Reserach Themes: Design+Business and Publics

Scholarly Interests:

Digital Design Technology, Smart Product and Service Design, Design Optimization, Digital Manufacturing, Smart Cities, Design for Emotion, Crowdsouring Product and Service Design and Development

Professor Qin joined Northumbria School of Design in 2014. He was 2019 Newton Prize recipient based on his collaborative research work with Professor Cuixia Ma at the Institute of Software of Chinese Academy of Sciences on Transforming Service Design and Big Data Technologies into Sustainable Urbanisation.

Prior to this appointment, he worked as a Senior/Lecturer in Department of Design at Brunel University (2001- 2013), a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (2000-2001) at University of Loughborough, a Research Assistant in the School of Product Design of Cardiff Metropolitan University (1998-1999). He was an Academic Visitor at the University of Birmingham (1996-1997) from East China Jiaotong University.

His research interest is broadly in digital design and manufacturing methods and technology for product-service systems. Early work includes design optimization, Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), sketch-based modelling and interfacing, gesture-based modelling and interfacing, design process and team management.

At Northumbria University, Professor Qin has established the Smart Design Lab (SDL), leading design research into future smart products, services and interconnected systems design by applying cutting edge smart technologies and smart multi-disciplinary design research methods/tools. 

Recent research is focused on planet/impact centred design theory, AI and Data-driven smart design methods, design for the product life cycle, design for ecosystem, crowdsourcing and digital twin-based design methods for smart manufacturing, railway, city, product, service, and well-being system.

Recent research projects are funded by UKRI, China Scholarship Council (CSC), British Council, British Academy, industry and charities, including

• Prototyping Open Innovation Models for ICT-Enabled Manufacturing in Food and Packaging (EPSRC)
• Crowdsourcing Platform for Product Development (Innovate UK)
• Crowdsourcing-Based Product Design and Development for Manufacturing (CSC)
• Modular Design Techniques for Product Family Development of High-Speed Train (Dowell Technology Limited)
• Sustainable Urban and Rural Integration with AI and Big-Data Technologies(UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy & Newton Prize).
• Designing Smart Services for Sustainable Urbanization with Fused Big-Data Visualization and Interaction Techniques (British Council)
• A Digital Twin Platform of The Customer Journey for Future Advanced Services (EPSRC)
• Developing a Grassroots Sustainable Futures Platform-Collective Participation in a Community-Based Cultural Organisation (British Academy)
• Digital Twin-Driven Lifecycle Smart Product Design and Manufacturing for Railway Industry (British Council)
• Emotion Recognition for Improving Team Work Performance (CSC)
• Fusing Multiple Cultural Elements into Situational Jewellery (gift) Design for Very High-End Markets (CSC)
• Digital Twining of Urban Transportation System for Smart Transportation Service Design and Innovation (CSC)

Professor  Qin is currently the Director for our MA Design Programme, teaching research principles and methods for this programme.

He is the Editor-in-Chief for  International Journal of Rapid manufacturing, and an Associate Editor for International Journal of Design Engineering.

Prof. Qin has published more than 200 papers in journals and conferences and 2 books. His publication profile can be found on Google Scholar and his ORCID.

Professor Qin is an associate member of The Design Lab at UC San Diego since his visit to the Design Lab in 2016-2017 under the Leverhulme International Fellowship. 

Profsessor Qin is also a Visiting Professor to Southwest Jiaotong University of China on Digital Design and Manufacturing (2014-) and a Co-Coordinator of the Joint Design Innovation Lab with Northwestern Polytechnical University of China (2017-).

Professor Qin is an Associate Editor of International Journal of Design Engineering (Inderscience Publishers) and Journal of Systems Science & Control Engineering (Taylor & Francis Online).