2025
Dean’s Awards
The Dean’s Awards, are in recognition for the pursuit of excellence, value and contribution through a relevant discipline design project. They are not necessarily about the highest grade, but rather seek to recognise a student, or student team, who have through a project brief, used their design expertise in the broadest sense to make the world a better place through their project and practice.
Andrew creates innovative design work that pushes the boundaries of communication design and craft. What really sets Andrew apart is how he helps others in the maker space discover what they’re capable of. They don’t just excel themselves—they make everyone around them better.
Special Mentions: Elyssa Chen, Minh Trinh
Yiming has both supported her community
of practice in the Masters of Communication
Design and extended & expanded her practice by
volunteering for the Brunswick Tool Library and
Foodbank Australia. Yiming’s research project,
Echoes of əwəŋkhi, is a communication design
project focused on the Ewenki language, which
demonstrated the power and treasure of language,
as well as an individual commitment to explore and
develop her own practice.
Special Mentions: Elki Shen, Nguyễn Mai Trực Quỳnh, Hilary Dodd, Ho Yin She Dennis
Meaghan has undertaken rigourous research, deep
diving and immersion into journey mapping, service
design, and prototyping in their selected field and
topic. Meaghan worked closely with Food Ladder
and has shown passion and dedication throughout
their Honour’s project.
Special Mentions: Ellyn Wong, Emily Clark, Heidi Chan
Ashwathi Suresh Nambiar’s graduation project
transforms data into matter and form, envisioning
speculative ecologies and nonhuman futures
through immersive digital storytelling. Aligned
with MDIT’s immersion and regeneration streams,
her work repositions design as an act of care and
attunement across human and marine worlds.
Special Mentions: Trishla Yadav, Carennina Budidharma, Jisu Lee
Jasmine Lam
Lucy Dal Molin
Madelene Watson
Mercedes Robertson
Sav Fletcher
While working on Bilby Blue, Cadence demonstrated
a commitment to excellence that is evident not only
in the high calibre of their final game project but
also in the ways they have grown as individuals and
supported each other as a team. These gamemakers
genuinely looked after each other throughout their
capstone project, regularly adjusting their approach
to ensure everyone felt heard and had an appropriate
workload, while ultimately prioritising respect and
love over all else. This attitude is reflected in Bilby
Blue, a project that shares a personal queer-coded
story, contributing to the tapestry of Melbourne
games that celebrate diverse perspectives. Cadence
has used their capstone as an opportunity to go
above and beyond, learning an array of industry-standard skills and seeking regular guidance from
their peers and industry mentors alike. Overall, this
semester Cadence has exemplified the values and
work ethic that will ensure the Australian games
industry remains world class.
Chris Aubrey has shown a commendable dedication
and outstanding contribution to the RMIT Animation
program. Chris has made a constructive impact,
exemplifying a strong values-based approach in
design processes, project outcomes, collaborations,
and support of peers. Chris’ positive outlook,
inclusive approach, resilience, and creative design
expertise has sought to make both the local
community and the wider world a better place.
Special Mentions: Faith Chung, Jamie Wong
Eugenia is an Indonesian-born UX/UI designer
with a particular focus on 3D and motion graphics.
Eugenia approaches her work with ambition, care,
rigour, and an affinity for communicating in the
language of the medium in which she is working.
Eugenia has also made significant contributions to
the RMIT community through her work on the SSCC
and the PPIA RMIT Indonesia Student Association.
Special Mentions: Jasmine Griffiths, Kai Wing Cheng, Harrison Phu
Ka Ke Lee (Kora) has been an exceptional student
throughout her time at MAGI, from her excellent 2D
work during her first year through to successfully
embracing VR and 3D genres as she progressed.
Kora is highly respected and has shown great
leadership and participation in the MAGI community,
such as giving talks to her classmates about her
experiences exhibiting work at games conferences
and actively contributing to many events.
Special Mentions: Rebecca Livia Hamijaya, Chris Erickson, Wenhao Lee
Responsible Practice Awards
These awards celebrate students who engage with design as a relational, ethical, and inclusive practice—recognising that creativity is shaped through the relationships we build with people, place, and culture. They honour those who have worked with care and respect across diverse knowledge systems, including First Nations ways of knowing and being, and who have designed in deep relationship with Country. Each of our recipients reminds us that responsible design is not only about what we create, but how we listen, collaborate, and contribute to more equitable and regenerative futures.
Responsible Design Award
Celebrating initiatives or projects that value plural design knowledges and contribute to culturally responsive and inclusive environments, whether through collaboration, design practice, or learning.
