Patrons

Dr Leyla Acaroglu

Dr. Leyla Acaroglu is an award winning designer, UNEP Champion of the Earth, social scientist and entrepreneur. Leyla developed the Disruptive Design Method and designs cerebrally activating experiences, gamified toolkits, and unique educational experiences that help people make the status quo obsolete.

Her mainstage TED talk on sustainability has been viewed over a million times, and she leads presentations around the world on activating positive social and environmental change through creative interventions. She is the founder of the UnSchool of Disruptive Design, and two design agencies, Disrupt Design and Eco Innovators. In 2017 she founded a not-for-profit Brain Spa for creative optimists on a farm in the Portuguese countryside.

Leyla is an inspiring communicator and educator with a PhD in how to change world through design.

Dr Mark Richardson

Formally a senior designer at Ford Motor Company, Mark was involved in both conceptual and global manufacturing projects, such as the R7 show car, Territory, European Mondeo and Asia Pacific Fiesta.

Mark now lectures in Industrial Design at Monash University, having completed a PhD seeking evidence to support the advance of ecologically and socially sustainable mobility systems through hands-on practices of making. His research now investigates how we can transition from current design and production methods to more sustainable, resilient and accessible systems of creating, making, sharing and learning.

Sponsors

Partners

“As fashion and textiles are niche offerings in our international exhibition program at Bendigo Art Gallery, attracting audiences nationwide, we are delighted that the Design and Technologies curriculum focuses really well on many of the elements in our exhibitions such as use of technology, materials, research and collaboration.”

Helen Attrill – Education Officer

Bendigo Art Gallery

“Melbourne Museum partners with DATTA to support Design and Technology in cross-disciplinary enquiry projects, utilising Museological practices and resources.”

Dr Liz Suda – Program Co-ordinator, Humanities Education                    Melbourne Museum

“STEM and Design & Technologies education is so important because those who practice and teach the skills, knowledges and attributes associated with these disciplines are also,  from my perspective, the ‘renegades’ that Australia will ultimately be depending on to arm the next generation with the attributes and capabilities needed to weather the storm of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and will secure Australia’s position in the industrialised world into the 21st Century and beyond.”  More here.                                                                                                                                                          Karen O’Reilly Briggs – Bachelor of Technology Education Coordinator

La Trobe University

“Designers bring beauty, deep thinking, emotion, imagination, humour, meaning and brilliant functionality to our lives. The value of Design and Technology education programs is that they prepare our young designers for an exciting future of creative thinking and problem solving as they grapple with the skills involved in making well designed and crafted objects.”

Jill Anderson – Education Officer                                         Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery

“DATTA have been a brilliant source of support for Discovery. Being a regional education facility it is great to have an organisation that not only brings professional development opportunities to towns and cities outside of Melbourne but also help support us in our efforts to provide professional development to others.”

Alissa Van Soest – Science Communicator

Discovery Science and Technology Centre

“We are delighted to support our next generation of innovators and inventors in their quest to utilise technology to find real-world solutions to everyday problems.”

Dean Stephens

Altronics

“Space Tank believes that design and technology is the glue that binds schools and makerspaces together. Digital knowledge sharing and computer aided design fabrication is enabling young people to change the world. In this new education arena, Human Centred Design, STEM and entrepreneurial mindsets play a central role in new curriculum for schools, makerspaces and young disruptors.
It is an exciting time for schools and makerspaces as traditionally vertical industries like    manufacturing, education, technology and healthcare are now able to collaborate horizontally in ways never before possible. This is the future for students today.”

 Holger Dielenberg

Space Tank Studio

“Make Mob empowers artists, designers and technical experts to co-create innovative projects that blend art and technology to benefit
communities and the environment.”

Callan Morgan – Pelican Studios

Interested in becoming a partner or sponsor of Design and Technologies Week?

Please contact us at pl@datta.vic.edu.au for opportunities and further information.