BMW Group is expanding its unique partnership with QUT by delivering the latest BMW M8 Competition Coupé direct from BMW Group’s headquarters in Munich to QUT, enabling the university’s design students to undertake collaborative real-world projects on cutting-edge emerging technologies.
BMW Group + QUT Design Academy founder and lead Associate Professor Rafael Gomez from Industrial Design said QUT undergrad and postgrad design students would work with the M8 to investigate the integration of future technologies such as ultrasonic haptics, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and others, into BMW Group vehicles and manufacturing processes.
“This is a unique partnership between one of Australia’s top-ranked universities and the world’s leading premium automotive company,” Professor Gomez said.
“The BMW M8 is one of the most sophisticated machines in the luxury brand’s stable and will allow us to achieve some of our most ambitious goals across research, teaching, and education.
“It opens opportunities for current and future students in industrial design and other courses to learn from the latest in automotive technologies, particularly in the human-machine interface area.”
Professor Gomez said the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy is a unique collaboration between the two organisations that has developed into a significant partnership with 26 QUT design students accepted into the paid internship program with the global Fortune 100 company in its Munich headquarters in the past few years.
“This has given our students an extraordinary opportunity to work across a range of BMW Group departments and use ground-breaking technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, robotics, autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and big data to develop novel solutions to real-world problems,” Professor Gomez said.
QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Sheil welcomed the progress of the partnership and said QUT was excited to continue to support this exciting partnership with BMW Group.
“QUT is incredibly proud of the strength of the partnership with a world-class industry leader like BMW Group,” Professor Sheil said.
“The vehicle provided by BMW Group as a research and teaching tool is a signal of the depth of the cooperation between the partners and highlights the value of QUT’s contribution to a company of this calibre.”
Jimmy Nassif, Chief Technology Officer at BMW Group’s wholly owned subsidiary idealworks said that this partnership benefits both QUT and BMW Group and underscores the strength of the relationship.
“The endowment of the BMW M8, our top-tier performance sports vehicle, will allow QUT students to undertake innovative research relevant to priorities at BMW Group,” Mr Nassif said.
“This will in turn help better train and prepare design and engineering students to implement that knowledge at BMW Group as interns or as future employees.
“With this vehicle, our partners at QUT will be able to conduct research that aligns with BMW Group’s and idealworks’ vision towards our industry 4.0 ambitions.
“Already, design and engineering interns from QUT have contributed greatly to these goals with excellent technical skill sets and an enterprising attitude.
“The BMW M8 will open up new areas of collaboration including interface design, future mobility concepts, advanced visualisation, and augmented reality, for instance. We are very supportive of the successful partnership with QUT and look forward to a bright future”.
Professor Gomez said the postgraduate research program would begin by exploring robotics, autonomous driving, VR and AR in the M8 supercar and uncover the potential of advanced wearable technologies in automotive contexts.
“As the M8 Competition is a complex machine, it exemplifies some of the most fundamental aspects we need to teach in industrial design,” Professor Gomez said.
“Our undergraduate students will study the vehicle’s ergonomics, material, manufacturing processes, interaction, experience and other sophisticated aspects incorporated into the interior and exterior design elements.
“The postgraduate students will investigate other technologies for interaction and experience design which encompasses the whole setting, from lighting to materials, dashboard design, human-machine interfaces and infotainment for driver and passengers.”
Dylan Sheppard, Digital Design Lead at idealworks, understands first-hand the opportunities QUT’s partnership with BMW Group can lead to, having undertaken an internship with the Group in 2016 as a design student which paved the way for his current role.
“I’m really proud to see the program establish a new home in the heart of QUT’s design precinct,” Mr Sheppard said.
“The delivery of this vehicle will create a new touchpoint for our continued collaboration, promoting our partnership to a wider audience, and helping us garner top talent to support our projects at idealworks and throughout the BMW Group.”
