Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)

Mission Statement

To build a global creative community in which learning, research, and engagement are all part of the creative experience, to translate leading technologies into new design outcomes and industry advancement for social benefit, and to educate students in the enormous potentials and responsibilities of Design.

International Role

We conceptualise the school in a global design discourse and production system. A fully bilingual institution, the SUSTech School of Design is actively engaged in an international design pedagogy through the academics in the school as well as partnerships, developing and in place, in the international sector. Of the founding academics currently in place, we have colleagues originally from many countries, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea, as well as China. All of the latter have academic and practice experience outside China. We are developing curricula and delivery with academic institutions in Australia and, in the near future, in Europe. With Shenzhen's central position in the production and delivery of designed outcomes, we intend the school to be a welcoming host for global design engagement and development.

National Role

A very large portion of all design practitioners in China live and work in China. Much of the future of design here rests on the development of technologies and scientific advances as they are translated for social, economic and health benefits that will be deployed globally. The SUSTech School of Design is distinctive in being hosted in a globally leading university of science and technology (the THE ranks our university eighth in China overall and thirteenth in the global 2022 Young Universities ranking. WIth this capacity, the school occupies a distinctive position nationally. The school was founded by direction from the Shenzhen municipal government who fund its development. The first UNESCO City of Design in China, Shenzhen is deeply committed to the importance and essential role of design in bringing value to its industries and to realising its future as an eco-city that is a location of choice for employers and visitors. 

Main Focus

1. Object Design: working at all scales of designed functional objects; the structural optimization of products; service provision; enhancing the competitiveness and effectiveness of products and processes; and improving the quality and efficiency of supply systems. 

2. Interaction Design: enabling and enriching interactions including service design, gaming and IoT; engaging with artificial intelligence (AI); big data; interactions of devices and sentient beings; augmented reality (AR); and virtual reality (VR). 

3. Experience Design: developing and extending the range of experiences including gaming and animation; enriching scriptwriting and narration; extending the range of interaction to enhance experience including AR and VR; advancing the applications of AI in design and uses.

4. Wearables Design: engaging in the full range of wearables, including fashion, jewelry, as well as but not limited to those augmenting capabilities and functionalities, working with advances in materials and cultures. 

5. Environment Design: working in both tangible and intangible environments, analogue and digital, from interiors to urban contexts, with a particular engagement in data driven design and in the coupled urban and natural systems.