The first project in this new approach was in collaboration with a company providing packaging and display solutions for the retail industry.
The company employs an ex-Middlesex MSc Design Engineering student, who suggested the collaboration and developed the project in the department with Debbie and Senior Lecturer in Design Engineering, Dr Alex Zivanovic.
The project was worked on by pairs of one BA and one BSc student and had the added incentive of a £500 cash prize and a good deal on intellectual property rights of any design that went into production.
Debbie said: “The project was for only three weeks, but the students stepped up to the mark and produced high quality, exciting and innovative solutions that exceeded the expectations of the client and have resulted in talks for a further project next year”.
The winning design, by Rebecca Board (BA) and Elliot Colley (BSc), removes the need for a hook on a hanger and is engineered in a single, injection-moulded part in polypropylene with a hinging mechanism integrated.

The company is considering a number of the proposals for further development.
The MSc graduate said: “I very much liked Debbie’s idea to put BA and BSc together and the client was very impressed with the quality of ideas and overall standard of work from the PDE students.

“I’m very pleased that the students managed to overcome the potential clash between the arts/engineering approach to project work and brought their respective strengths together to achieve a very successful outcome,” said Alex.