DIGIT Lab at The 25th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED25)

Written by Ji Han

The 25th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED25) took place from August 10–14 in Dallas, Texas. The theme this year was “Design is a Team Sport”, highlighting that design is fundamentally collaborative, bringing together engineers and stakeholders, bridging disciplines and cultures, combining diverse skills, and even involving both human and artificial agents.

The University of Exeter was strongly represented at this flagship conference of the Design Society. In total, 9 papers authored by the Exeter group were presented at the conference, which include 6 contributions from the DIGIT Lab. The authors, listed in alphabetical order by first name, include Boyeun Lee, Charlotte Lucinda Markey, Ji Han, Jiazhen Zhang, Karl Johnson, Pingfei Jiang, Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen, and Yuan Yin. The full list of papers is provided below:

• Akkawi, M., Talami, F., Romero, M., Modugno, V., Jiang, P., & Gaz, C. (2025). Consumer electronic redesign for automated disassembly using general-purpose robots. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 1031–1040. DOI.
• Han, J., Jiang, P., & Ahmed-Kristensen, S. (2025). Opportunities and challenges of AI in design: a practical study from the manufacturing industry. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 2551–2560. DOI.
• Johnson, K., & Ahmed-Kristensen, S. (2025). Exploring the Role of Human Data in Data-Driven Design. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 1743–1752. DOI.
• Lee, B., & Kim, J. (2025). AI-led design innovation: understanding design-centric AI methods and assistance types. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 469–478. DOI.
• Markey, C. L., & Ahmed-Kristensen, S. (2023). Managing smart systems for the net zero agenda – How can digital twin technologies and smart products deliver customer value? Proceedings of the Design Society, 3, 2545–2554. DOI.
• Obieke, C. C., Bridgeman, J., & Han, J. (2025). A framework of AI collaboration in engineering design (AICED). Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 91–100. DOI.
• Siew, W., Silva, A., Lee, B., Wee, K., Mok, J., Lua, J., & Rai, B. (2025). Codesign and AI: AI-assisted clustering of perception patterns of seniors on ageing and technology in Singapore. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 961–970. DOI.
• Yin, Y., Wang, B., Zuo, H., Liu, R., Vohra, S. I., Haydon-Rowe, S., & Childs, P. R. N. (2025). Abilities of design professors to distinguish design assignments generated by students and AI. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 319–328. DOI.
• Zhang, J., Han, J., & Ahmed-Kristensen, S. (2025). Exploring the use of LLMs to evaluate design creativity. Proceedings of the Design Society, 5, 1773–1782. DOI.

In addition to the strong set of paper contributions, members of the Exeter team also played key roles in shaping the conference programme. Prof. Saeema Ahmed-Kristensen co-chaired the “PhD and Graduate Forum” and also chaired the session on “Challenges in Design Research 2”. Dr Ji Han co-chaired the “Transforming Product-Service Systems: AI-Driven, Resilient and Human-Centric Solutions” workshop and chaired the session on “LLMs and CAX”. Dr Yuan Yin chaired the session on “User Studies 1” and was also honoured with the Early Career Research Achievements in Design Research Award.

This strong presence and contributions not only showcased Exeter’s growing influence in the design research area but also underlined our commitment to advancing both the theoretical foundations and practice applications of engineering design.