Member Article

Home sweet home for HDTI’s new Product Designer

A Coventry University graduate has taken up the post of Industrial Product Designer at the University’s Health Design & Technology Institute (HDTI).

Award-winning designer James Miles is familiar with his new surroundings, having spent six months as an intern working on product designs in 2010 at the HDTI while studying at Coventry.

After graduating with a First Class Honours in Consumer Product Design from the University in 2011, the 24-year-old joined JMDA in Worcester as a Junior Product Designer.

Now, the Stratford-based designer will be working alongside HDTI Senior Product Designer Paul Magee on projects centred on community healthcare and assisted living.

James, who won the Nanjing Innovation Design Prize in 2011 awarded by the University of Singapore, is excited about returning to HDTI to develop new technologies.

He said: “My internship was a massive help and gave me invaluable experience for my studies in my final year. This was really valuable in improving my design thinking and overall skill set.

“I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead as I really enjoy working on projects which bring benefits to users because it can make a real difference in improving their day-to-day lives.

“My job involves concept generation, design development and designing for manufacture to create innovative healthcare products and assistive technologies.

“It is really interesting to watch your initial designs progress into prototypes for products which can be used to improve people’s lives.”

The Health Design & Technology Institute has recently been awarded a second phase of funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of £341,500 to extend its support to SMEs in the West Midlands for a further 18 months.

Guy Smallman, Commercial Development Director at HDTI, believes James will be a very welcome addition to the team.

He said: “The ERDF funding helps the Product Design team develop innovative products in the community healthcare and assisted living sector and James will play an integral part in continuing our innovative and cutting-edge work.

“James will be using state-of-the-art technology in our studio and workshop to design products which are then turned into prototypes, tested and evaluated for assessment before hopefully entering the market.

“SMEs in the West Midlands region, covering Warwickshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, are eligible for five days of funding from the ERDF.

“This entitles companies to free consultancy for product development and testing of assistive technologies and community healthcare products and we are always keen to talk to entrepreneurs about their ideas.” For further information about the work of HDTI contact Guy Smallman at guy.smallman@coventry.ac.uk.

The HDTI Assistive Technologies & Community Healthcare Development Project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund under Priority 1 - Promoting Innovation and Research & Development.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by HDTI .