Mr Gonzalo Portas
Industrial Design (Hons)
Gonzalo Portas is an industrial designer, educator and researcher at UNSW Sydney whose work explores the intersection of design, technology and public life. His research is grounded in the belief that design can operate not only as a means of creating products and environments, but also as a method for generating evidence, testing ideas and informing more inclusive and responsive systems.
His current research focuses on socially responsive design, public space, participatory design and emerging approaches to urban sensing. He is Chief Investigator of Benchmark NSW, a collaboration between UNSW, Transport for NSW and MIT's Civic Data Design Lab that combines public-space interventions with human observation and privacy-preserving computational sensing to investigate how design can influence patterns of public life, perceptions of safety and inclusion. The project received a Gold Award for Design Research at the 2025 Australian Good Design Awards.
Gonz's broader research interests include human-centred applications of artificial intelligence and computer vision, evidence-through-design, sustainable materials, circular design, digital fabrication and the relationship between design research and public policy. His work increasingly examines what computational systems can—and cannot—tell us about human behaviour, and how participatory design can help ensure that emerging technologies respond to the values and lived experiences of the communities they are intended to serve.
His research and professional practice extend across academia, government and industry. Earlier work includes the design and development of medical technologies for organ preservation and transportation, alongside extensive experience in product development, manufacturing and commercialisation. This combination of research and professional practice informs an approach to industrial design that moves between physical prototyping, experimentation, data, technology and real-world implementation.
As an educator, Gonzalo teaches across industrial design studios, design communication and practice-led research at UNSW. He is particularly interested in connecting teaching with live research, industry and public-sector challenges, enabling students to engage with complex social and environmental questions through making, experimentation and design.
Gonz is currently developing international research collaborations connecting UNSW with researchers and institutions in the United States, Asia and Latin America, with a focus on inclusive public space, human-centred urban technology, design-led research and interdisciplinary knowledge exchange.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
My research has attracted competitive government, university and industry funding supporting interdisciplinary projects across medical technology, industrial design, public-space research, participatory design and urban sensing.
Australian Government Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) — Orpeus Organ Preservation and Transportation System
A$2.1 million
Australian Government CRC-P funding awarded to an industry–university collaboration between Orpeus Pty Ltd and UNSW to advance the development and commercialisation of an innovative organ preservation and transportation system.
The project developed the OrpeusPOD, a perfusion-based medical device designed to extend the viable preservation and transportation time of donor organs. The funded program built upon approximately a decade of research, design development and prototyping initiated through Industrial Design at UNSW and brought together industrial design, engineering, medical research, clinical expertise and industry commercialisation.
Transport for NSW — Benchmark NSW
A$250,000 total project funding/value
Research funding and project support through Transport for NSW for Benchmark NSW, a collaborative research program between UNSW, Transport for NSW and MIT's Civic Data Design Lab examining how design interventions can contribute to safer, more inclusive and better-used public spaces.
The research combines participatory and co-design methods with industrial design, full-scale public-space interventions, human observation and privacy-preserving computational sensing. The project included research deployments at UNSW Kensington and The Goods Line in central Sydney, enabling the design interventions and research methodology to be evaluated under real-world public-space conditions.
UNSW GRIP Seed Fund — Benchmark NSW Research Extension (2025–2026)
A$18,000
Competitive UNSW research funding supporting the extension of the Benchmark NSW research program. The funding supports further development, analysis and dissemination of research into inclusive public space, evidence-through-design, participatory design and computational approaches to understanding public life.
Together, these funded projects demonstrate a research trajectory centred on design as a mechanism for translating interdisciplinary research into tangible, testable and socially valuable outcomes—from medical technologies developed for clinical application and commercialisation to public-space interventions evaluated through human and computational evidence.
Australian Good Design Awards — Gold Winner, Design Research (2025)
Benchmark NSW
Gold Winner in the Design Research category for Benchmark NSW, a collaboration between UNSW, Transport for NSW and MIT. The project was recognised for its integration of participatory design, public-space intervention, civic data and computational sensing to support safer and more inclusive public environments.
Built Environment Learning & Teaching Award — UNSW
Recognition for contribution to innovation and excellence in design education at UNSW, including curriculum development, studio teaching and the integration of emerging digital and immersive technologies into Industrial Design education.
James Dyson Award — Australian Finalist (2010)
Pulse Heart Transportation System
Selected as one of 13 Australian finalists in the James Dyson Award for the Pulse Heart Transportation System, developed through Industrial Design at UNSW. The project proposed a perfusion-based alternative to conventional cold-storage transportation of donor hearts and subsequently developed into a long-term medical device research and commercialisation program.
