Trevor Vaugh

    Design Innovation, ALL Institute, Mi:Lab

    on Secondment
    Director of Product Design & Innovation / Assistant Professor Principal Investigator - Mi:Lab

    Auxilia
    35
    (01) 708 4763

    Biography

    Trevor Vaugh is an expert in Human-Centred Design, Innovation, and Strategy, currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Strategic Design at Maynooth University. He recently commenced a secondment with the Department of Public Expenditure NPD Delivery & Reform. In his role as the Public Service Design Lead, he drives strategic design initiatives, focusing primarily on developing the ambitious 'Life Events' programme.

    Trevor has served on Ireland's Public Service Innovation Advisory Board and currently co-chairs the 'Design in Government' expert working group. In this capacity, he led the development of a set of Design Principles for the Government of Ireland and, in 2023, spearheaded the delivery of the Government's Action Plan for Designing Better Public Services – a roadmap for embedding design in the Public Service.

    Driven by a desire to facilitate institutional change through design, Trevor founded the Maynooth Innovation Lab (Mi:Lab) in 2021. Funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), this project was established to tackle Higher Education challenges using innovative design methodologies. Mi:Lab has collaborated with educational institutions in Ireland and internationally, making a significant contribution to the field of design in higher education.

    In 2021, Trevor co-authored "ARRIVE: A Design Innovation Framework to Deliver Breakthrough Services, Products, and Experiences," published by Routledge. He has been recognized as an expert in the acclaimed RTÉ series 'The Big Life Fix', presented the 'Science to the Rescue' documentary for Science Foundation Ireland, and played a key role in developing AI voice technology for veteran journalist Charlie Bird. Before entering academia, Trevor achieved considerable success in healthcare innovation, securing over 50 patents, receiving various innovation awards, and earning a spot among the Cleveland Clinic's top 10 innovations of 2009.

    Trevor is a highly respected advisor in both the public and private sectors, providing insights on the critical role of design as a tool for discovery, transformation, and as a mediator between humanity and technology. His research spans design, strategy, and anthropology, with a particular focus on helping organisations navigate transitions. In all his academic and professional activities, Trevor advocates for the interdisciplinary nature of design, applying design thinking and action research in areas such as government, education, policy, housing, and healthcare.

    Research Interests


    Trevor's research occurs at the intersection of Design, Innovation and Anthropology. He is especially interested in;
    (a) The role of strategic design in developing radical innovation
    (b) Design thinking as a core organisational competency 
    (c) Rapid experimentation and prototype development 
    (d) Design as an agent of liminality, Liminality as an underutilised opportunity for change initiatives. 


    Research Projects

    Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
    Mi:Lab - The Maynooth Innovation Lab Principal Investigator Higher education is critically important for the development of the nation’s citizens and workforce. Although the Irish educational system has served us well for decades, today the sector faces challenges arising from decades of underinvestment by the state, a demographic bulge, and a competitive international environment, according to the Irish Universities Association Chair, Professor Patrick O’Shea (IUA Charter, September 2018). We believe these challenges represent ‘wicked problems’; their complexity and scale require structured approaches developed by interdiciplinsary teams with innovative methodologies. Nuclear physicist William Pollard argued that ‘Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow’. In terms of Irish education, and indeed education globally, tomorrow has arrived. Increasingly, policy and business leaders agree that creativity, agility, diversity and co-creation with user communities is the most appropriate way to tackle complex challenges and to deliver transformative solutions. While the Irish education system has an abundance of talented and passionate individuals, it does not possess an infrastructure devoted to exploring in an agile way the multitude of challenges that it faces. We propose to establish an innovation laboratory, a dedicated workshop experience that will utilise the passion and talent of teams of Maynooth University staff and students. Mi-Lab will empower participants to tackle near and long-term education challenges by using design-thinking as its guiding methodology and tool set. Design thinking is defined as a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success. Design thinking is now a respected and validated means of tackling complex challenges such as those facing education today (Liedtka, 2018). A design thinking approach requires four things: deep stakeholder understanding to define the challenge, creativity to find new ways of tackling the challenges; engineering and business skills to build, experiment and implement; and stakeholders to inspire and co-create. The Maynooth Innovation Lab (Mi-Lab) will be a creative, agile and design-led workshop dedicated to identifying, prioritising and tackling challenges in education and committed to delivering tangible, validated propositions ready for piloting. Mi-Lab will also embed these new and sought-after critical thinking skills, tools, methods and mindsets throughout the Maynooth University community, including staff and student, as well as across the wider education landscape. 01/01/2019 31/07/2022 810950
    Travel Support H2020 ICT-23-2017 PI 19/01/2017 18/10/2017 981

