Award recipients: Dr Zhi ‘Albert’ Li, Dr Jiaming Ma, Distinguished Professor Yi Min ‘Mike’ Xie AM FTSE
Researchers at RMIT University Wins DNA Pairs Design Award 2024
October 2024
​
Researchers at RMIT have recently been awarded the prestigious DNA Pairs Design Award 2024 for their innovative design and fabrication practice—Jue Chair. This recognition highlights the team's groundbreaking work that combines traditional cultural elements with self-developed advanced structural optimisation method and large-scale 3D printing techniques.
The Jue Chair is inspired by the ancient Chinese bronze vessel known as Jue, a ceremonial object symbolizing nobility and prestige. The chair's design offers an abstract interpretation of the Jue's graceful form and symbolic meaning, blending traditional elegance with a sleek, futuristic aesthetic.
Jue Chair: A fusion of cultural heritage and structural innovation
The design generation of Jue Chair is driven by the Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (BESO) method, an advanced design generation algorithm developed by the team led by Distinguished Professor Mike Xie AM FTSE. This method enables the automatic removal of inefficient material while strategically adding material where it is most needed to enhance structural performance.
By utilising the BESO method, the team optimized an initial chair model inspired by the Jue element, refining the backrest, armrests, seat and supports to accommodate the weight of an 80 kg adult. The BESO algorithm iteratively redistributed material to improve structural performance while minimising waste. After about two hours of optimisation, the material usage of the Jue Chair is reduced to 27% of the original volume, while sufficient strength of the chair is maintained.
This structural optimisation process not only maximise the material utilisation but also helped create a lightweight and visually striking design that embodies the fusion of tradition and innovation.
Bringing the Jue Chair to life: Advanced 3D printing
To manufacture the Jue Chair, the team utilised large-scale 3D printing technology with PLA material. The chair is divided into six segments to achieve the optimal time and budget costs. Interlocking designs are generated to seamlessly assemble the segments and maintain the integrity of the chair. The finished chair can undergo the same post-processing treatments as the traditional furniture such as sanding, painting and polishing to obtain a smooth and customised surface quality.
The use of BESO and 3D printing reduced material usage by 73% and saved nearly half of the manufacturing costs.
A new era in furniture design
The Jue Chair is a testament to the next generation of furniture design, where computational tools such as BESO enable the creation of products that are both functionally efficient and aesthetically striking.
With the recognition by the DNA Pairs Design Award 2024, the Jue Chair has become an inspiration for how design, culture and technology can come together to shape the future of the furniture industry.
Award announcement: https://dna.paris/winner/zoom.php?eid=71-91455-24
Publication: Ma, J., Li, Z., Zhao, Z. L., and Xie, Y. M. (2021), “Creating novel furniture through topology optimization and advanced manufacturing”, Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 27(9), pp. 1749–1758. doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-03-2021-0047
2023 DigitalFUTURES Young Award – Ding Wen 'Nic' Bao
01.07.2023
​
DigitalFUTURES was initiated in 2011 by Neil Leach and Philip Yuan, as a collaborative venture involving students from the University of Southern California (USC) and Tongji University. It consisted of a festival of workshops, lectures, and a conference, held over the summer months. It is a platform and community that focuses on the intersection of architecture, design, and emerging technologies. It aims to explore the possibilities and potentials of computational design, digital fabrication, robotics, and other cutting-edge technologies in the field of architecture and design. DigitalFUTURES Young Award is given to an individual or group of young scholars/practitioners/educators in recognition of their exceptional contributions to the field of digital design and fabrication in their early careers.
Nic Bao was nominated by the DigitalFUTURES fellows and was voted for by a judging panel comprising Prof Areti Markopoulou (IAAC), Prof Mette Thomsen (CITA), Prof Mike Xie (RMIT), Prof Philippe Block (ETH), Prof Achim Menges (ICD Stuttgart), Prof Mario Carpo (UCL Bartlett) and Prof Patrick Schumacher (AA & ZHA). Nic Bao is the first recipient of this prestigious award from an Australian university. The other and previous winners have hailed from world-leading architectural institutions including MIT, ICD Stuttgart, UCL Bartlett, ETH Zurich, TU Delft, IAAC, and Tongji University.
