Dr Frédérique Sunstrum
Lecturer
Dr Frédérique Sunstrum is an industrial designer and Lecturer in Product Design at the UTS School of Design in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building. Frédérique's passion originates from her analytical psychologist mindset, where she tuned her problem-solving skills towards design research. With her background in psychology, her passion lies in understanding how people perceive products and their meaning through product semantics, and how products can impact and enhance people's quality of life.
Frédérique completed her PhD at University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 2022, where her research investigated the role of the self-concept in product semantics and aesthetic experience. She has over 5 years experience teaching industrial design at both UNSW and Western Sydney University while being a freelance industrial designer and contract researcher. While recently lodging a provisional patent for a sustainable, hand-held autoinjector, she is continuing her research on a non-invasive alternative to glucose monitoring for those diagnosed and pre-diagnosing patients with diabetes mellitus.
Frédérique is passionate about design research and believes that people are the core of industrial design. As industrial designers; we are people, designing for people, with people with a goal to challenge social, ecological and technological concerns of today. It is important that we work together to understand and empathise with the people we are designing for to achieve innovative product solutions using materials, technologies and sustainable practices to improve the health and well-being of people that can have both local and global impacts.