George Torrens has been a practicing Industrial designer for the last 30 years. He became a lecturer to help designers deliver best practice, particularly in the field of Assistive products. He came to Loughborough University in 1994 learn how to validate the designs he produced.
He has undertaken research and design development projects for UK Government, charitable and commercial organisations. George has been the named inventor on four patent applications, with two GB and one US patents granted.
He has been an invited speaker to present on issues relating to Inclusive design and design ergonomics at National and International Events. He has also been a panelist reviewing short listed proposals for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council as well as the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council. He regularly reviews papers for over eight academic journals.
He was the founding member of a University spin-out Company, Dexterity Research Limited, which was the first University spin-out company to win a DTI SMART Award. He was a Director and shareholder between 2000-2003.
In 2009 he was awarded funding by the Audi Design Foundation to develop the his patented fit-splint, an innovative new method of fracture support for the wrist.
He had undertaken a four year course in Design For Industry at Newcastle Polytechnic (now known as the University of Northumbria), prior to which he completed a one year arts and crafts foundation course at the Carlisle College of Art and Design. He served a four-year apprenticeship at British Nuclear Fuels Limted, Windscale between 1978-1981.
George has accrued nearly £1 million in research, enterprise, and pedagogic research funding. The funding has been awarded from Ministry of Defence, Industrial partners, Charities, Research Councils and UK Innovate equivalent.
Research interests include:
- Validating design interventions based on principles of social psychology and their associated effect on behavioural change.
- Optimising the physical and cognitive interaction between people and the products they use.
- Evaluation of a process model of Business Integrated Industrial Design and Innovation (BIDI) towards more effective design practice within Assistive new product development.
George has published over 35 Journal and 45 Conference articles and produced over 20 principle-proving prototypes and commercial products within nearly 50 associated research and enterprise funded projects.
Selected grants:
- 2021 British Council £60,000. Co-I, A User-Centred development of an innovation eco-system to support best practice of sustainable inclusive enterprises in South Africa.
- 2019 AHRC, £61,700. PI, Raising awareness of inclusive crafts: building capacity and self-sufficiency of communication within the Charity SAFOD and the Countries of SA.
- 2017 AHRC, £44,307. PI, Expression of heritage and culture through inclusive arts and crafts design: empowering people with disability to contribute to their community in SA.
George has supervised and co-supervised 9 PhD students to completion, acted as internal examiner for 3 PhD students and external examiner for 1 MSc by research. He is currently supervising and co-supervising 4 PhD students.
LUCAT A participatory approach to the design of assistive technologies enriches lives worldwide (https://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/spotlights/assistive-technologies/)
Additional research links:
Crafts Abilities (https://www.craftsabilities.org/)
Design For Disability, Inclusive Innovation (https://www.inclusive-innovation.co.uk/)
Usability-NET (https://usability-net.lboro.ac.uk/)
Current roles:
MSc Integrated Industrial Design programme Admissions tutor
SDCA Competitions Coordinator
Module Leader:
DSP861 Business Enterprise and Design parts A & B
Support Tutor:
DSP859 Integrated Industrial Design - major projects
DSP114 Inclusive Design for Products and Services
DSC021 Inclusive Design
DSC009 Industrial Design Studies 3
DSA301 Design at SDCA
DSA304 Signs and meanings
DSI001 Placements
Personal tutor IID Masters students
Personal tutor Part C ID&T students
Previous roles:
Student Disability liaison
Year 1 tutor
Previous Module Leader roles:
DSA301 Design at SDCA
DSA304 Signs and meanings
DTA109 Industrial design studies 1
DTB002 Universal design
DTC013 Universal design
DTP853 Inclusive design
DTC010 Universal design
DTB010 Universal design
DTC011 Product Analysis Systems and Artefacts 3
DTC005 Design studies 2
Previous Support Tutor roles:
DTA002 Design practice
DTA003 Design context
DTC003 Industrial design studies 3
DTC004 Dissertation
DTC005 Design practice 5
DTC015 Final year design practice
SAP101 Visual thinking and communication
DTZ001 2D and 3D Visualisation
Diploma in Professional Studies tutor
Additional teaching links:
George has been returned in every Government Research assessment and Teaching assessment since 1994.
Awards:
2019 Best paper, Social camouflage: A survey of 143 students of their preference for assistive technology cutlery and the visual mechanisms being influenced. Ergonomics & Human Factors (EHF 2019), Stratford-upon-Avon, 29th April-1st May.
