This paper operationalizes ISO 59020 for product-level circularity by implementing the Holistic Product Circularity Analysis (HPCA) with fixed boundaries and explicit reporting rules. HPCA enables consistent assessment and targeted optimization by combining qualitative ratings with quantitative flows across all stages of the product lifecycle. The approach is demonstrated on a children’s balance bike by comparing a reference scenario with an optimized circular scenario and deriving decision-relevant improvement levers.

This study examines neural differences between high- and low-performing designers using EEG. Participants viewed an image of IKEA furniture and created alternative designs. Performance was evaluated based on the composite of fluency, flexibility and originality scores. Results reveal that high-performing designers exhibited greater beta and gamma frequency band power in frontal and right-frontal regions compared to low-performers. Although these differences did not remain significant after multiple-comparison correction, their large effect sizes suggest meaningful neural distinctions.

This study examines how CAD geometry variations affect finite element (FE) crash simulations for automotive front rail assembly and motivate the use of combined impact measures that better reflect the physical response. Based on these insights, we outline a machine learning formulation that links geometric modifications to their simulation effects. The study centers on geometric representation, employing UVbased graph encodings to capture local shape changes and provide the basis for advancing and validating the full prediction pipeline.

In the early phases of product development, cost estimation is crucial for supporting design decisions. When cost estimates are inaccurate or delayed, design engineers cannot assess economic viability and may pursue concepts that later prove too costly. In this context, artificial intelligence (AI) offers new possibilities for more accurate and timely cost estimates, yet adoption in practice remains limited. Based on an interview study with 22 cost engineers and an online survey of 102 respondents, this study examines practices, challenges, and expectations for AI-assisted cost estimation.

Despite the many circular economy (CE) design frameworks, implementation is limited. This study interviews six Swedish design firms (producers/consultancies, small/large) to compare CE barriers. Results show small producers face more value chain challenges, while large producers focus on design. Consultancies emphasize economic/legal factors. Organizational silos and perceived costs are universal barriers. The findings highlight the need for tailored CE approaches: SMEs require resources to influence suppliers, while large firms need better methodologies for internal organizational change.

Conventional user research with human participants faces significant challenges, including substantial time and resource requirements, and limited scalability. In response, this study presents an efficient, cost-effective workflow driven by large language models (LLMs) for simulating user research with synthetic participants (SPs) at scale. In a case study in design augmented reality for education, SPs’ open-ended answers were plausible and comprehensive, yet semi-open and closed items diverged from those of humans. SPs can augment early qualitative work, but cannot replace human studies.

To design effective behaviour changing interventions, behavioural designers need to generate ideas that combine both technical and behavioural aspects. However, little is still known about the creative output of ideation in behavioural design. Taking an exploratory approach, this study examines the creative characteristics of brainstormed behavioural design ideas using the Behavioural Design Space (BDS) as creative assessment framework. The findings show uneven distributions across all BDS parameters indicating fixation and lost creative opportunities.

The implementation of services into complex systems is not well understood in design. We explore this issue by interviewing 24 design professionals with experience in implementing digital services in healthcare. We asked when they consider such services as implemented, and how they view the relation between design and implementation. Results reveal diverse perspectives on both topics. Given the wide dispersion in views, we propose two categories to describe implementation goals (impact on, and integration with systems), and to view design as a contributor to the implementation phase.

This paper presents the pedagogical frame of the Master’s Programme Design Ecologies, a design-driven higher education initiative that integrates ecoliteracy principles and relational approaches to material cultures, striving to create a design practice that is life-affirming. Responding to the ecological crises shaped by extractive, anthropocentric design paradigms, the programme cultivates an ecocentric orientation grounded in our interdependence with other-than-human beings, systems thinking, and political awareness. Drawing on ecoliteracy principles, design is explored as a practice that shapes and is shaped by multispecies relations, material flows, and planetary boundaries. This is examined through two student projects and the conceptual work guiding the programme.

The paper argues that reorienting design education toward ecological relationality contributes critically to the field of Biodesign by proposing situated responses that acknowledge not only the biological aspects of design, but also issues of power, cohabitation, and the ethical responsibilities of intervening in complex ecological systems.

