Dr Patrick Pradel graduated from Politecnico di Milano in 2002 with a BA in Product Design and 2008 with an MSc. in Design & Engineering. He then worked as a product designer at Whirlpool Co. Ltd's R&D department and as a research assistant at Politecnico di Milano Reverse Modelling Lab.
During his studies, he grew an intense interest in design for digital manufacturing technologies. After graduation, he won a PhD scholarship funded by the BLM group at Politecnico di Milano laboratory for laser applications SITEC. During this time, he explored the capabilities of tubular laser cutting in design.
In 2012, he joined the University of Nottingham Ningbo China as an assistant professor where he contributed to the development of the freshly opened programme in product design and manufacture. There he lectured modules on design for manufacture, manufacturing process capabilities, automation, design process and product development.
In January 2016, he joined the Design for Digital Fabrication Research Group (DDF) at the Loughborough School of Design and Creative Arts as a research associate working on the ESPRC-funded project Design for Additive Manufacturing (D4AM) in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. Thereafter, I worked on the design for competitive manufacturing of personalised products and computer planning (CAEFEM) analysis and simulation as part of the H2020 project AMaTUC.
Currently, is the Principal Investigator for the EPSRC-funded UK Design for AM Network, the AHRC-funded When Design Never Ends and a Royal Society Exchange Programme. He is the program lead for the MSc in Integrated Industrial Design.
Expertise
Patrick's expertise ranges from Industrial Design, Design for Digital Fabrication, Design Education & Design research.
Dr Pradel explores the impact of Digital Manufacturing Technologies on Industrial Product Design. This includes investigating how designers capitalise on the opportunities of Digital Manufacturing Technologies as well as how these technologies are impacting industrial product design practice and education.
He is the Principal Investigator for the EPSRC UK Design for Additive Manufacturing Network (www.designforam.ac.uk; EP/V001108/1) and the AHRC project When Design Never Ends (https://www.design-never-ends.ac.uk/; AH/V009214/1).
He is a reviewer for several academic journals and research and innovation funding bodies.
Dr Pradel teaching areas include design skills, design for laser cutting, design for 3D printing, colour materials and finishing. He is the leader for the undergraduate final year module Live Project and the postgraduate module Digital Fabrication Skills.
During his career, Dr Pradel has collaborated with different companies and research institutions such as the BLM group, Grundfos, Verivide The Manufacturing Technology Center.