Nic Bao also led a workshop titled "Emerging Form" with Prof. Mike Xie and Dr. Xin Yan, served as the session chair for the "Computation & Formation" parallel session, and co-authored a paper titled "Weaving Tectonics: Algorithmically Robotic FRP Weaving of Optimized Planar Structures" at the 13th Architectural DigitalFUTURES workshop and 5th International Conference on Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication (CDRF 2023)
​
​
Jiaming Ma - Winner of 2022 Hangai Prize with Jeff Lee - Winner of the 2021 Hangai Prize.
The 20th IASS Hangai Prize Winner – Jiaming Ma
19.09.2022
​
The Hangai Prize was established in 2001 in memory of Professor Yasuhiko Hangai (Japan, 1942-1998), a very active member of the international association for shell and spatial structures (IASS) and its Executive Council. In accordance with Professor Hangai's career-long encouragement for young people, the award recognizes young talented researchers, designers, and engineers working in the field of shell and spatial structures whose papers are judged to be most meritorious by the Hangai Prize Committee. 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of the Hangai Prize. Many recipients of the prize are now leading experts in the field and play an active role. Jiaming Ma was awarded the Hangai prize for his outstanding paper on PrintNervi – Design and construction of a ribbed floor system in the digital era and was invited to deliver a plenary presentation at the IASS 2022 Annual Symposium held in Beijing on 19-22 September 2022.
IASS 2023 Symposium - Melbourne
April 2023
​
DATES AND VENUE
The symposium will be held on 10–14 July 2023 at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Melbourne, Australia.
​
For all information please go to IASS 2023 Website
KEY DATES
Early bird registration ends: Mar. 31, 2023
Standard registration fee: Apr. 01, 2023
Submission of full papers: Mar. 31, 2023
Notification of final acceptance: Apr. 30, 2023
​
IASS 2023 Symposium - Announcement
IASS 2023 Symposium - Become a Sponsor
​
Students and colleagues with Professor Mike Xie and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Calum Drummond at the Engineers Australia awards ceremony.
Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year Award - Mike Xie
11 August 2022
​
Congratulations to Distinguished Professor Yi Min 'Mike' Xie, Director of RMIT's Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials, who received the Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year Award at the annual Engineers Australia Excellence Awards ceremony last night.
The award is presented annually by Engineers Australia to an eminent civil engineer who has made a major contribution to the sector, including the development of new technology, contribution to the use of ecologically sustainable development and service to the engineering profession.
Mike has been recognised for his work in developing new technologies to deliver sustainable free-form architecture, including the original development and subsequent worldwide adoption of a technology known as Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (ESO) and Bi-directional ESO (BESO).
This technology has been used by thousands of engineers and architects around the globe to design innovative structures including several landmark buildings. Mike has also made an outstanding contribution to the education of next generation civil engineers in Australia.
Mike is one of the most highly cited civil engineers in the world, with more than 24,000 citations to his books and papers on a wide range of topics in the field of civil and structural engineering.
Mike said he was humbled to receive the award, and thanked Engineers Australia for the honour.
“This award recognises the significant contributions by all the teams I have worked with over the past 30 years. It has been a great privilege for me to collaborate with so many talented researchers, engineers and students. It is gratifying to see that some of the techniques we have developed are making a positive impact on the industry and the society."