    Book Chapter

    Year Publication
    2018 Vaugh, T, Moles, J, Chambers, C.F (2018) 'Lessons learned: Sports coach mentor as design thinker' In: Learning to Mentor in Sports Coaching. London : Routledge.
    2018 Cuthbert, Brian and Vaugh, Trevor and Chambers, Fiona C (2018) 'What is design thinking?: A case study of using design thinking in a sports coaching context' In: : Routledge.
    2018 Vaugh, Trevor and Moles, Joanne and Chambers, Fiona C (2018) 'Lessons learned: Sports coach mentor as design thinker' In: : Routledge.
    2018 CUTBERTH, B., VAUGH, T., CHAMBERS, F.C. (2018) 'What is design thinking? A case study of using design thinking in a sports coaching context' In: Learning to Mentor in Sports Coaching. London : Routledge. [Link]

    Documentary

    Year Publication
    2021 RTÉ / Kite Entertainment / Science Foundation Ireland (2021) Science To The Rescue. Ireland: [Documentary] [Link]
    2020 RTÉ / Kite Entertainment (2020) 'The Big Life Fix' Season 1 Episode 1. [Documentary]
    2020 RTÉ / Kite Entertainment (2020) 'The Big Life Fix' Season 1 Episode 2. [Documentary]
    2020 RTÉ / Kite Entertainment (2020) 'The Big Life Fix' Season 1 Episode 5. [Documentary]

    Peer Reviewed Journal

    Year Publication
    2022 Trevor Vaugh and Threase Finnegan-Kessie and Amalia White and Síofra Baker and Aldo Valencia (2022) 'Introducing Strategic Design in Education (SDxE): an approach to navigating complexity and ambiguity at the micro, meso and macro layers of Higher Education Institutions'. 41 (1):116-131. [Link] [DOI]
    2021 Aldo Valencia and Matthew Lievesley and Trevor Vaugh (2021) 'Four Mindsets of Designer-Entrepreneurs'. 24 (5):705-726. [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2020 Finnegan-Kessie, Threase and Donnellan, Peter and Oswald, Teghan and Vaugh, Trevor (2020) 'Socially Distanced Higher Education: Student and Staff Experiences of Teaching and Learning During the Covid-19 Lockdown'. 12 (3).
    2020 Finnegan-Kessie, Threase and Vaugh, Trevor and Donnellan, Peter and Oswald, Teghan (2020) 'Socially Distanced Higher Education: Redesigning Progress'. 12 (3). [Full-Text]
    2020 Vaugh, Trevor and Finnegan-Kessie, Threase and Donnellan, Peter and Oswald, Teghan (2020) 'The potential of design thinking to enable change in higher education'. 12 (3). [Full-Text]
    2020 Marder, Ian and Vaugh, Trevor and Dempsey, Shauna and Kenny, Catriona and Savage, Erika and Weiner, Ruair\'\i (2020) 'Participatory mechanisms for reviewing and redesigning curricula with students'. . [Full-Text]
    2018 Cuthbert, Brian and Vaugh, Trevor and Chambers, Fiona C (2018) 'What is design thinking?'. .
    2018 Ryan, Martin and Vaugh, Trevor (2018) 'Design thinking, the driver of innovation in Irish industry: An Interview with Denis Hayes, Managing Director of the IRDG'. :46-51. [Full-Text]
    2018 Vaugh, Trevor and Moles, Joanne and Chambers, Fiona C (2018) 'Sports coach mentor as design thinker'. .
    2020 Threase Finnegan-Kessie, Trevor Vaugh, Peter Donnellan, Teghan Oswald (2020) 'Socially Distanced Higher Education: Redesigning Progress'. All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (AISHE-J), 12 (3). [Link] [Full-Text]
    2020 Trevor Vaugh, Threase Finnegan-Kessie, Peter Donnellan, Teghan Oswald (2020) 'THE POTENTIAL OF DESIGN THINKING TO ENABLE CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION'. All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (AISHE-J), 12 (3). [Link] [Full-Text]
    2019 Keirnan, A., Robbins, P., Devitt, F., Vaugh, T., Ryan, M. and Koffel, R., (2019) 'How Irish design consultancies align with Ireland’s Innovation 2020 priorities: a preliminary study'. ITERATIONS Design Research and Practice Review, (07). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2019 Ryan, M. and Vaugh, T. (2019) 'Design-driven Entrepreneurship An interview with four Irish designer-founders'. ITERATIONS Design Research and Practice Review, (07). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2019 Ryan, M., Vaugh, T (2019) 'Design thinking, the driver of innovation in Irish Industry An interview with Denis Hayes, Managing Director of the IRDG'. ITERATIONS Design Research and Practice Review, (07). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2015 Vaugh, Trevor and Ryan, Martin (2015) 'Getting the right design or getting the design right; An observation of 18 projects progressing through a structured design thinking process'. 1 (1):14-21. [Full-Text]

