METU Design Factory, an innovation center where researchers and students from various disciplines come together and work on new products and solutions, hosts an important organization in the fields of design, innovation, and collaboration. Within the International Design Factory Week (IDFW) that will take place between October 2-6, 2023, design factory representatives from many countries will convene at METU for workshops, training and new collaboration opportunities.

Design Factory Global Network (DFGN), comprising 39 design factories across 26 countries as members and promoting international cooperation efforts with a focus on education and innovation through events such as IDFW, gathers its 25 member design factories and nearly fifty representatives at METU Design Factory. The design factories that participate in this year’s event to discuss possible future collaborations and projects in addition to sharing their activities with others are listed below.

• Design Factory Javeriana Bogotá (Colombia)
• Design Factory Korea (South Korea)
• Design Factory Melbourne (Australia)
• Design Factory Shenkar (Israel)
• DF London (England)
• DF Pforzheim (Germany)
• DF@Seunisa (Italy)
• FORGE Design Factory (Ireland)
• FusionPoint (Spain)
• Future Design Factory (The Netherlands)
• HAMK Design Factory (Finland)
• Hannam Design Factory (South Korea)
• iCubo UDD (Chile)
• Ideasquare @CERN (Switzerland)
• Inno.space (Germany)
• Kyoto Design Lab (Japan)
• Manchester Design Factory (England)
• NYC Design Factory (United States of America)
• Oper.Space (Italy)
• Porto Design Factory (Portugal)
• Sino-Finnish Centre (China)
• St. John’s University Design Factory (United States of America)
• University of Tartu Delta Sandbox (Estonia)
• UPV: Generación Espontánea (Spain)

This year in its seventh iteration at the METU Design Factory, IDFW also includes the second international DFGN.R Conference, where diverse applications and educational insights from all over the world in the field of design and innovation are exchanged and explored. This year’s conference, themed “Design for Diversity,” will take place on October 5-6 in collaboration with the CERN IdeaSquare Journal of Experimental Innovation (CIJ), and selected research papers will be published in a special issue of this journal. Throughout the remainder of the week, you can get the updates regarding these exciting events by following the METU Design Factory and DFGN social media accounts, or by following the hashtags #IDFW2023 and #DFGNR. For detailed information and updates, you can also click on the links below.

• DFGN.R Conference Website: https://www.conference.dfgn.org/
• Conference Proceedings Book: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/123732
• METU Design Factory Website: https://tf.metu.edu.tr/

Funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Industry and Technology, Technical Assistance for “ECITE: Emergence of Creative Industries and Transformation of Economy of Gaming, Wearables and New Generation Film Production” will be carried out in cooperation with METU Design Factory, METU GISAM and ATOM. The kick-off meeting with the partners of the project was held on 16.03.2023 at METU Culture and Congress Center.

The International Design Factory Week (IDFW), which will be held for the seventh time in 2023, is planned to be hosted by the METU Design Factory. IDFW is an event where design factories located in 35 different cities around the world come together every year to share their experiences and exchange ideas on potential collaborations and projects through various events and workshops held throughout the week, within the body of the Global Network of Design Factories (DFGN). The event is also a global event promoting the host design factory and the surrounding ecosystem.

Within the scope of the IDFW’23 organization, which will be hosted by the METU Design Factory in 2023, Aalto University Design Factories Global Network coordinators discussed the organization planning and existing infrastructures for 4 days between 14-17 November 2022. Various meetings were held, including the design factory, METU campus and technological infrastructures were introduced.

The Interdisciplinary Design Studio, which was held for the 10th time in the spring semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, ended with the closing event. Many valuable guests from academia and industry attended the closing event. DTS groups, consisting of students from different departments at METU, presented their innovative solutions that they had been working on throughout the semester. After the presentation and jury evaluations, the teams debated ideas with the participants about their work.

3 projects developed with the support of Vestel for this term;

• “NOVI” prepared by the “ICE” team to to enhance the driving experience of novice drivers.
• “KİRPİ” by the “FUTURUM” team, focused on designing an innovative electric charging station and improving the experience between the charging station and the user.
• “VIRIPOT”, the new home appliance of the “VIRIDIS” that can prevent food waste.

Interdisciplinary Design Studio (DTS) is a series of events consisting of various seminars, workshops and studio classes that support participants from different disciplines to work together. DTS, which is carried out with the coordination of the METU Design Factory and the mentorship of our professors from different departments, is a course designed with the partnership of industry and non-governmental organizations operating in different sectors, especially METU Technopolis.

DTS, called Interdisciplinary Problem Solving (BA148), will be held on Fridays between 09:00-12:30 as an open elective course to students from all departments in METU.

The Interdisciplinary Design Studio, which was held for the ninth time in the fall semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, ended with the closing event. Many valuable guests from academia and industry attended the closing event. DTS groups, consisting of students from different departments at METU, presented their innovative solutions that they had been working on throughout the semester. After the presentation and jury evaluations, the teams debated ideas with the participants about their work.

3 projects developed with the support of Arçelik for this term;

• “Wiggle” prepared by the “Foodies” team to extend food life and minimize food loss.
• “Washdraw” by the “Juno” team, focused on dishwashing in the kitchen environment, which will make user life easier.
• “Reset”, the new home assistant application of the “Xyz” team that will make life easier for users.

You can find detailed information about the projects here.

With support from the METU Technopolis and sponsored by industry and NGOs, METU Design Factory provides training, equipment, and infrastructure to interdisciplinary student teams for collaborative design projects. DTS brings students from different disciplines together in interdisciplinary teams to develop innovative products.

Under the name of Interdisciplinary Problem Solving, Interdisciplinary Design Studio course will be held between 9.00-12.30 on Fridays as an open elective course for students from all departments at METU.

Link for the application: tf.metu.edu.tr/dts_fall2021/

Interdisciplinary Design Studio (IDS), an interdisciplinary course conducted by METU Design Factory each semester which aims METU students coming from different disciplines to solve real problems coming from our stakeholders from various industries is coming to an end with a closing ceremony on 15th of May 2020. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic that have serious affects across the globe, this years closing ceremony will be organized virtually. Student groups that will attend the closing ceremony with their solutions are as follows,

• Group Locus – UNDP
• Group Awake – UNDP
• Group Paper Tigers – Nurol BAE Systems (BNA)
• Group Smartera – GAMA Energy

Interdisciplinary Design Studio (IDS) Spring ’20, which brings together real problems from our stakeholders with METU students from different disciplines, partnering with United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Gama Energy and British Nurol Aerospace (BNA), has started.