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

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

Designing Futures for Afrika and Beyond

Vikki Eriksson, Keineetse Christopher Motlhanka, Thatayaone Mosepedi 2023 African Industrial Design Practice

DIMENSIONS OF PROXIMITY IN STAKEHOLDER CHOICE REFLECTED IN THE CREATION OF KNOWLEDGE-BASED INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM PARTNERSHIPS

Vikki Eriksson, Teo Keipi, Tua Björklund 2023 Proceedings of the Design Society

Multidisciplinary education through faculty members’ conceptualisations of and experiences in engineering education

Xiaoqi Feng, Salu Ylirisku, Elina Kähkönen, Hannele Niemi, Katja Hölttä-Otto 2023 European Journal of Engineering Education

Towards Circular Design and Manufacturing - Lessons Learned from University-Based Makerspaces

Tanja Honkala, Katja Hölttä-Otto, Elina Kähkönen 2023 Procedia CIRP

Facing extreme uncertainty–how the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced product development

Katja Hölttä-Otto, Tua Björklund, Monika Klippert, Kevin Otto, Dieter Krause, Claudia Eckert, Oscar Nespoli, Albert Albers 2023 International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS IN ENGINEERING : SYSTEMIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EXPERTS AND NOVICES

Senni Kirjavainen, Sine Celik 2023 Proceedings of the Design Society

Automatic Facial Expression Analysis as a Measure of User-Designer Empathy

A Salmi, J Li, K Holtta-Otto 2023 Journal of Mechanical Design

Photon-counting computed tomography thermometry via material decomposition and machine learning

Nathan Wang, Mengzhou Li, Petteri Haverinen 2023 Visual Computing for Industry, Biomedicine, and Art
More information on our research in the Research database.
Research database
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