The School of Design and Human Engineering (DHE) at UNIST has announced that four of its design concepts, ‘Babyking’, ‘Sea-Cat Vol.2’, ‘NEST‘ and ‘Plant Diary’ have been honored at the 10th Annual International Spark Design Awards on December 13, 2016.
The Babyking was awarded the Spark Design Award 2016, the highest accolade in the competition. This robotic baby crib can take care of your little ones while you are struggling with household chores. It boasts a number of features, including easy detachable air purifying filter to remove dirty air around a newborn and modularization to smart stroller and car seat.
“With the help of this robotic crib, parenting may get just a little less stressful,” says Professor Yunwoo Jung.
Sea-Cat Vol. 2, recognized with the Spark Silver Award, is a three-wheeled two-passenger vehicle that runs on water. Unlike conventional watercrafts, it is powered by the aircraft-type propellers. Because the propeller is in the air, it may reduce the chance of propeller striking a rock, then tearing a hole in the boat which quickly sank. Moreover, the innovative design makes it be towed and parked in a normal parking space easily. This will, therefore, save you the trouble of parking alongside a dock.
Other big winners of the prestigious 2016 Spark Design Awards are the ‘NEST’ and ‘Plant Diary’, which received the Bronze Award, both within the Fall Concept category.
NEST by Professor Chajong Kim and YoonkiAhn is a multipurpose furniture for the smaller and single-person households, where space efficiency, speed, and convenience are major considerations. This thermoelectric chair offers an energy-efficient solution designed to save you energy costs for space heating. Plant Diary by Professor James A. Self, Professor Young-Woo Park, and Sangsu Jang is an IoT product that monitors your plants personally and advises you on what to do, through a mobile application. This intelligent interior product can be plugged into the soil in your garden and helps take care of plants in the vicinity.
Both NEST (left) and Plant Diary (right) received the 2016 Spark Bronze Design Award in the Fall Concept category.
In addition, four other design concepts by Professor Jung ‘Air Premier’, ‘Sort Master’, ‘AirKing’, and ‘Sinking’, two design conceps by Professor Kim ‘Hug Me‘, and ‘Mirage Shower Booth’, as well as two more design concepts by Professor Park ‘MUSICON’ and ‘Word of Tie’ have been selected as finalists in the prestigious 2016 Spark Design Awards in the Fall Concept category.
“Winning this award shows that the School of Design and Human Engineering at UNIST is gaining world recognition,” says Henri Christiaans, Dean of Design and Human Engineering at UNIST.
The Spark Design Awards is a multi-disciplinary design competition with the core mission of creating a better world though design excellence. In its tenth year, the international awards program celebrates design excellence and talented designers across a wide range of categories and scales. It is considered one of the top three design contests, along with IDEA (USA), IF (Germany), and Red dot (Germany).
