Designing Design Research 2


    Dr Tom Cassidy
    Dr Tom Cassidy
    Director of Graduate Studies,
    School of Design & Manufacture,
    De Montfort University, Leicester.
    LE1 9BH, UK


    Profile

    Dr Tom Cassidy is currently the Director of Graduate Studies at the School of Design and Manufacture, De Montfort University. His first job, after leaving school in 1969, was in the Advertising Department of J & P Coats of Glasgow and he remaind with that company in various capacities until 1978 when he became a lecturer at the Scottish College of Textiles in the Scottish Borderland. During his stay there he became involved in research into textile yarn design and production and was awarded an MSc from Strathclyde University and a PhD from CNAA as well as publishing a number of refereed papers. Dr Cassidy also operated his own Knitwear Design and Production company and worked on a number of projects for the UN and the ODA including Handspinning in Lesotho and setting up the first spinning mill in the Falkland Islands.

    In 1990, Dr Cassidy became a Principal lecturer at Leicester Polytechnic and course leader for the Knitwear Design and Production programme in the Department of Textiles and Fashion. He continued to publish on a wide range of subjects and has been successful in obtaining substantial funding for projects from EPSRC and other sources. In 1995 Dr Cassidy was appointed to Head the Graduate School for Design and Manufacture.

    Key Points - Introduction

    ...it is important to empower creative designers who are often misunderstood, even thwarted, by technicians, engineers, etc. and to give more credibility to research in the design community."
    This presentation addresses the importance of research as a tool for continuous professional development and for the maintenance of subject authority. It describes how research actvities within the School of Design & Manufacture are developed within a framework which employs five headings. These are: Design Technology, Design Management, Design Process, Design Practice and Design Education.

    The presentation provides a definition of these headings/ area and examples of the projects and personnel involved at De Montfort University.

    Dr Cassidy explains how existing paradigms seem to fit reasonably well in some headings and how others may require the application of new paradigms and modes of evaluation or assessment. He concules by expressing the shared hope that the day's discussions will help point the way forward for design research in the future.

    Please use the following to cite material from Designing Design Research 2.

    Author(s), "Title of Paper", in Designing Design Research 2:The Design Research Publication, Cyberbridge-4D Design at www.4d-dynamics.net/DDR2, Editor- Alec Robertson, 26 February 1998.

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