Dilushi Prasanna
Hilary Dodd
Master of Communication Design
14 Days to Go–Old Melbourne Gaol—Select Exhibition Works
Recognised for its respectful engagement with First Peoples’ experiences of incarceration, linking historical injustices to ongoing systemic inequities with care and accountability. The team approached sensitive narratives with empathy and collaboration to create inclusive spaces for reflection, amplifying underrepresented stories and inviting audiences to imagine more just futures. Their work exemplifies responsible design, grounded in respect, cultural awareness, and a commitment to truth-telling through design.
Anna Rasalingam
Master of Design Futures
Recognised for her commitment to fostering respectful, culturally responsive design practices. Through her work co-designing a culturally grounded evaluation framework with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, Anna demonstrated care, ethical integrity, and humility in working across difference. Her relational approach embodies responsible design as an ongoing act of listening, learning, and co-creation.
Lewis Brewer
Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity
Te Pūtake O Te Wairua—An Animators Evolution Through Relational Animation
Recognised for its respectful engagement with Kaumātua, historians and Ngāpuhi knowledge holders and its responsible navigation of Indigenous cultural storytelling. Through a practice-based research paper titled Te Pūtake O Te Wairua and the short animation project Te Hīkoi, Lewis demonstrated care and responsibility in representing living Indigenous narratives. Lewis’s work fosters trust, collaboration, and self-reflection, offering a model for responsible and culturally grounded design practice.
Adam Walduck
Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours)
Biased by Design: Reframing Exclusion in Medical Device Development
Adam Walduck's project Biased by Design engaged ethically and reflexively with the historical and systemic biases of medical design practice, respecting lived experiences within healthcare as cultural knowledge. It advocates for more inclusive data sets, tesing protocols and fostered environments of trust and collaboration through codesign and participatory processes.
Community Engagement
Recognising work that listens, responds, and co-creates with others to address shared challenges and opportunities.
Soumil Sawmill
Bachelor of Design (Communication Design)
Untitled, Ongoing (1944–)
Recognised for his thoughtful reactivation of RMIT’s Catalyst archive through Untitled, Ongoing (1944–), a publishing project that reimagines how institutional memory can be made public, participatory, and alive. By inviting contributors from across the university to co-curate and reinterpret seventy-five years of student voices, Soumil transformed archival research into an act of collective authorship. His project celebrates design as a form of social connection, foregrounding the importance of community in shaping shared cultural histories.
Team Butter;
Dilushi Prasanna
Hilary Dodd
Jeremie Yeung
Mille Almsig
Sonali Mirpuri
Master of Communication Design
M8: A Human-Centred Archetype Deck for Inclusive Design
Team Butter is recognised for their collaborative and community-led approach to reimagining participation at the RMIT Food Co-op through M8, a human-centred archetype deck designed to foster inclusion and empathy. Grounded in field engagement and dialogue with students, volunteers, and coordinators, the team developed a tool that amplifies diverse voices and enables shared ownership in co-design processes. M8 demonstrates how small, thoughtful interventions can build stronger communities and cultivate belonging through dialogue.
Dilushi Himesha Prasanna
Master of Communication Design
Kotthu From Down Under
Dilushi Himesha Prasanna is recognised for her empathetic and culturally grounded approach to documenting Melbourne’s Sri Lankan diaspora through Kotthu From Down Under. By facilitating intimate conversations around food and identity, she created a respectful space for stories often left untold, stories of belonging, displacement, and resilience. Her design practice centred reciprocity and collaboration, engaging participants as co-creators rather than subjects. Through typographic sensitivity and multilingual design choices, she honoured linguistic diversity and challenged hierarchies of representation. This project exemplifies design as a collective act that nourishes community through authentic storytelling.
Pieter den Heten
Master of Design Futures
Beyond the Sunflower
Pieter den Heten is recognised for his inquiry into accessibility design through Beyond the Sunflower, a project that redefines inclusion by placing lived experience at the centre of design decision-making. Drawing from his dual perspective as a service designer and autistic person, Pieter challenges performative notions of empathy and advocates for genuine co-leadership by people living with disability.
Chen Pan
Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours)
Seeking Manufacture
Chen Pan's Seeking Manufacture demonstrates relational trust and mutual respect built with partners in China. The work reflects on the dual position between Chinese manufacturing culture and Australian design education, showing awareness of both privilege and responsibility. This self-reflection strengthens the cultural reciprocity within the project.
Belonging Award
Recognising those who build belonging through collaboration and care, cultivating trust and confidence within teams, studios, or communities.
Vanessa Hornby
Bachelor of Design (Communication Design)
Recognised for her leadership in creating a vibrant, inclusive community for Communication Design students. By founding and moderating a student-led Discord network, she fostered connection, friendship, and psychological safety across year levels. Her initiative transformed personal vulnerability into collective belonging, cultivating a culture of care and collaboration where students feel supported, valued, and heard. Vanessa’s empathy and integrity exemplify how small acts can profoundly strengthen community and belonging within the School of Design.