Anthill SMART 100 — Australian Innovation Recognition (2010)
Pulse Heart Transportation System
Selected for Australian Anthill magazine's SMART 100, recognising innovative Australian products, technologies and business ideas. Pulse was ranked 26th nationally among the selected innovations.
Built Environment Course Design Competition — Award Recipient, UNSW
Recognition for innovation in course and curriculum design within the UNSW Faculty of Built Environment.
Selected Exhibition Recognition
Pulse / Organ Transportation System — Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Medical device design research arising from the Pulse organ transportation project was selected for exhibition at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum for a 12-month period, providing public recognition of the project's design innovation and emerging medical technology.
My research explores how industrial design can be used as a form of applied inquiry to address complex social, environmental and technological challenges. I am particularly interested in socially responsive design, inclusive public space, participatory design, evidence-through-design, human-centred technology and sustainable material systems.
A major current research stream examines the relationship between design and public life. As Chief Investigator of Benchmark NSW, I work with Transport for NSW and MIT's Civic Data Design Lab to investigate how designed interventions in public space can influence patterns of use, perceptions of safety, inclusion and social activity. The research combines participatory design and co-design with physical prototyping, human observation, public-life studies and privacy-preserving computational sensing.
This work is developing into a broader investigation of human-centred urban sensing and artificial intelligence. I am interested not simply in what computer vision and other sensing technologies can measure, but in what they fail to capture about human experience: whose behaviours become visible through data, how assumptions are embedded in systems of measurement, and how communities can participate in determining what these technologies observe and value. This research seeks to bring computational methods together with qualitative observation and participatory design rather than treating technology as a substitute for human understanding.
A second area of research concerns materials, making and circular design, including sustainable materials, digital fabrication, advanced manufacturing and the relationship between contemporary technologies and established craft knowledge. This work considers how material experimentation and making can operate as research methods and how design can contribute to more sustainable models of production and consumption.
My research is strongly collaborative and practice-led, working across universities, government, industry and communities. I use designed artefacts, prototypes and interventions not simply as research outputs, but as instruments through which ideas can be tested in real-world conditions and new knowledge generated. This approach connects industrial design practice with empirical research, emerging technologies and public policy.
Across these activities, my broader research interest is in how design can generate evidence for change—using the act of designing, making, deploying and evaluating interventions to better understand complex problems and develop more equitable, sustainable and human-centred futures.
My Research Supervision
I am currently Secondary Supervisor for PhD candidate David Scholsner, whose research, Enhancing patient health outcomes through improved capture, analysis and distribution of patient vital sign data, investigates how improvements in the capture, analysis and communication of patient vital-sign information can contribute to improved healthcare outcomes.
My contribution to the supervision draws particularly on my experience in industrial design, medical device innovation, human-centred design and translational research, helping to connect technical and data-driven research questions with real-world healthcare contexts, users and systems.
My Teaching
Gonz Portas is an experienced design educator with more than 14 years of university teaching experience across Industrial Design studio, design communication, interdisciplinary design, Honours and professional practice. Since joining UNSW as a full-time academic, he has convened more than 26 courses and taught over 1,500 students, consistently achieving strong student feedback. His teaching is grounded in practice-based and experiential learning, encouraging students to develop ideas through research, sketching, making, prototyping, testing and critical reflection.
A central feature of his teaching is the integration of real-world design practice with university education. Drawing on extensive professional and research experience, he brings industry, government and research partners into the studio, enabling students to engage with contemporary design challenges and understand the relationships between design practice, manufacturing, emerging technology, research and social impact. His teaching encompasses industrial design studio practice, human-centred design, design thinking, visual communication, prototyping and model making, digital fabrication, sustainable design, emerging technologies and interdisciplinary collaboration. He has also contributed to educational innovation through the integration of digital and immersive technologies, including VR/AR and collaborative digital environments, into design education.
From 2019 to 2022, Gonz convened the UNSW Industrial Design Honours Program and has supervised more than 58 Honours students undertaking independent practice-led design research. Students he has supervised and mentored have received recognition including University Medals, Australian Good Design Awards and James Dyson Award recognition. His teaching philosophy emphasises curiosity, experimentation, critical thinking and learning through making, encouraging students to see design not simply as the production of objects, but as a method for investigating complex problems, testing possibilities and creating meaningful social, environmental and technological change.