Grand Prix Design Paris 2021 Gold Award - Nic Bao, Xin Yan and
Mike Xie
20.01.2022
​
The Grand Prix du Design Paris known as the GPDP Award enjoys a high status in the global industrial design field. With the diversified integration and development of the international design industry, the French Design Institute has established the GPDP Award (Grand Prix Design Paris) for the global architectural design, interior design, and product design fields. It aims to recognize the most innovative and creative world-famous designers, well-known design institutions, and product vendors in architectural design, interior design, product design, and other fields that meet the international 5E design standards. RMIT CISM Team members Nic Bao, Xin Yan and Prof Mike Xie won the 2021's Best GPDP Award - GOLD Award (Best of Cultural Building) for their excellent project "Intelligent Form".
​
ACCM 2021 Best Paper Award - Jiaming Ma
17.01.2022
​
The ACCM Conference series started in 2013 with the ACCM-2013, ACCM-2015, ACCM-2017, ACCM-2019 successfully held in Sydney, Brisbane, Geelong, and Hobart, respectively. The ACCM Conference is supported by the Association for Computational Mechanics (AACM) and has become a flagship event for the Australasian Computational Mechanics Community. ACCM 2021 brings researchers at the forefront in the field of Computational Mechanics together to discuss the recent advances in Computational Mechanics across disciplines and to exchange innovative academic and research ideas. Best HDR and ECR paper awards are presented to excellent researchers. Jiaming won the “HDR Best Paper Award”, entitled “Computational morphogenesis and experimental measurement of 3D leaf vein structure” at the conference of 5th Australasian Conference on Computational Mechanics in Sydney.
​
Australian Association for Computational Mechanics (AACM)
The 5th Australasian Conference on Computational Mechanics (ACCM 2021)
RMIT Awards for Research Impact 2021 Winner - Nic Bao
20.12.2021
​
RMIT Research Excellence and Impact Awards and Prizes recognise and celebrate the research achievements of staff, including Early Career Researchers and Higher Degree by Research candidates who have made significant contributions to research excellence and impact, and research training. The RMIT Prize for Research Impact – HDR (Higher Degree by Research) recognises an HDR candidate who can demonstrate the potential for significant impact of their research outside the academic community. The definition of impact for this award includes the demonstrable contribution that research makes to the economy, society, culture, national security, public policy or services, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond contributions to academia. The selection of prize recipients is by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation based on recommendations of the Awards Panel. Nic Bao was awarded the prize for his outstanding performance on interdisciplinary research, exploring how buildings can be shaped and optimised through robotic fabrication in line with both architectural and structural design requirements in the past years.
​
IASS Hangai Prize 2021 Winner - Jeff Lee
23.08.2021
​
The Hangai Prize was established in 2001 in memory of Professor Yasuhiko Hangai (Japan, 1942-1998), a very active member of the IASS and its Executive Council. In accordance with Professor Hangai's career-long encouragement for young people, the award recognizes young talented researchers, designers, and engineers working in the field of shell and spatial structures whose papers submitted to the annual IASS Symposium are judged to be most meritorious by the Hangai Prize Committee. Jeff Lee was awarded the prize for his outstanding paper on From ruled surfaces to Elastica-ruled surfaces: New possibilities for creating architectural forms.
​
CAADRIA Young 2021 Winner - Nic Bao
01.04.2021
​
The Young CAADRIA Awards was established in 2004, funded by CAADRIA and include sponsorship of conference registration fees and a certificate presented during the conference. The awards are allocated by the committee jointly formed by CAADRIA, the Paper Selection Committee, and the Conference Host and are based on the merit of the paper, contribution and relevance to CAADRIA and demonstrated the depth of research interest. Nic Bao was awarded the prize for his outstanding paper on SwarmBESO: Multi-agent and evolutionary computational design based on the principles of structural performance.
​
The Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA)
.jpg)
Victoria Prize for Science & Innovation 2020 Winner - Mike Xie
25.11.2020
​
The Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation celebrates leadership, determination and creativity. It also highlights the many ways in which research and development of international significance are conducted in Victoria. This prestigious prize is for a scientific discovery or technological innovation, or a series of such achievements that significantly advances knowledge. The clear potential to produce a commercial outcome or other substantial benefits to the community is highly regarded.
​
Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation (VESKI)