The vision of the Department of Industrial Design is to build Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s capability to shape the future and address society’s changing needs through creativity, technical competence, and a passion for design and innovation. The department’s educational emphases rest on research and design through user perception and sensory affordance that replace traditional product functionalities, creating a performative space for human interaction, culture and context. The research and design streams will include, without being limited to, Adaptive Spaces, Wearable Products, New Materials and Processes, Download Design, and Urban Interconnectivity.

As society evolves and responds to the changing nature of the world around us, we seek to meet the world with the curiosity, spontaneity, desire and expression that reflect a new attitude towards situations and contexts. The department seeks to achieve this through research that questions our perceptions, interactions with the spaces around us, and the interconnections among people.

Goals:

1. Research and knowledge exchange: Create a scientific basis for design innovation for the next 20 years. Work with enterprises, investors, and entrepreneurs to assess novel design con-cepts and create strategic partnerships in technology research, design, development, and commercialisation.
2. Student experience: Prepare students for roles as product integrators and bridge builders as China-based companies shift to a designed-in-China strategy and international companies seek to design for the Chinese market.
3. International staff development: Build a world-class department that blends Western and Eastern best practices to maximise student development.
4. Partnerships and collaboration: Network within and beyond XJTLU to support the research and educational missions of the department.
5. Business engagement: Broaden innovation activities in Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu prov-ince, and beyond through providing inventors, entrepreneurs, and enterprises with design tools and services for mutual benefit.
6. Curriculum development and innovation: Mentor undergraduate, masters, and PhD students to become the entrepreneurial and educational leaders of tomorrow.
7. Expansion of the department through new programmes that will broaden its scope and impact in the region, China, and the international design community, leading to the recognition of XJTLU as a creative hub for sustainable design and innovation.