During the week from March 27 until April 2, KAIST held ‘KAIST Design Week 2011,’ bringing about a series of international conferences on engineering-related design. The week-long event consisted of the 21st CIRP International Design Conference, the 6th International Conference on Axiomatic Design and the 1st Design in Civil and Environmental Engineering Workshop, all of which were held consecutively at the Fusion Hall located in the Chunghi & Byiung Jun Park KAIST Institute Building.

This year’s CIRP Conference, which was held between April 26 and 29, aimed to promote cooperation and exchange between the academic and industrial sectors so as to engender progress in engineering product research. The conference serves as an annual opportunity for the world’s most talented researchers and industrial developers to share their knowledge. The keynote speeches for this year’s event included “Bridging the Gap between Engineering and Industrial Designers in Product Design” by Professor Kun-pyo Lee of KAIST’s Department of Industrial Design (who is also the current Executive Vice President of LG Electronics’ Corporate Design Center) and another titled “Design Implications of New Manufacturing Methods” by Cannytrophic Design’s Zoz Brooks.

The 6th International Conference on Axiomatic Design included various presentations and debating sessions concerning the Axiomatic Design theory. Axiomatic Design theory is a branch of design that focuses on the analysis of consumer needs and wants, which are applied to design improvement that solve the identified problems. It is also KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh’s brainchild. Keynote speakers Stephen Lu of the University of Southern California and Moshe Shpitalni of Technion Israel Institute of Technology presented under the headings of “A Logic-Based Foundation of Axiomatic Design” and “Axiomatic Modular Design of Service-Oriented Products,” respectively.

The Design in Civil and Environmental Engineering Workshop, which took place on April 1 and 2, featured lectures and debates on the topic of sustainable city design and development. KAIST took the opportunity provided by “KAIST Design Week 2011” to promote its main research projects, including HUBO, OLEV and Mobile Harbor to participants of the event, many of whom were impressed by the university’s superior research work.