Global Grad Show: Highlights

Global Grad Show, the world’s largest and most diverse gathering of universities, reveals its highlight projects in this year's edition of the exhibition.. Free and open to the public during Dubai Design Week, Global Grad Show is the only exhibition of its kind, showcasing graduate projects from over 100 universities from 43 countries, in the fields of design, science, technology and engineering.

Eleanor Watson, Curator of the Global Grad Show 2019, commented "The curatorial approach of this year aims to show the connections between different spheres of human existence; as visitors walk through the exhibition, they will experience projects related to the human first, moving on to the home and community and finally the city, and planet. Our hope is that it will inspire others to think critically about how they live, while inspiring all of us to act consciously.”

Over 150 projects will be showcased, across the spheres of human existence as mentioned above, but also across a range of identified themes; health, wealth, disparity, gender & equality, sustainability, education, and technology. Included below are a number of highlight projects, including commentary from Eleanor Watson on the importance of innovation in these themes.

Healthcare: “Global access to healthcare is an important theme in this year’s edition of Global Grad Show, as young designers find innovative ways of delivering care and treatment in the most challenging situations. Projects under this tenet present potential exciting advancements in the field”

• Excelscope 2.0 – Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands: A smart tool for diagnosing Malaria in rural sub Saharan Africa, designed to reduce workload and increase accuracy, decreasing the cost of diagnosis.
• Insulata – Nottingham Trent University, UK: A thermally regulating cocoon, designed for premature babies born in low-income areas or developing countries.
• Swiv – University of Pennsylvania, USA: A toothbrush for children with cognitive disabilities who struggle with the tasks of daily living, allowing them to clean their teeth with a single physical motion.

Wealth & disparity: “With wealth disparity remaining a pressing issue throughout the world, graduates are developing ways to ensure that under-served communities are acknowledged and empowered, making sure nobody is left behind in the age of automation”

• Epitent – Makerere University, Uganda: Inspired by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, a portable habitation solution for humanitarian emergencies was created.
• Hubvance – Politecnico Di Torino and College des Ingenieurs, Italy: An all-in-one container for communities with low resources, that produces energy from solar panels, and panels that condense humidity for air into water.
• Zambeel – University of Karachi, Pakistan: A two way carry bag that provides relief for the workers form rural areas who migrate to the city and send all of their income home, enabling them to securely carry their possessions and sleep at night.

Gender & equality: “Many of the projects in this section are designed to enhance women’s safety, well-being and health. Such projects are female-led, helping us all to understand the intricacies of design.”

• CAMSY – Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland: Women have a 50% higher chance of getting a false heart diagnosis because their symptoms are different from those of men. CAMSY is a wearable monitoring system designed to constantly check and register of irregularities to the cardiac values of the patient.
• Hale – The American University in Cairo, Egypt: Hospital gowns with self-aid and sensor features to aid a less intrusive form of health monitoring.
• Masectomy Caregiver – Design Academy, The Netherlands: Adaptive and protective knitwear for women who have experienced a mastectomy, which places a protective shell around mastectomy scars where space and comfort is needed.

Sustainability: “As the climate crisis becomes an unavoidable part of our daily lives, designers are facing the difficult task of addressing issues around global systems of production and consumption. Young people are working to find ways to make better use of our resources in a creative way”

• Blue Gas – UCL Berlett School of Architecture, UK: A grass roots solution for an affordable transition to production, storage and clean cooking using biogas and locally sourced organic materials that connect in an easily replicable and constructible system.
• Organico – University of the Arts Berlin, Germany: A biodegradable lightweight compressed material intended for furniture making, which can be manufactured with little ecological footprint.
• Impacto - Collège des Ingénieurs, Italy: An online platform that encourages people to live more sustainably by using a reliable algorithm that calculates your positive environmental impact by reducing plastic consumption in your life.

Education: “With a keen understanding that knowledge offers both opportunity and agency, young designers are developing tools to promote better education for all.”

• Class is over – Hunan University, China: An educational board game designed to teach children about basic health and safety to avoid accidental injuries.
• Designing Tactile Schematics – New York University, USA: A set of design standards developed to make electronics and DIY projects more accessible for the visually impaired.
• Water Scale - Louis Bruno Bindernagel, University of the Arts Berlin, Germany: A digital scale displays the amount of water used in the production of our groceries thereby enabling us to make our own fact-based decisions on consumption.

