Origami Robot Workshop dazzles at 5th National Collegiate Art Exhibition
On April 16, the 5th National Collegiate Art Exhibition, co-hosted by the Ministry of Education and Shanghai People’s Government, kicked off in Shanghai Exhibition Center. It attracted 47 creative and innovative workshops from domestic universities. The Origami Robot Workshop, established by ZJU’s International Design Institute, dazzled visitors at the exhibition.
“Origami robots are made of paper, driven by motors and controlled by programming. The Origami Robot Workshop, which fuses designing methods, programming technology mechanic principles and origami skills, is a brand new paradigm of creative and innovative thinking,” Prof. SUN Lingyun said. He currently is Deputy Director of International Design Institute of ZJU.
“The workshop brings to the exhibition a constellation of brilliant works in the past two years. In the summer of 2017, Dr. WANG Guanyun and Dr. TAO Ye initiated Introduction Product Design (DIP) course for exchange students from Singapore University of Technology and Design. The origami robots workshop is its key component with the theme for the first year on bionics, requiring students to observe living creatures, analyze their movements and simulate their motions via folding paper. The 2018 workshop was themed on dancing geometry, involving the exploration of the regularities of a changing geometrical object and the application of these to the designing of an origami structure. These approaches can successfully cultivate students’ creative thinking and hone their abilities to express design ideas,” said ZUO Kui, a chief planner of the exhibition.
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Information Product Design (DIP)
DIP is an Industrial Design course in Zhejiang University. Product Launch Event is not only the final display method, but also an important part of teaching process. In this course, students from five countries get the opportunity to work together, from which they picked up on prototyping, design thinking, design fiction and storytelling skills. The course ended with a Product Launch Event held at the Zijingang theatre in Zhejiang University, giving students the on-the-stage experience with a large audience.
About Origami Workshop
Origami robots are made up of paper instead of metal mechanical components. One origami robot should be made with only one piece of paper and driven by one motor. In the production process, only basic model tools, 2D or 3D printers, and Arduino premier suite are used. The special features, such as scalability, lightweight and highly personalization, make it a new design protocol.
In the making process, students need to learn design methods, mechanical principles, programming and paper folding skills which can comprehensively promote their design thinking and expression capabilities ranging from design to fabrication by turning abstraction into reality.
Instructors
Professor SUN Lingyun
Associate Professor CHEN Shi
Lecturer YANG Ying
Dr. WANG Guanyun
Dr. TAO Ye
Teaching Assistants
XIE Xinhang, ZUO Kui, ZHOU Zhibin, LU Yujia, ZHANG Rui, ZHANG Caowei , LIU Xin , LI Xuan, TANG Chuqi , HAN Jiupo , WU Fan , LIU Yun, SHI Tuo
Chief Curator
ZUO Kui
Curatorial Team
ZUO Kui, XIE Xinhang, ZHOU Zhibin, LU Yujia, ZHANG Rui, XIAO Jingyi, LI Haotian, FENG Shoubo, XU Xiaoxue, ZHANG Jiahui, YING Xiaying, CAI Guangxi, SHEN Liuyi, ZHANG Ningyi, LIN Qiuxia, Edgar, Ji Yue, ZHU Yanan, HUANG Jiawen, GONG Qing, A Li, YE Wei, YU Tieli