Meet Design Factory Melbourne & Our Network

Sharing the passion for doing

Swinburne Design Factory Melbourne is part of the Design Factory Global Network (DFGN), a network of innovation hubs in universities and research organisations in five continents of the world.

DFGN is on a mission to create change in the world of learning and research through passion-based culture and effective problem solving.

Shared understanding and common ways of working enable Design Factories in the network to collaborate efficiently across cultures, time zones and organisational boundaries fostering radical innovations.

Meet the team

Design Factory Melbourne is made up of a unique group of talented individuals all working towards disrupting and challenging the status quo in industrial and university collaboration.

Dr Anita Kocsis

Professor

Anita leads Design Factory’s vision to create the conditions for innovation through industry university collaboration. Anita’s passion is to discover unexplored potential and knowledge not easily developed by a single discipline through multidisciplinary collaboration.
Professor Christine Thong

Academic Director and Global Programs

Christine leads DFM’s academic direction and is involved in teaching, research and strategic initiatives. Passionate about coaching the next generation of globally responsible design innovators, Christine heads DFM global programs with Stanford University (ME310 SUGAR) and CERN (Challenge Based Innovation).
Angela Pye

Centre Manager

Angela is passionate about strategies to support collaborative practices. She’s across a range of activities within DFM’s early-stage innovation space. She also facilitates team strategic research directions and contributes to the workshop services portfolio.
Aaron Down

Applied Innovation Lecturer

Aaron leads DFM’s global academic programs with Stanford University’s ME310 Course, SUGAR Network for Global Innovation, the Design Factory Global Network and CERN’s IdeaSquare. As a brand designer and strategist, Aaron has worked across strategy, design, events, R&D and education.
Dr David Mesa Saldarriaga

Applied Innovation Lecturer

With a background in product design and engineering, David researches practices to improve the development and commercialisation of technologies emerging from scientific research and processes to embrace digitalisation and I4.0. At DFM, he helps coordinate and deliver teaching programs and industry services.
Pauliina Mattila

Innovation Coach

Pauliina is a senior lecturer in Innovation bringing 15 years of experience in design innovation across industry and academia. In her current role, she helps organisations enhance their innovation processes and leads a teaching program on inclusive design. Talk to Pauliina about formative innovation discovering opportunities and advancing ideas closer to fruition.
Mitchell Ransome

Prototyping Coach

As DFM’s prototyping coach, and technician. Mitchell supports students on best practice of prototyping for their projects through a range of digital and traditional fabrication techniques.
Sue Solly

Business Transformation Lead

Sue is a business transformation leader who works with organisations to understand workforce, workplace and customer experience challenges, co-design new solutions and develop practical pathways to implementation. She bring transdisciplinary expertise and uses a combination of innovation and applied research methods to enable strategic, evidence-based decision making.
Jake Carroll

Product Development and New Ventures Lead

Jake leads the early stages of product development, finding important real-world problems and working with the innovation team to design practical solutions. From spotting opportunities to shaping ideas into products and services, he helps turn concepts into market ready solutions.