So very quickly, just to end the presentation, and then I want to show you a video.
I just really want to go and talk about product design at Maynooth, [Slide: "Product Design (Marketing & Innovation) BSc Honours Degree – 'The Innovators of Tomorrow', Course Code: MH305"] what we are trying to do, and other degrees across the country and in the UK, and what it actually entails. So it’s a BSc Honours. It’s a Bachelor of Science degree. And basically a product designer is to a product what an architect is to a building. We create and invent a new product for the mass market, something that the user wants. We use maths and science. You have to have the knowledge. There is another type of design called blue skies design where you can invent or design anything, but it doesn’t have to function. No-one has to really use it and no-one has to buy it. This sort of product design, when it’s scientifically based, you’re inventing something that people actually want and that is functional and does work, and yet looks good at the end as well. So you learn how to sketch, to draw, and even if you have no creativity this is my example of it. So my students come into me at 18, "I can’t draw. I am not creative. My teacher thinks I am not creative. I am not artistic." They are now in third year. The degree is three years old. And in third year they are rendering in 3D. They are sketching. They have got spatial awareness. They are thinking laterally. And it’s just the way of teaching you how to do that. So it can be taught. [Slide: "Three integrated streams: Technology, Marketing, Design"]
You do marketing throughout the four years. You do technology, which is all the science, maths and engineering, and then the design as well. And obviously nowadays most products are electronic, have some sort of electronic components. So we also teach you the basics of the electronic, so you are aware of it. [Slide: "Contact www.productdesign.ie"] But if you want any more details of this degree, or any other product design courses or design in general, obviously your teachers can get in touch with me after. But now just to end the talk I want to inspire you all. [Slide: "You can achieve anything if you believe in it – follow your passion and ambition!"] So basically my motto in life is "Follow Your Dream". You can achieve anything if you believe in it. There will be people along the way that say, "You can’t do this. You can’t be….you can’t have that career." But follow your passion, follow your dream, and enjoy what you’re doing, and you will be successful at whatever you do. And I can almost guarantee that for all of you. So just to end now, I want to show you a video. This is from a website called Ted.com, which is for designers. It’s on creativity, inspiration. And again I just want to show you this video on Theo Jansen who followed his passion. Again people didn’t think this would be possible. But you can tell me yourselves what you think. [Playing Video]
Video
[Titles: “Remarkable people…unmissable talks…now free to the world. TED, ideas worth spreading”]
[Titles: "Theo Jansen"]
Theo Jansen: I would like to tell you about a project which started about 16 years ago. And it’s about making new forms of life. And these are made of this kind of tube, electricity tube, we call it in Holland. And we can start a film about that, and we can see a little bit backwards in time.
Narrator: Eventually these beasts are going to live in herds on the beaches. Theo Jansen is working hard on this evolution.
Theo Jansen: I want to put these forms of life on the beaches and they should survive over there on their own in the future. Learning to live on their own and it will take a couple of more years to let them walk on their own.
Narrator: The mechanical beasts will not get their energy from food but from the wind. The wind will move feathers on their back which will drive their feet. The beast walks sideways on the wet sand of the beech with its nose pointed into the wind. As soon as it walks into either the rolling surf or the dry sand it stops and walks in the opposite direction. Evolution has generated many species. This is the animaris [unclear]. [Laughter] [Applause]
Theo Jansen: This is a herd and it is built according to genetical codes. And this is a sort of race. And each, any…every animal is different. And the winning codes will multiply. This is the wave going from left to right. You could see in this one. And now it goes from…yes, now it goes from left to right. And this is a new generation, a new family which is able to store the wind. So the wings pump up air in lemonade bottles, which are on top of the…and they can use that energy in case the race…the wind falls away and the tide is coming up. And they still have a little bit of energy to reach the dunes and save their lives. Because they drown very easily. I could show you this animal.
[Demonstrating Animal] [Applause] So the proportion of the tubes in this animal is very important for the walking. There are 11 numbers which I call the "11 holy numbers". These are the distances of the tubes which make it walk that way. And in fact it’s a new invention of the wheel. It works the same as a wheel. The axis of a wheel is staying on the same level. And this hip is staying on the same level as well. In fact it is better than a wheel. Because when you try to drive with your bicycle on the beach you will notice it’s going very …very hard to do. And the feet just step over the sand. And the wheel has to touch every piece of the ground in between. So 5,000 years after the invention of the wheel we have a new wheel. And I will show you in the next video. OK, start it please. [Video demonstration] That very heavy loads can be moved. There are some …there is a guy pushing there behind, but can also walk on the wind very well. It’s 3.2 tonnes. And this is working on the stored winds in the bottles, here is the feeler where it can feel obstacles and turn around. And that’s so …if you see it has gone through the other way. Can I have the feeler? [model of feeler]
OK. Yes. So they have to survive all the dangers of the beach. And one of the big dangers is the sea. This is the sea. [Demonstrates glass of water] And it must feel the water of the sea. And this is the water feeler. And what’s very important is this tube. It sucks in air normally. But when it swallows water it feels the resistance of it. So imagine the animal is walking towards the sea… [Demonstration: puts tube in water]…as soon as it touches the water it should, you should hear a sort of sound of running air. Oh. [hissing sound air] Yes. So if it doesn’t feel it will be drowned. OK. Here we have the brain of the animal. [Model: Brain of Tube Animal] In fact it is a step counter. And it counts the steps. It’s a binary step counter. So as soon as it has been into the sea it changes the pattern of zeros and ones here and it knows always where it is on the beach. So it’s a very simple brain. It says, "Well there’s the sea, there are the dunes, and I am here." So it’s a sort of imagination of the simple world of the beach animal. Thank you. One of the biggest enemies are the storms. This is a part of the nose of the animaris percipiere. [Model: part of tube animal]
And when the nose is fixed of the animal the whole animal is fixed. So when the storm is coming up it drives a pin into the ground. [Demonstration: tube animal drives pin into the ground] [Laughter] And the nose if fixed, the whole animal is fixed. The wind may turn but the animal will turn over its nose into the wind. Another couple of years and these animals will survive on their own. I still have to help them a lot. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. [Applause]
Damini Kumar: So there you can see, just using plastic tubes, lemonade bottles and some science, maths, engineering and his imagination and creativity, he has actually designed these creatures that can live by themselves in families on the beach, know where the water is, know where the sand is, and actually using wind power can survive. So thank you. [Applause] Thank you to everyone for coming today. I hope you enjoyed the talk. I hope it inspired you to be more creative or innovative, or just think differently in whatever you do. And the main thing is to follow your dreams, your ambitions and just get there. And remember to work hard as well at school, because it does pay off later. Thank you. [Applause]
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