Roderick Walden undertakes research into the contemporary methods and practice of professional industrial design. His principal areas of research interest lie in professional practice, practice-based design research, design expertise and academic design. He has previously worked as a product designer and production engineer for a range of local and international manufacturers in the commercial office furniture industry including Herman Miller U.S., and Wilkhahn and Konig + Neurath Germany. His design consultancy, Walden Design Pty Ltd, formed in 2003, designed a range of products for Australian companies, working particularly closely with manufacturing SMEs. In his academic role, he has co-developed, through research, prototypes including a mountain bike (MTB) multi-tool (2008), leather-moulded office accessories (2008) and a fire-fighters cooling vest (2009), all with long-time colleague and friend Stefan Lie. He has conducted research into additive manufacturing technologies with the design of a DMLS MTB Crank Arm (2010) as part of the CCDP-sponsored Digifacture project, which was co-curated with Berto Pandolfo. His masters (by research) degree studied self-initiated product design and modelled connections between knowledge and practice that he is currently advancing as part of his PhD. He has co-authored research on topics including university-industry collaboration (UIC), design in business, design education and academic design practice. Roderick is passionate about his role as a teacher, the technical work of design and the meaning behind the connections designers make with other areas of knowledge to solve problems, innovate and learn.