Royal College of Art and OPPO discuss making technology more human in live panel discussion

The Royal College of Art and OPPO have teamed up with Dezeen to host a live panel discussion about how design students from the RCA are making technology more human. Tune in from 4:00pm UK time.

Technology brand OPPO has collaborated with students from the RCA's Design Products MA programme on an exhibition of projects that explore how technology can be further integrated into everyday life.

Responding to the exhibition's theme of "Humanising Technology", students worked closely with OPPO London Design Centre, the brand's design hub, to develop projects that allow technology to "flow seamlessly into one's life".

"It is an opportunity to explore, question, and analyse technology to make it more human, familiar, comfortable, and intimate, through developing people-centric designs and products," explained Jintong Zhu, head of the OPPO London Design Centre.

Moderated by Alon Meron, Design Products tutor at the RCA, the panel will discuss the philosophy behind the brief and the benefits of technology brands and the educational sector collaborating to push the limits of design.

Panellists will include Paul Anderson, dean of the RCA's School of Design and Ashley Hall, professor of Design Innovation and head of postgraduate research at the RCA's School of Design.

Also on the panel is Zhu who is an RCA School of Design alumni, and Roberto Ruffoni, design research manager at the OPPO London Design Centre.

Matthieu Muller, a graduate of the Design Products postgraduate course this year, also joins the panel, as well as Anne-Marie Heck, who graduated from the programme in 2019 and took part in the first collaboration between the RCA and OPPO.

This is the second year that OPPO has collaborated with students from the Design Products masters programme.

Lilin Jiao's project imagines that your phone can harvest energy from other electronic appliances in your home

The first collaboration saw the students' work exhibited in the Ventura Future exhibition during Milan design week 2019, which led to Heck being offered an internship at the OPPO London Design Centre.

Projects from this year collaboration include a clothes hanger by Eric Saldanha, that uses UV light to clean and kill any secondary bacteria left on garments.

Among other projects in the exhibition is Animate by Matthieu Muller, a set of electronic building blocks that allow children to create moving objects and figures and aims to introduce technology as a tool for self-expression.

Also in the show is Nect by Lilin Jiao, a conceptual project that imagines how groups of home appliances could form electronic networks that can be used to charge other devices like mobile phones.

The projects designed by the students are included in RCA2020, the Royal College of Art's graduate show which was brought online in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

You can view the full list of projects in the exhibition at the RCA's online show.

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