Technology: “As technology continues to develop at its own dizzying pace, graduates are leading conversations around the development and use of these powerful new tools. These graduate projects raise questions around how the development of new technologies will play out in the future and how they can bring a positive change.”

• Roblox – UCL - Bartlett school of Architecture, UK: Modular construction system which allows the creation and reconfiguration of a large variation of structures of multiple scales.
• Jarvis - University of Pennsylvania, USA: A mixed reality headset, enabling doctors to accurately measure the brain’s response to distractions or activities when conducting cognitive tests for severe head trauma, pharmaceutical efficacy and ADHD.
• Mi Data – Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, UK: A gateway for users to view the type of raw data they are sharing as well as their derived data psychographics by augmenting the experience in personal data transparency.
• Ro-Biotics – Royal College of Art and Imperial College London: A microscopic robot created from 4D printed materials to be ingested in the place of an antibiotic, which captures infections in the blood stream.

Gender & equality: “Many of the projects in this section are designed to enhancing women’s safety, wellbeing and health. Such projects are female-led, helping us all to understand the intricacies of design.”

• o Camsy – Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland: Women have a 50% higher chance of getting a false heart diagnosis because their symptoms are different from those of men. CAMSY is wearable monitoring system designed to constantly check and register of irregularities to the cardiac values of the patient.
• Hale – The American University in Cairo, Egypt: Hospital gowns with self-aid and sensor features to aid a less intrusive form of health monitoring.
• Masectomy Caregiver – Design Academy, The Netherlands: Adaptive and protective knitwear for women who have experienced a mastectomy, which places a protective shell around mastectomy scars where space and comfort is needed

Sustainability: “As the climate crisis becomes an unavoidable part of our daily lives, designers are facing the difficult task of addressing issues around global systems of production and consumption. Young people are working to find ways to make better use of our resources in a creative way”

• Blue Gas – UCL Berlett School of Architecture, UK: A grass roots solution for an affordable transition to production, storage and clean cooking using biogas and locally sourced organic materials that connect in an easily replicable and constructible system.
• Organico – University of the Arts Berlin, Germany: A biodegradable lightweight compressed material intended for furniture making, which can be manufactured with little ecological footprint.
• Impacto - Collège des Ingénieurs, Italy: An online platform that encourages people to live more sustainably by using a reliable algorithm that calculates your positive environmental impact by reducing plastic consumption in your life.

Education: “With a keen understanding that knowledge offers both opportunity and agency, young designers are developing tools to promote better education for all.”

• Class is over – Hunan University, China: An educational board game designed to teach children about basic health and safety to avoid accidental injuries.
• Designing Tactile Schematics – New York University, USA: A set of design standards developed to make electronics and DIY projects more accessible for the visually impaired.
• Water Scale - Louis Bruno Bindernagel, University of the Arts Berlin, Germany : A digital scale displays the amount of water used in the production of our groceries thereby enabling us to make our own fact-based decisions on consumption.

Technology: “As technology continues to develop at its own dizzying pace, graduates are leading conversations around the development and use of these powerful new tools. These graduate projects raise questions around how the development of new technologies will play out in the future and how they can bring a positive change.”

• Roblox – UCL - Bartlett school of Architecture, UK: Modular construction system which allows the creation and reconfiguration of a large variation of structures of multiple scales.
• Jarvis - University of Pennsylvania, USA: A mixed reality headset integrated with incorporated EEG and eye-tracking systems that allows real-time visualisation and measurement of brain response and eye movements. This enables doctors to accurately measure and visualise the brain’s response to the intentional distractions or activities of the software when conducting cognitive tests for severe head trauma, pharmaceutical efficacy, autism and ADHD.
• Mi Data – Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, UK: A gateway for users to view the type of raw data they are sharing as well as their derived data psychographics by augmenting the experience in personal data transparency.
• Ro-Biotics – Royal College of Art and Imperial College London: A microscopic robot created from 4D printed materials to be ingested in the place of an antibiotic, which captures infections in the blood stream.

Visit Global Grad Show between 12 - 16 November 2019, as part of the programming at Dubai Design Week