2022 Eric Dickens Memorial Award 2022, (shortlisted) The Packaging Society, IOM3
2021 Eric Dickens Memorial Award 2021 (co-winner), The Packaging Society, IOM3
2019 Eric Dickens Memorial Award 2019, The Packaging Society, IOM3
2018 Eric Dickens Memorial Award 2018, The Packaging Society, IOM3
2017 Eric Dickens Memorial Award 2016, The Packaging Society, IOM3
2019 Runner-up: Innovation in Education and training award, LeicestershireLive Innovation Awards 2019
2016 Teaching and Innovation Award 2016, Usability-NET, Loughborough University.
2014 Short-listed, Category: Social Enterprise, LU Enterprise Awards 2014, Loughborough University Enterprise Awards
2008 Winning team, Audi Design Foundation 48 hour co-design challenge, 2008.
2000 SMART Award, 2000. Department of Trade & Industry.
Invited speaker:
2023 Panelist Chevening Scholars, Disability, Sport, and Development panel
2021 Southern Africa Assistive Technology Expo (SAATE), Webinar on Assistive Technology Business Innovations2020 Panelist, Sustaining inclusive design collaboration through co-design platforms
2019-2020 Product and Industrial Design Department, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
2016 Weill Cornell Medical College New York US
2014, Naidex 2014, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, 29th April - 1st May 2014
2012 ALT2012, 1st DMU Assisted Living Technologies Workshop, De Montfort University, Leicester, 20 Nov 2012-20 Nov 2012. 1-34.
2005-7 MSc Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology, Kings College. London
1997-8 BSc Hons in Occupational Therapy, University of Derby
Memberships:
Current:
• Member of the Chartered Society of Designers.
• Member of the Design Research Society.
• Associate member of the Ergonomics Society.
• Member of REMAP GB, Leicestershire & Rutland panel.
• Member of the EPSRC Peer Review College
• Member of the International Peer Review College, UKRI
Former:
• Founding member of the British Institute for Design and Disability.
• Member of the European Academy of Design.
• Associate member of the Society for Research in Rehabilitation.
• Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts and Manufactures.
External Grant peer reviewer:
AHRC, EPSRC, UKRI, ESRC and NIHR
Internal grant peer reviewer:
University Global Challenges Research Fund panel
Invited Reviewer:
2020-2 Invited review panel, Snowdon Masters Scholarships
Journal peer reviewer:
Applied Ergonomics, Design Journal, Design Studies, Ergonomics, Ergonomics Abstracts, IASDR 2019, International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, International Journal of Engineering Design, Journal of Design Research, Management Sport and Leisure, Neurological Rehabilitation Review, Plos One, Rapid Prototyping Journal, Textile research Journal, Universal access in the information society
External examining (MSc by Research):
2012 Allsop, C.A., An evaluation of base layer compression garments for sportswear.
Internal examiner (PhD):
2024 Claybrook F., Enhancing Patient Specific Diabetic Foot Insoles through Customised Additive Manufacturing for Improved Cushioning Properties.
2024 Pan H., Graphic Landscape in Cities: Decoding the Identity and Meaning of Chinatowns in London, Manchester, and Liverpool.
2016 Chan A., Perspectives of academics and practitioners on design thinking.
Current supervision:
Principle Research supervisor
Salma Ghulman - Enhancing Saudi Arabia as a tourist destination: An evaluation of current and future branding approach
Suhaiza Hanim Binti Suroya - Typographical Factors in Legibility and Readability: Dyslexia as Multicultural Perspective
George Whitfield - Why do we teach Police Officers to shoot standing still? A critical review of conventional firearms techniques and training for armed Police Officers under current (2018) United Kingdom Home Office legislation.
Secondary Research Supervisor
George Kayange, Management of Assistive Technology Ecosystems in Africa: The Case of South Africa, Kenya, and Malawi
Karl Hurn, Advancing Industrial Design Education: Integrating Practice, Research, and Collaboration
Completed students:
Principle Research supervisor
2023 Simon Downs - Using Complex Adaptive Systems as an Epistemology for Graphic Communication Design Practice
2023 Nicholas Samuel Johnson - 'It has Got to be Eye-Catching’: An Investigation into Packaging Design Management & Design Practice in the UK FMCG Industry
2020 Salman Asghar - Cross-cultural Product Semantics: A comparative investigation between the UK and Pakistan into the socio-cultural meanings ascribed to digital images (a case study of manual wheelchair design)
2020 Georgina Palmer - Pot throwing: An investigation into the real-time cognitive and physical processes involved in a craft performance
Secondary Research Supervisor
2019 Beth McMurchie - Forensic Evidence Enhancement using Physiological Aspects and Processes
2017 Mark B. Edwards - An investigation into the relationship between deposited fingerprint and other body characteristics
2015 Matthews Ollyn - Optimising user-centred approaches to design practice in Botswana: Challenges for the Industry and Education Institutions
2013 Gavin Williams - Improving fit through the integration of anthropometric data into a computer aided design and manufacture based design process
2010 Will Tutton - Exploring, evaluating and improving the development process for Military Load Carrying Equipment
Independent reviewer:
Abigail Egwunyenga
Nariman Lotfi
Bernadette Douglas
Nesrin Yuksel
Wei Zhou