The future of designing and making
The Design and Manufacturing Futures Laboratory is researching and creating the tools and technologies of tomorrow, providing game-changing capability for the design, manufacture, operation and disposal of next generation products and machines.
Active Programmes
These are our currently funded programmes that we are actively researching now.
Other Programmes
These are our other programmes that have finished their funding for the time being. However, we are always keen to discuss options to develop these bodies of work further if there is interest!
Projects
If you are interested in any of our projects, either active or not currently active, please contact us for more information.
People

Ben Hicks
Professor, Director

Aydin Nassehi
Professor, Codirector

Chris Snider
Senior Lecturer

James Gopsill
CFMS Fellow

Mike Harvey
Industrial Fellow

Jennifer Johns
Reader

Mark Goudswaard
Research Associate

Lorenzo Giunta
Research Associate

Harry Felton
Research Associate

Lee Kent
Research Associate

Kautsar Ramli
Research Associate

Peter Rosso
Research Engineer

Ric Real
Research Engineer

Chris Cox
Research Engineer

Robert Ballantyne
Research Engineer

David Su
Research Engineer

Oliver Schiffmann
Research Engineer

Weiting Xu
Research Engineer

Adam McClenaghan
Research Engineer

Yan Xu
Research Engineer

Aman Kukreja
Research Associate

TJ Taiwo
Research Engineer

Champ Hao
Research Engineer
ALUMNI

Jason Yon
Lecturer

David Jones
Research Associate

Harry White
Research Associate (Alumni)

Owen Freeman Gebler
Research Associate (Alumni)
Recent Posts
Unlocking Design Potential: The Power of Mixed Fidelity, Mixed Reality Prototypes
Mixed Reality (MR) technologies have emerged as potential game-changers in the design landscape, offering a dynamic blend of physical and virtual elements. Designers are increasingly drawn to MR for its potential to elevate, enrich, and expedite prototyping endeavors. One intriguing aspect is MR’s ability to deceive our senses, bridging the gap between the virtual and […]
The physical-digital affordance index @ cross-catapult design event
In Spring 2023 I found out that I was successful in my application to the Researcher in Residence programme to develop the Physical-Digital Affordance Index (PDAI) in collaboration with the Digital Catapult (DC). As technology develops, we are increasing moving many aspects of our lives, both design specifically and more generally, into the digital realm […]
UK-Colombia collaboration and WUN bid submission
I returned to visit la Universidad de Los Andes (Uniandes) in August this year after a pandemic induced hiatus. Prior to 2020, we had been working with Uniandes to develop proposals to do with agritech and transdisciplinary engineering. During the pandemic we were able to manage some collaboration through project clean access (leading to a […]
Tracking 3D prototypes in real-time
Written by Michael Wyrley-Birch, one of our excellent summer interns. Over the past few weeks, I have been experimenting with different methods of real time 6D pose estimation for generic objects to allow for realistic digital versions of products to be mapped onto low fidelity prototypes. The different methods include: Using ArUco markers Using a […]
What are Haptics? How do they work?
Written by Mike Wharton, one of our excellent summer interns. I’m now about a third of the way through my project, having dived head-first into the world of haptics. There were a number of interesting tangents and discoveries along the way, and unexpected links to psychology and audio equipment. Haptic or tactile means “related to […]
The DMF at ICED 2023: Papers, papers, and more papers!
The DMF lab had their usual strong showing at the major conference for the research field last week, presenting 9 papers across topics ranging from prototyping to machine learning to neurocognition! This year the International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED) was held in beautiful Bordeaux, which blessed us with excellent weather, warm evenings, and one […]
21st Century Prototyping exhibit at ICED 2023
Setting the stage to show the community our technical capabilities and upcoming research, this week the 21CP team exhibited a range of demos at the ICED 2023 conference! We had three sets of demos up and running for attendees to try: Design in VR: Aman led the charge with a demo showing the different ways […]
IDEA challenge 2023
The IDEA challenge returned in May 2023 for its third iteration! This time it was hosted by the University of Zagreb and building on the success of the the challenge’s first two iterations was set to be bigger and better than ever! The challenge saw teams working fully virtually to develop a CubeSat satellite that […]
Welcome to our Summer Interns!
This year we’re lucky enough to have three summer interns working with us on the 21st Century Prototyping project. They’ve got a great range of skills – one mechanical engineer, one computer scientist, and one engineering designer – and excellent past experience in a range of industries. They’ll be working on building our toolkit and […]
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