The Department of Industrial Design at the College of Mechanical Engineering of Southeast University is a member of the Chinese Ergonomics Society's Design Ergonomics Section, an honorary vice president of the China Industrial Design Association, and has won four national and provincial scientific research and education awards. The department has one professor, three associate professors, and two lecturers. All faculty members have overseas study or visiting experience. In addition, high-level experts from the aerospace industry are involved in graduate student training. Chen Shanguang (陈善广), the former deputy chief engineer of the Astronaut Center, is a part-time doctoral supervisor. Wang Chunhui (王春慧), Liu Ying (刘颖), He Jiazhou (何佳州), Gu Yingyan (顾颖彦), and Qiu Xuyi (裘旭益) are also external doctoral and master's supervisors involved in graduate student training.
The department has laboratories for human factors engineering, physiological evaluation, advanced interaction, hail impact reliability testing, driving simulation, lighting environment, and models & drawings. The main research directions are: (1) research on digital interface design for human-computer interaction in complex systems; (2) research on the theory and application of advanced human-computer interaction technologies; (3) neural design; (4) big data visualization; (5) product design.
In recent years, the team has led more than 30 national and provincial projects, including 10 National Natural Science Foundation projects, 8 Ministry of Science and Technology projects, and more than 10 other national-level government sponsored projects. These projects primarily involve collaborations with national research institutes, tackling significant national engineering challenges. The team has published more than 200 academic papers in domestic core and key journals, of which more than 200 have been included in SCI/EI. The team has published more than 10 textbooks and monographs, won 10 provincial and ministerial awards, and applied for and approved more than 100 patents, including more than 20 invention patents and more than 30 utility model patents. The team has generated direct economic benefits of nearly 2 billion yuan. Through a number of national and provincial projects such as NSFC, the department has elevated the design discipline to a scientific level and is in a leading position in domestic universities.
The department is also responsible for the joint training program of the double master's degree in Mechanical Engineering (Industrial Design) at the Southeast-Monash Joint Graduate School. This program was approved by the State Council in 2003. In recent years, students from the department have won a number of international awards, including Spark Awards, IF, and Red Dot. The department currently has 113 graduate students, including 96 master's students and 17 doctoral students. To date, the department has cultivated 24 doctoral graduates and more than 440 industrial design/design master's graduates. Graduates are employed in universities, internet companies, and research institutes across China.
