Dr Laura Hay
Lecturer
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
Personal statement
Laura is a Lecturer in Product Design, with expertise spanning both product and engineering design. Her research explores the neurocognitive basis of design, with a long term vision focused on integrating the imagination with technology to provide more effective and intuitive tools for designers.
She has applied fMRI to study brain activity in design ideation, and investigates design cognition using a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches. She currently supervises four PhD students working in the design cognition area. She collaborates closely with psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists, and leads an international Special Interest Group on Cognitive Design Science within the Design Society. She co-founded and edits the Research Notes collection on design research quality, is on the editorial advisory board at the International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, and is on the scientific committee for four international design conferences. In addition to design cognition and neural processing, she has interests in systems design and sustainability stemming from her PhD research.
Laura is a member of the EPSRC Early Career Forum in Manufacturing Research, and is passionate about raising the profile of Scottish and UK design internationally. She is committed to equipping the next generation of designers with the skills and mindset needed to tackle complex societal challenges. She teaches foundational product design, emotional design, form and aesthetics, and systems thinking, and has supervised over 50 student design and Masters research projects. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Prize And Awards
- Reviewers' Favourite award at 17th International DESIGN Conference 2022
- Recipient
- 23/5/2022
- Shortlisted for 'Best in Engineering Faculty' Teaching Excellence Award
- Recipient
- 2021
- Shortlisted for 'Feedback and Support' Teaching Excellence Award
- Recipient
- 2021
- Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards nomination
- Recipient
- 5/2019
- DESIGN Conference - outstanding contribution
- Recipient
- 2018
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- Recipient
- 27/9/2017
Publications
- Functional activity and connectivity during ideation in professional product design engineers
- Campbell Gerard, Hay Laura, Gilbert Sam, McTeague Chris, Coyle Damien, Grealy Madeleine
- Design Studies Vol 91-92 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2024.101247
- From theory to practice : a roadmap for applying dual-process theory in design cognition research
- Lawrie Emma, Flus Meagan, Olechowski Alison, Hay Laura, Wodehouse Andrew
- Journal of Engineering Design, pp. 1-21 (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09544828.2024.2336837
- Real-time feedback improves imagined 3D primitive object classification from EEG
- Korik Attila, du Bois Naomi, Campbell Gerard, O'Neill Eamonn, Hay Laura, Gilbert Sam, Grealy Madeleine, Coyle Damien
- Brain-Computer Interfaces (2024)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/2326263X.2024.2334558
- Effects of activity time limitation on gesture elicitation for form creation
- Vuletic Tijana, McTeague Chris, Campbell Gerard, Hay Laura, Grealy Madeleine
- Journal of Engineering Design Vol 34, pp. 963-985 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1080/09544828.2023.2271773
- Exploring the role of text-to-image AI in concept generation
- Brisco Ross, Hay Laura, Dhami Sam
- 24th International Conference on Engineering Design, pp. 1835-1844 (2023)
- https://doi.org/10.1017/pds.2023.184
- Conceptual viewpoints on mental imagery in product design engineering : a framework for researching mental imagery in design cognition
- Macfie Rebecca, Hay Laura, Rodgers Paul
- 24th International Conference on Engineering Design (2023)
Research Interests
Laura's main research interests include:
- design cognition
- neuroscience in design
- creativity
- design theory and ontology
- systems design
- sustainable design
Professional Activities
- Design Computing and Cognition '22
- Chair
- 2/7/2022
- 17th International DESIGN Conference
- Chair
- 23/5/2022
- 17th International DESIGN Conference
- Participant
- 23/5/2022
- Design Research Society Conference 2022
- Member of programme committee
- 11/2021
- 32nd CIRP DESIGN Conference
- Member of programme committee
- 10/2021
- EPSRC Early-Career Forum in Manufacturing Research (External organisation)
- Member
- 9/2021
Projects
- DCC'22 Tenth International Conference On Design Computing Cognition
- Maier, Anja (Principal Investigator) Hay, Laura (Co-investigator) Hay, Laura (Research Co-investigator)
- 31-Jan-2022 - 06-Jan-2022
- DCC'22 Tenth International Conference On Design Computing Cognition
- Maier, Anja (Principal Investigator) Hay, Laura (Co-investigator) Hay, Laura (Research Co-investigator)
- 31-Jan-2022 - 06-Jan-2022
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Kearney, Thomas
- Hay, Laura (Principal Investigator) Rodgers, Paul (Co-investigator) Kearney, Thomas (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2025
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Macfie, Rebecca
- Hay, Laura (Principal Investigator) Rodgers, Paul (Co-investigator) Macfie, Rebecca (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 01-Jan-2026
- Doctoral Training Partnership 2020-2021 University of Strathclyde | Lawrie, Emma
- Hay, Laura (Principal Investigator) Wodehouse, Andrew (Co-investigator) Lawrie, Emma (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2020 - 01-Jan-2024
- Doctoral Training Partnership (DTA - University of Strathclyde) | Campbell, Gerard
- Hay, Laura (Principal Investigator) Grealy, Madeleine (Co-investigator) Hay, Laura (Co-investigator) Campbell, Gerard (Research Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2016 - 05-Jan-2022
Contact
Dr
Laura
Hay
Lecturer
Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management
Email: laura.hay@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 2366