Outreach and Engagement

The Design Innovation in Healthcare Exhibition

The Design Innovation in Healthcare exhibition was conceived as a platform to showcase design engineering research from the Dyson School of Design Engineering that directly addresses real-world healthcare challenges. Hosted in collaboration with CW+, the official charity of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the exhibition brought academic innovation into a clinical setting, bridging the gap between design research and real-life healthcare contexts.

Held at the Academic Atrium of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, the event brought together clinicians, patients, designers, researchers and the wider hospital community, sparking conversations around the co-design practices and role of design engineering in improving healthcare.

Intersectional Design Methodologies for Women’s Health Equity

Led by Mabel Forward, this project explores new approaches to the Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) to better serve women from minoritised communities.

Working with a community group of South Asian women who are currently experiencing, or have experienced, the menopause alongside cancer, the project runs a series of co-design workshops exploring creative, participant-led methods of self-advocacy. Central to this is ‘zine making’ – a creative, multimodal method used to articulate embodied and culturally sensitive health experiences.

The insights generated through these workshops will inform the development of a culturally competent, women-specific PPIE framework – one that can be applied across other demographics and subjects in women's healthcare.

The project runs from May to July 2026 and has received development funding from the Centre for Societal Engagement, as part of the Collaboration Kickstarter Fund.

Helmet Impact Performance Effectiveness Rating

HIPER (Helmet Impact Performance Effectiveness Rating) is an open-access bicycle helmet rating system developed by researchers in Brain Biomechanics at HEAD Lab, Dyson School of Design Engineering. While current European standards (EN 1078) define the bare minimum protection required (with all helmets sold on the market meeting these standards), they provide no information on relative helmet performance. HIPER fills this gap, enabling consumers to make informed purchasing decisions.

To inform helmet selection, a survey of over 1,100 cyclists was conducted to capture behaviours and attitudes towards helmet purchasing and use. This, combined with market research from major UK retailers, guided the selection of 30 popular helmets to be tested under HIPER conditions. The findings revealed that helmet price has no meaningful relationship to protective performance; that greater variance existed for rotational than linear risk (a direct consequence of the existing standard); and that increased helmet mass was associated with greater linear injury risk.

The helmet safety ratings are openly published and disseminated on the HIPER website, enabling consumers to make informed purchasing decisions. In November 2025, HIPER was awarded the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in recognition of its contribution to road safety, scientific rigor, and public engagement.

Finding “My Community” Project

Led by a team from the Interaction Foundry – Melda Sahin (MSc Design with Behavioural Science 2025), Michelle Cedeno (PhD 2026), Anna Mariani, and Dr Weston Baxter – the Finding “My Community” project explores refugee integration through a behavioural and experiential lens, focusing on how individuals come to feel a sense of belonging and ownership within their communities.

Working in collaboration with the Abdul Mageed Educational Trust and WHEAT Mentor Support Trust, the project brought together refugees, community partners, and researchers through a series of participatory workshops. Using co-design methods such as journey mapping and storytelling, participants shared their lived experiences of settling in the UK which surfaced moments of challenge, connection, and contribution.

The workshops generated visual "ownership maps" – tracing each participant's journey over time and identifying key barriers, such as uncertainty and lack of recognition, alongside enablers including agency, participation and social connection. The insights are informing new approaches to integration that go beyond access to services, instead emphasising the conditions that enable people to experience integration.

The project has received development funding from the Centre for Societal Engagement, as part of the Collaboration Kickstarter Fund.