Department of Mechanical Engineering

Design Factory

Design Factory develops creative ways of working and enhanced interdisciplinary interaction to support world-class product design in educational, research and practical application contexts.
Two students working at the Aalto University Design Factory's PrintLab

Aalto University Design Factory is a platform for co-creation across disciplinary, organisational and even geographical boundaries. Born as one of the first physical manifestations of Aalto University, a network of over 30 Design Factories across the globe has been formed to support reimagining higher education around product development. 

Whether you're a staff member, student, alumni or represent the surrounding societal and industrial ecosystem, Design Factory aims to lower the threshold for the first steps of experimentation in our university. We pilot new forms of practices in education and development, host a number of courses and research groups, as well as offer prototyping facilities that any student can make use of with the help of our lab masters. 

For more information, visit our complete website at designfactory.aalto.fi.

Key personnel

Latest publications

Towards a definition of ‘empathic understanding’ in industrial design practice

Veronica Barnes, L.J. Theo, Vikki Eriksson 2024 The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa

Digital Democracy, Digital Dangers : Tracing Cybercrime Victimization in Finnish Online Political Discourse

Aki Koivula, Pekka Räsänen, Teo Keipi 2024 HCI International 2024 Posters - 26th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2024, Proceedings

Opportunities from adversity : The enabling impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for the actions of Finnish and Californian food and beverage ventures

Erika Perttunen, Summer D. Jung, Maria Talvinko, Tua A. Björklund 2024 International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

It ain't over till it's over: Adjusting the intensity and conformity of championing efforts after initial failure

Antti Surma-aho, Senni Kirjavainen, Tua Björklund 2024 Creativity and Innovation Management

Moments that Matter : Early-Career Experiences of Diverse Engineers on Different Career Pathways

Floris van der Marel, Tua Björklund, Sheri Sheppard 2024 Engineering Studies

Integroitu yrittäjyysopetus : Yrittäjyystaitoja opiskelijoille, joille Slush tarkoittaa vain loskaa

Kalle Airo, Håkan Mitts, Elina Kähkönen 2023 Yrittäjyyden edistäminen korkeakouluissa – esimerkkejä ja käytänteitä

1st Design Factory Global Network Research Conference ‘Designing the Future’ 5-6 October 2022

Tua Björklund, Peter Joore, Saku Mäkinen, Christine Thong, Eduardo Zancul 2023

The dynamics of innovation efforts in the early career

Tua A. Björklund, Shannon K. Gilmartin, Sheri D. Sheppard 2023 Creativity and Innovation Management

VIRTUALLY HOSTED HACKATHONS FOR DESIGN RESEARCH : LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DESIGN ENGINEERING ANNUAL (IDEA) CHALLENGE 2022

Daniel Nygaard Ege, Mark Goudswaard, Ole Nesheim, Sindre W. Eikevåg, Oystein Bjelland, Kim A. Christensen, Robert Ballantyne, Shuo Su, Chris Cox, Louis Timperley, Omsri Aeddula, Raj Jiten MacHchhar, Ryan Ruvald, Jie Li, Sara Figueiredo, Saurabh Deo, Nikola Horvat, Ivan Čeh, Jelena Šklebar, Daniel Miler, James Gopsill, Ben Hicks, Martin Steinert, Shuo Su 2023 Proceedings of the Design Society
More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.
Research portal
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