Chair focused on innovation

Design researcher, practitioner and Australian Future Fellow, Professor Andy Dong has been appointed to the Warren Chair in Engineering Innovation at the University of Sydney. This newly established chair will lead a program of education and research in engineering innovation in Australia. With a background in mechanical engineering and artificial intelligence, Professor Dong is a distinguished researcher in the areas of computational design and design-led innovation. His research investigates how the design of products influences their potential rate of innovation, an area he calls “predictive analytics for engineering innovation.” Professor Dong, who brings a plethora of industry and academic expertise to this new chair, says his goal is to produce research that will improve and grow the current stock of knowledge. “Businesses are increasingly relying on innovation to succeed. My goal is to produce research to help them figure out how to design or re-design products and services so that they can continually improve. I think this problem applies to all engineering innovations, from consumer electronics to heavy industries.”