University of the Aegean, Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering

Partners Greece Ermoupoli

The focus of the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering is the integrated design of modern and emerging products, systems, and services. It is part of the Polytechnic School of the University of the Aegean, based on the island of Syros. It is the only department of Design Engineering in Greece. The Department is a pioneer academic unit in Greek higher education in the field of Design Engineering. Its educational operation began in the year 2000 and is aligned to the most modern practices and programs of study offered by international accredited institutions in the field of design of products and systems. At the same time, the Department produces high level research, that enjoys wide recognition from the international scientific community. This leading -edge research is referenced and worked into the educational material of the various scientific and technological courses offered, so that student teaching is always up-to-date with the latest advances in the field. The team that is part of the SMOTIES project, is active at the University's Complex Systems and Service Design Lab, which supports research and academic activities linked to the investigation, understanding, analysis, modeling and design of interventions in complex systems and the design of services at all levels of organizational complexity.

https://www.syros.aegean.gr/en

People involved

Helen Charoupia She is studying issues related to the emergence of sustainable futures through design. Using action research she aims to explore the ways in which tacit knowledge can emerge, be understood and leveraged to better design relational services for sustainable futures. This exploration will pivot on the ways of knowing that emerge from the process of design, craft and co-creation as well as on the indigenous practices at the local level. Her research aims to enable the emergence of a new design epistemology, based on concepts like post-humanism as well as on feminist and indigenous theoretical frameworks. This will be accomplished with small groups of people, within which co-creation will occur, following processes of participatory design.
Kypriani Bartzoka She is an interdisciplinary designer, engineer, and researcher. During her research, she used to investigate the Human-Computer Interaction and its associated impact on society. Her design-led research attempted to rethink existing Al and autonomous systems as socially empowering infrastructures, taking into consideration how ethics is enacted through design. Currently, she is interested in the deeper comprehension of the relationship we have with our bodies and the possible application of this knowledge in the design cycle. In Greek, the body is called SOMA and It is not an object, it is not just a tool. It is reflecting our needs, our feelings, our identity.
Paris Xyntarianos Tsiropinas Dipl. Product & Systems Design Engineering. MSc Illustration and Comics. Paris’ doctoral research focuses on the connection and interaction between Design and Street Art and their application in Product, System and Service.
Argyris Arnellos (principal investigator) Argyris is Associate Professor at the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering at the University of the Aegean. Director of the Complex Systems and Service Design Lab.
Spyros Bofylatos (former team member) He holds a doctorate in theory of Design from the Department of Products and System Design Engineering of the University of the Aegean. His research sprawls around design for sustainability, craft, service design and social innovation. His work is based on creating meaningful dialogue between the theoretical framework and the sociotechnical propositional artifacts that embody different research questions. At the very core of this process is the notion that we live in transitional times and fostering the discourse that leads to networks of artifacts that embody alternative systems of values is necessary.
Jenny Darzentas (former principal investigator) Assistant Professor (Service Design) in the Department. She is passionate about inclusivity and accessibility ‘following a Design for All approach’. That means that, from the outset, services, and the products that are part of those services, are designed in a holistic way as mainstream services that cater for a wide range of users and contexts of use. Her interest in service design comes from her appreciation of its fairly recent emergence and organisation, and especially its preoccupation with the topics of such as new value systems and social innovation. This means that Service Design provides a fascinating area that can both accommodate accessibility as well as add pragmatic dimensions to it.
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