sports/leisurely pursuits particularly by women. The desire to own performance clothing for specific outdoor pursuits is increasing as it becomes more mainstream and affordable. There is a distinct blurring of lines as fashion/clothing designers enter the niche market of performance apparel. This results in a strong business case for embedding advanced product development and the study of performance materials into the undergraduate curriculum for mainstream clothing students. Traditionally modules within Higher Education are taught as discrete subjects. This has advantages since it enables students to develop knowledge and skills specific to each individual elements of the subject discipline. The expectation is that students will integrate, connect and make sense of all the discrete elements within the various elements of their learning during their studies. Whilst this is the ideal scenario, in practice often the first opportunity to integrate the various elements with a project occurs at final year, through a major project. The purpose of the model presented in the paper was to integrate sections of the curriculum previously taught as separate entities into a single element at second year, using a blended learning approach combining both practice and theory. Thus, providing the opportunity for student to synthesize the knowledge obtained in various elements of their studies and develop an understanding of emerging and new technologies relevant to the creation of specific end-products much earlier within their studies. A series of weekly guest lectures were provided with experts in relation to clothing comfort, advanced textiles, marketing, costing, garment realisation, advanced sewing technology, and innovative design. The students worked in teams to produce a range of garments for specific outdoor pursuits, underpinned by appropriate research. An integrated approach to teaching was adopted as the various team members simultaneously worked on testing performance materials, joining technically advanced fabrics, developing the design and specific stylelines based on ergonomics and investing novel construction methods. This challenged not only academic skills but also lifeskills - teamwork, organisation, communication, negotiation, and problem solving. Teams had to test, re-test and negotiate the most appropriate performance material, joining method, styleline and construction method to make the product fit for the selected advanced application. The model differs from others in its approach in a number of ways: firstly by utilising fully integrated team teaching, engaging a diverse range of subject experts which enabled the students to extend their network beyond the programme team, reinforcing research informed teaching and the teaching/learning nexus. Secondly active learning was employed as a means of challenging the learner, thus developing life/subject skills through establishing systematic connections of the different elements of their learning. Finally, in establishing knowledge-transfer thorough peer-support and networking, knowledge was exchanged between students as they progressed through the development stages. This paper presents a successful model of blended learning which integrates research, technology, design and practical skills underpinned by the advanced study of textiles which is essential to any clothing curriculum. Keywords: curriculum design, performance materials, product developmen

Integration Of Performance Materials Into The Clothing Curriculum

Traditionally modules within Higher Education are taught as discrete subjects. This has advantages since it enables students to develop knowledge and skills specific to each individual elements of the subject discipline. The expectation is that students will integrate and make sense of all the discrete elements. Whilst this is the ideal scenario, in practice often the first opportunity to integrate the various elements with a project occurs at final year. The purpose of the model presented was to integrate sections of the curriculum previously taught as separate entities into a single element at second year, using a blended learning approach to combine theory and practice. Thus, providing the opportunity for student to synthesize the knowledge obtained in various elements of their studies and develop an understanding of emerging/new technologies much earlier within their studies. The model differs from others: firstly by utilising fully integrated team teaching, engaging a diverse range of subject experts to enable network beyond the programme team, reinforcing research informed teaching and the teaching/learning nexus. Secondly active learning was employed as a means of challenging the learner, thus developing life/subject skills through establishing systematic connections of the different elements of their learning. Finally, through peer-support and networking, knowledge was exchanged (knowledge transfer) between students as they progressed through the development stages. This paper presents a successful model of blended learning which integrates research, technology, design and practical skills underpinned by the advanced study of textiles which is essential to any clothing curriculum

Editorial

Archives are sites of exploration and discovery for all kinds of practices. They are also reinforced structures. Whether as a library of manuscripts, museum store or personal collection, the ‘archive-as-repository’ catalogues and categorizes, houses and buries, its items. Bringing the contents of an archive to life requires that one ignite what is dormant so as to draw archival materials out into the space of the world to be received and experienced in new ways. Designed to stimulate collaborative conversations and exchanges, in and around the archive, with a view to presenting new approaches to archival experiences, and with them, styles of writing that resonate with the ‘archival’ as a concept and as a practice, this guest-edited issue expands the field of the archive to incorporate a variety of different practitioner perspectives. Whether through animation, art education, contemporary art, costume, creative writing, information retrieval studies, performance, sculpture, sound and textiles, re-writing the archive from these positions can inform how historical and material remnants of the past may be re-thought in creative practice

The Progress of Creative Pattern Cutting

This paper documents the journey of several research initiatives, which focused upon creative pattern cutting. Instigated by a peer-reviewed, journal paper entitled, ‘Insufficient Allure: The Luxurious Art and Cost of Creative Pattern Cutting’ (Almond, 2010), the endeavors attempted to elevate concepts of tacit knowledge and the making process as a form of legitimate, academic enquiry. The projects culminated in the first peer-reviewed conference dedicated to the discipline: ‘The First International Symposium for Creative Pattern Cutting’, held at University of Huddersfield in the UK, in February 2013. To trace the impact of the research initiatives, we consider how the skills of the pattern cutter, clothe the body with a myriad of shapes and silhouettes. We discuss this in relation to the different pattern cutting techniques that can be utilized to realize three-dimensional form and ways in which the research enterprises have arguably elevated the professional position of the cutter in terms of esteem and remuneration. In order to assess the impact of these initiatives, both within the fashion industry and in the emerging arena of fashion research, we identify some of the different research approaches utilized in practice-based enquiry and how results can be arrived at from hands-on experience, inspiring us to develop new ways to pattern cut

24 hour interdisciplinary Challenge

Objective: To develop an interdisciplinary network of exchange which promotes innovation, design thinking, new-product development. Bringing together a students from across the University, who value innovative thinking, ideas generation and interdisciplinary working as part of their student experience. • Developing problem-solving skills as team members • Analysing information (and working with limited information) • Negotiating and cooperating with one another. • Listening and leading • Group Decision making (consensus building