Tsui Sze Tracy Wong
Yuxuan (Sadie) Li
Addie Cheung
Master of Communication Design
House and Home
House and Home is recognised for its sensitive and participatory exploration of belonging across cultures. By inviting participants to share personal stories, objects, and memories of home, the team created a space of empathy and connection where diverse voices were equally valued. Their collaborative process transformed individual experiences into a collective narrative, celebrating difference and showing how design can nurture inclusion through care, listening, and respect.
Ian Fasil Bin Zailee
Bachelor of Design (Digital Media)
An Introspection
The short film expresses through a series of dramatic dance performances the impressions of one student as they navigate the maze-like lanes and corridors of a university campus. The film reminds us of the beauty and variety of individual expression found in these spaces, and moreover the sometimes challenging process of making contact with others. Seen as a reflection at the end of their academic journey, we are prompted to empathise with the often tentative and uncertain journey of belonging.
Ethical Leadership
Celebrating leaders who act with integrity and awareness, inspiring others to think critically and work responsibly.
Hilary Dodd
Master of Communication Design
Aesthetics of High Schools and the Hidden Curriculum
Recognised for her research into the aesthetics of high school environments, revealing the subtle ways institutions shape behaviour and belonging. Through participatory mapping workshops and collaborative publication design, Her work demonstrates sensitivity to the lived realities of teachers and students while challenging inherited systems of control and representation. By positioning herself both within and against the institution she studied, Hilary redefined ethical leadership as an act of humility and accountability.
Yujie Sun
Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours)
By Becoming
Yujie Sun's By Becoming is a courageous interrogation of dominant systems and assumptions that can unintentionally reproduce harm when working with First Nations members. Their project embodies humility in action and accountability by recognising when to restrain and step back, which in turn, affirmed a respect for cultural sovereignty. The sustained critical self-awareness models ethical leadership.
Rani Pramesti
Master of Design Futures
Power Literacy
Power Literacy for Nonprofit Boards in South and Southeast Asia. Rani Pramesti is recognised for their ethical leadership in advancing power literacy within nonprofit governance across South and Southeast Asia. Rani’s project interrogates how inherited governance frameworks can obscure local knowledges and relational practices. This work demonstrates navigating complexity, designing with and around power, and foregrounding equity, cultural responsiveness, and mutual learning as the foundation of ethical leadership.
Care for Country
Celebrating projects that acknowledge Country as a living system and engage respectfully with its histories, ecologies, and sovereignties.
Andrew Van Keulen
Bachelor of Design (Communication Design)
Specimen
Recognised for his engagement with Country through Specimen, a publication that celebrates the native flora of Melbourne’s Western Volcanic Plains. By blending ecological research, storytelling, and design, Andrew illuminates one of Australia’s most endangered ecosystems and challenges colonial perceptions of “barren” landscapes. His project honours First Peoples’ custodianship and explores design and communication as an act of reciprocity.
Simarpreet Kaur
Ziyu (Elki) Shen
Aseye Banini
Travis Ma
Yunmeng Jia
Master of Communication Design
14 Days to Go–Old Melbourne Gaol—Select Exhibition Works
This collaborative project is recognised for its powerful acknowledgement of Country as an active witness to both harm and resilience. By tracing global systems of forced labour through the colonial history of the Old Melbourne Gaol, the team revealed how the displacement of people and extraction from land are intertwined. Their work invites audiences to confront the enduring legacies of colonisation while honouring acts of resistance that continue to shape Country today.
Arial Budiman, Suzie Li and Bridie Vincent
Bachelor of Design (Animation and Interactive Media)
Fire is Cultural
The short film showcases the significance of cultural burning, a regenerative practice used to protect the land by Indigenous Australians for thousands of years. The production team worked with indigenous and wildfire experts to highlight both the spiritual and practical aspects of this traditional practice.
Caitlin Butt
Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity
Detritus
Awarded for her archive consisting of 8 samples-artifacts of detritus collected from tangible locations around Naarm and Ngunnawal country. Caitlin's project engages with abstractions of landscape, both digital and physical. The work is recognised for its inclusive response to diverse cultural practices and histories. Caitlin’s work consistently shows a way to design with a grounded and respectful curiosity for place, habitation and systems of knowing.
Mietta Greig-Hurtig
Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours)
Wild—Fostering Connection through Interpretive Design at the Edithvale Wetland
Mietta Greig-Hurtig's project, Wild—Fostering Connection through Interpretive Design at the Edithvale Wetlands shows commitment to care for place and ecological systems and a thoughtful sense of responsibility, in particular, by incorporating First Nations languages within its design. It promotes inclusion through public education and invites people to slow down, explore and connect with nature.