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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/M021882/1
Title: Interaction Design with Functional Plastics
Principal Investigator: Fraser, Professor MC
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
3D Systems Watershed Media Centre
Department: Computer Science
Organisation: University of Bristol
Scheme: EPSRC Fellowship
Starts: 01 October 2015 Ends: 30 September 2019 Value (£): 1,587,357
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Human-Computer Interactions
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Manufacturing Creative Industries
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
05 Mar 2015 EPSRC ICT Fellowships Interview Meeting 5 March 2015 Announced
27 Jan 2015 EPSRC ICT Prioritisation Panel - Jan 2015 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
This fellowship will design, deploy and evaluate a new kind of design platform based on functional plastics - cheap conducting or semi-conducting polymer materials that can be arranged or printed to build circuits, transistors, sensors, displays and many other electronic components. This class of materials is particularly interesting because it provides opportunities to cheaply build electronic capabilities that are tightly coupled or even merged with product design materials which give prototype devices their form and aesthetic, integrated to an order of magnitude more than the current 'circuit board plus silicon' approaches. This will allow designers to manipulate materials of form and function together, supporting the design of electronically functional prototypes, yet based on familiar personal fabrication tools such as printing, laser cutting, or even hands-on sculpting. To achieve this vision, the fellowship will create inexpensive and open hardware and software interfaces which are legible in the range of opportunities that designers can take advantage of, yet remain opaque to the complexity of the underpinning science. Importantly for HCI, this will shed light on new ways of conceptualising the boundaries and distinctions between physical and digital design.
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Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.bris.ac.uk