University of Gothenburg

Helga Björg Jónasardóttir is a design student at University of Gothenburg in the Child Culture Design department in Sweden.  Her piece, playbl, was shown in Milan this year in a group show of fellow students.  Playbl, as pictured, is a multifunctional coffee table that fosters the co-existing needs of adults and children at the same time.

The University of Gothenburg offers a masters program in Child Culture Design.  The following excerpt from the university's website details a brief overview of the program:

Imagine a design specialization where the focus is on the perspective of a child: On children’s play, pedagogy, development, culture, health and above all on the tools of play. On the participation and inlfuence of childen and youth on society. Imagine a design specialization that utilizes the great existing bank of knowledge that has been accumulated in Sweden, in such areas as play, health care, education and communication. In the Fall of 2009 this vision became a reality at HDK- School of Design and Crafts, Universtiy of Gothenburg, with the introduction of the Child Culture Design Programme, CCD, a design programme unlike any other.

Tackle Design Inc.

With clients ranging from major research universities to artists, from industrialists to inventors, Tackle Design Inc is unified by the pursuit of elegant solutions and a commitment to quality workmanship.

Our areas of accomplishment range from solutions for improving cardiovascular surgery to refinement of aerospace manufacturing processes to concept development and prototyping for consumer electronics devices.

 

Tools for Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgery (MIRS)

Robotic systems have become the state of the art in many types of surgical procedures, allowing the surgeon to perform complex operations through small, fast healing incisions. Tackle is a member of an interdisciplinary team of NIH funded researchers at NCSU developing retraction and fixation tools for MIRS procedures. Our involvement has included creativity training for team members, concept development and prototyping work as well as participation in surgical trials.

The Open Prosthetics Project

Tackle has launched The Open Prosthetics Project to create useful and innovative prosthetic devices and fully publish our designs for anyone to use, customize, or improve on. By substituting public good for profits, we believe that we can generate far more societal benefit than if we commercialized and sold our ideas. We are currently developing several novel prosthetic concepts and seeking funding from donations and grants.