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Top automotive design award for Monash student

19 October 2005

Monash Bachelor of Industrial Design honours student Adam Ty Dean Smith has taken out the 2005 Wheels Automotive Design Award for young designer of the year.

Wheels Automotive Design Award winner Adam Ty Dean Smith.

The award was announced last week in Sydney at the start of the Australian International Motor Show. Three Monash students were highly commended in the competition.

Mr Smith, who studies at Monash's Caulfield campus, won from a field of 10 finalists -- nine of whom were from Monash. His prize included a nine-month contract, starting in January 2006, to work in design with Ford Australia.

Mr Smith designed a futuristic car named 'Punk', which is friendly to the driver, passengers and the environment and can be used as a campervan. The car, an adaptation of an off-road ambulance design Mr Smith is working on for his honours project, was judged by a panel of leading Australian design experts and a Wheels magazine reader.

The highly commended awards were presented to Mr Max Tran and Mr Drew King, both fourth-year (honours) industrial design students, and Mr John Leung, who is in his third year of an industrial design/engineering (mechanical) double degree.

Mr Smith said he was thrilled to have won the award. "The competition was very strong, so I was surprised but at the same time very honoured," he said.

Art and design lecturer Mr Mark Richardson -- who heads the transport design component for the industrial design course Mr Smith is undertaking -- said he was delighted with the outcome.

Mr Max Tran (left) and Mr Drew King received highly commended awards.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for Adam to break into the industry," Mr Richardson said. "The award is well recognised in the automotive and design industry, and we are thrilled he has been selected as the winner and that nine of our students were finalists.

"These students have been waiting all their lives to design cars, so to make it this far in a national competition is a dream come true. The result further cements Monash's reputation for producing Australia's top transport designers."

Monash's industrial design course offers transport design as an elective component in third year and is the only course in Australia to offer it as a fourth-year studio specialisation.

The Wheels Automotive Design Awards are developed by Wheels magazine in collaboration with the Australian Design Awards and Ford Australia.

The designs of all 10 finalists will be on display at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney from 14 to 23 October and showcased in the Wheels November issue.