Smart Objects with THUAS

Why we do this

The Hague University of Applied Sciences runs a Smart Objects semester in its Industrial Design Engineering programme, where student teams design and build a connected product for a real client. We were that client in 2022, 2024 and 2025.

It works both ways. Students get a brief with real constraints and someone who will push back on them. We get several teams exploring directions in parallel — research we would never have time to do ourselves — and some of it ends up in our own work.

2022: light sculptures for public space

The first brief came straight out of The Wave. Teams were asked to design a new interactive sculpture that gets people moving in public space — the beach, parks, playgrounds — with a focus on 10 to 20 year olds and their parents. A second track asked for a light that turns a dark public spot into somewhere people want to spend time, without being intrusive.

The constraints were the ones we face ourselves: outdoors, vandal-resistant, no phone required, anonymous usage data, made partly of recycled material, assembled within a day, scalable to 30 units, and a material budget of €5,000. The semester began with a visit to The Wave in Scheveningen and a workshop in our studio.

That line of research fed CityGems: THUAS students prototyped its LED and sensor core with us.

2024–25: Remastered

The Remastered project had three parties instead of two: the students, us as the client, and Remastered, the immersive digital art venue under the Erasmus Bridge. The question was how a conversation between people and machines could change a museum visit — and how a hidden gem of a venue gets noticed at all. Teams designed for a real venue with real visitors: an interactive cube to make the venue visible and recognisable, an AI-guided way through the exhibition, and more.

It started with a bootcamp — students coding interactive projections in the dark, testing them on the wall the same afternoon.

It ended with a demo day at Remastered in February 2025, where the teams showed working prototypes to the venue and to us.

The sun lamp

Alongside it, in 2025, ran a smaller assignment drawn from our Wake-Up Lamp research: a lamp that wakes you like the sun. One student designed a 3D-printed wake-up lamp that doubles as a desk lamp during the day.

We also teach: a session for the students on design for manufacture and the business side of a product — what it costs to make, and who pays for it.

Interns from THUAS

The collaboration also runs the other way: THUAS students join the studio as interns. They worked with us on the Wake-Up Lamp itself, and presented it.

Where it stands

A collaboration we keep coming back to, one session at a time. If you run a programme and want a client who will treat your students’ work as real, get in touch.