This study presents a method to design sustainable structural parts of a Rechargeable Energy Storage Systems using Design for CE and Computational Optimization. Principle solutions are developed and combined with sustainability criteria being a key factor in the concept evaluation. The battery tray, a subsystem of REESS, serves a case study in which intrusion, mass, and LCA are optimized by varying the recyclate, UD tapes and design. The resulting Pareto front reveals trade-offs between intrusion, mass and LCA results and highlights the potential to reduce environmental impact in early design.

AI in Requirements Engineering (RE) relies on industrial data, yet safety and privacy risks limit its use. While the GDPR distinguishes only between anonymization and pseudonymization, we use neutralization as a semantics-preserving technique. In AI-supported RE, data heterogeneity and cross-domain variability impede model training. We propose guidelines for semantics-preserving preprocessing for RE datasets based on ISO 29148 criteria, showing that neutralization does not compromise semantics. The approach enables industry–academia collaboration through AI-assisted RE in product development.

For industries transitioning to circular economy, understanding the business case is essential. This paper highlights key business model factors for remanufacturing within a heavy truck manufacturer. Twenty-six interviews were held, the barriers to profitability were identified as cost structure, key resources and cores and key activities. Applying systems engineering principles can help translate business needs into requirements, mitigate complexity and align stakeholders for effective transformation. Recommended future research is to investigate partnerships, profitability, and model design.

We build an experiment to uncover the bandit-like nature of consumer behavior usually masked by the product and time aggregation of consumption data. Subjects make repeated choices between musical styles (either all familiar or unfamiliar), and post-choice satisfaction is observed. We estimate Bayesian bandit models of learning taste by consuming with satiation. Our best model features decreasing random exploration, with openness being associated with higher exploration. Early exploration is more intensive in the unfamiliar treatment and persists throughout the experiment in both treatments. Overall, subjects make choices that deviate from their best prediction 61.5% of the time in the unfamiliar treatment versus 44.7% in the familiar treatment. Our model offers a rational interpretation of random utility in discrete consumer choices which does not rest on perception and/or decision errors.

This study aims to examine the effects of luminance contrast on cognitive experience. An experiment was conducted under controlled conditions with high/low luminance contrast settings. Perceived time was measured by tapping rate, while subjective ratings of astonishment, concentration, comfort, and a semi-structured interview were collected. The results showed that higher luminance contrast elicited greater astonishment, and perceived time was associated with concentration and comfort but limited with astonishment, suggesting that astonishment may involve higher-order cognitive reappraisal.

The main avenue to resolving the ongoing peer review crisis in today’s overloaded academic publishing system requires journals (i.e. publishers) to pay reviewers. Otherwise, scholars will continue to increasingly abstain from peer reviewing, and academic journals will publish peer-reviewed papers that do not add value to the scholarly literature. Aware that paying reviewers is the solution to said crisis, pioneering journals and publishers have started to pay reviewers, including statisticians asked to verify the statistical methods of manuscripts sent for publication. Currently in its infant stage, the ‘pay to review’ model will progressively become ubiquitous, eventually driving the $25 billion academic publishing industry to share a part of its revenues with the research community. This study provides arguments supporting this prediction.

This paper introduces a visual tool that facilitates engagement with speculative design futures while exposing the boundaries of understanding. Building on the Future Archeologies Method, the canvas guides participants through tactile speculation, scenario-making and reflection via eight components structured around a Line of Speculation. We tested the tool in two workshops with community members and futures experts. Results suggest that the canvas (1) accelerates the process, (2) supports collaboration, and (3) enables accessible yet radically creative futures thinking.

In recent years, redundant sensing has gained attention as a means to improve the resilience of autonomous cyber-physical systems (CPS). Resilience, however, has not been stringently defined. In this work, a standard-based understanding of resilience was derived, resulting in 11 properties that contribute to resilience. This understanding was used to analyse literature on autonomous CPS, their domains, operating environments, and the disruptions they encounter. A subsequent analysis shows a prevalence of measures acting during the disruption, while anticipating or learning measures are scarce.

This paper investigates the relationship between Big5 scores (individual and team level) and team design project performance in SUTD’s “Introduction to Design” course. Study reveals that team’s final project grades have statistically significant positive correlation with higher team’s mean “Conscientiousness”, but negative correlation with within-team variety of “Neuroticism” and “Conscientiousness”. At individual level, “Conscientiousness” shown positive correlation with the students’ grades. However, further qualitative study is needed to understand the reasoning behind the correlation.