School staff
Dr Rhoda Trimingham
Lecturer
Tel +44 (0)1509 222781
Email R.L.Trimingham@lboro.ac.uk
Location LDS 1.13
Personal profile
Dr Rhoda Trimingham PhD, Ba (Hons) is a lecturer in the Department of Design and Technology and a member of the Sustainable Design Research Group.
Dr Trimingham contributes to a range of teaching within the department including teaching on core 1st year Design Practice and Design Context modules, 2nd year Design Week, and the 2nd year optional Sustainable Design module.
Her research interests lie in sustainable design generally but specifically developing methods and tools for designers, design education and moving from products to services and systems. Her research has included working collaboratively with organisations such as, Practical Action and Boots on ecodesign focused research projects.
More specifically she has contributed to the development of the ‘The Sustainability Handbook’ – a collection of resources for teachers, and ‘SortED’ - a tool aimed at designers/managers to guide companies through the end of life decision options available to meet the requirements of the WEEE directive.
She has recently investigated the area of solutions, services and systems for sustainability through a collaborative research project to investigate refillable packaging systems.
She is currently the Principle Investigator for the 'Co2ncept' project, an EPSRC funded, project looking at carbon footprinting for designers and co-investigator for an EMDA funded Innovation Fellowship which continues the work done on refillable packaging systems.
As well as a good track record of collaborating with companies on research projects Dr Trimingham has also provided consultancy support for a range of companies and institutions, including:
- Independent reviewer for Design and Technology Association. (DATA) funded research projects:
- CAD/CAM and Electronics in Schools project
- Digital Design programme
- Development of material for the Sustainable Design Award
- Development of content and graphic design for the Sustainability Handbook for D&T Teachers
- Consultancy regarding refillable glass containers for Oakdene Hollins
Teaching
- DSA001 Design Practice 1
- DSA002 Design Practice 2 (Module Leader)
- DSB018 Sustainable Design
- DTA003 Design Contexts
- DTB001 EcoDesign Week
Research
Dr Trimingham is a member of the Sustainable Design Research Group which carries out leading edge research into issues affecting sustainability within a design context.
Current Research
Co2ncept
This 18 month EPSRC funded research project in collaboration with Boots and Pi3 aims to investigate the use of an abridged carbon footprinting methodology to allow designers to calculate the carbon footprint of product design concepts. These concepts are not yet sufficiently developed to be assessed via traditional carbon footprinting methods.
The developed resource will be aimed at designers involved in New Product Development. This tool will be the first of its kind and has the potential to answer a need that has not yet been catered for by existing carbon footprinting methods. It will allow designers to make more considered decisions at the early stages of the product development process with regards to concept selection, at a time when changes are neither costly nor time consuming.
Innovation Fellowship
This is an EMDA funded 12 month project in collaboration with Boots to further develop a new refillable packaging concept for body wash. Funding will support the development of a viable working prototype, the prototyping process and consumer testing.
Supervision of doctoral research
- Rose Deakin - Embedding sustainability criteria into materials selection resources for industrial designers
- Ksenija Kuzmina – Using the design process to improve sustainability in public service design
Previous Research
- Refillable Packaging project
- Using audio technology for student feedback (see publications list below)
- Sustainable Design Award
- Sustainability Handbook for D&T Teachers (see publications list below)
- SortED
Featured publications
- Capewell, I., Zanker, N.P., Norman, E.W., Trimingham, R.L., Simmons, P.C., Macgarry, A., Gwillim, J., Hellier, B., Woods, L. and Pitt, J., The Sustainability Handbook for D&T Teachers, Practical Action (Intermediate Technology Development Group Ltd), Rugby, 2007, 168 pp.
- Lofthouse, V.A., Bhamra, T.A. and Trimingham, R.L., ''Investigating customer perceptions of refillable packaging and assessing business drivers and barriers to their use'', Journal of Packaging Technology and Science, 22(6), February 2009, pp 335-348, [WWW] Available from: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122388099/PDFSTART.
- Lee, P., Vaughan, P., Bartlett, C., Bhamra, T.A., Lofthouse, V.A. and Trimingham, R.L., Refillable Glass Beverage Containers in the UK: Final Report, June 2008, pp 1-87, WRAP.
- Trimingham, R.L., An Exploration of the Roles Values play in Industrial Design Decision-making, 2007, PhD Thesis, Department of Design and Technology, Loughborough University.