Gonzalo Portas

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. industrial design, human-centred design, public space, socially responsive design and emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, design and public life, medical device innovation, product development and advanced manufacturing, sustainable materials, circular design, digital fabrication, design research, research through design and design-led community engagement