    Conference Publication

    Year Publication
    2019 Trevor vaugh, Threase Kessie (2019) INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGAGING PEDAGOGY Maynooth University Innovation Lab: Fostering Sustainability in the Higher Education Sector through Design-Thinking –A Practice Paper. *Awarded Best Paper
    2018 Trevor Vaugh (2018) Academic Design Management Conference ADMC18 . In: Carole Bilson eds. A Design-Led Approach to Innovation in the Irish Food Industry [Link]
    2017 Devitt.F, Ryan.M, Robbins.P, Vaugh.T (2017) The ISPIM Innovation Summit – Building the Innovation Century . In: The ISPIM eds. Unlocking Design Thinking’s Potential Melbourne, Australia, 10/12/2017- 13/12/2017 [Full-Text]

    Published Report

    Year Publication
    2021 Trevor Vaugh; Threase Finnegan Kessie; Amalia White; Siofra Baker; Aldo Valencia (2021) Thrown in the Deep End. Mi:Lab, . [Link]

    Conference Contribution

    Year Publication
    2020 Trevor Vaugh (2020) Irish Association Rehabilitation Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting Designing meaningful technology through empathy, insight and action Dublin, 23/10/2020-.
    2017 Trevor Vaugh (2017) Maastricht Disrupt Disrupting Ourselves Workshop Maastricht, Netherlands, 23/09/2017-24/09/2017.
    2017 Trevor Vaugh (2017) Maastricht Disrupt Design as an Agent of Transition. Transition, the Realm of Pure Possibility Maastricht, Netherlands, 23/09/2017-24/09/2017.
    2017 Trevor Vaugh (2017) Defuse Design as an agent of Liminality Dublin, 07/11/2017-.
    2016 trevor vaugh (2016) Visualisation In Design Thinking Design Thinking for innovation & growth - IRDG Dublin, 01/06/2016-02/05/2016.
    2016 Trevor Vaugh (2016) Connect 2016 - eHealth eHealth is a rapidly developing area, promising to deliver healthcare more effectively and efficiently while empowering patients through technology Maynooth, 27/05/2018-27/05/2018.
    2015 trevor vaugh (2015) Mapping The Experience Journey Design Thinking For Business Growth Dublin, .
    2015 Martin Ryan, Trevor Vaugh (2015) Faultlines - Bridging Knowledge Spaces Getting The Right Design Carlow Institute of Technology, .
    2015 trevor vaugh (2015) Getting The Right Design Faultlines - Bridging Knowledge Spaces Carlow, .
    2013 trevor vaugh (2013) A Career As A Design Innovator Forge Product Design Forum Dublin Castle, .

    Radio Presentation

    Year Publication
    2020 RTE Radio 1 (2020) The History of Personal Protection Equipment. Ireland: [Radio Presentation] [Link] [Full-Text]

    Blog

    Year Publication
    2017 Trevor Vaugh (2017) Reflecting on the first three years of the MSc in Design innovation at Maynooth University. [Blog] [Link]

    Technical Publication

    Year Publication
    2016 Butler, John and Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan Bernard and MacNally, Shane Joseph and Deegan, Catherine and Cuschieri, Alfred and Reid, Alan (2016) Surgical device. [Technical Publication]
    2015 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane Joseph and Reid, Alan (2015) Wound retractor device. [Technical Publication]
    2015 Shibley, Kirk Anthony and Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane Joseph and Halpin, Lucy Dolores and Williams, Stephen (2015) Pneumoperitoneum device. [Technical Publication]
    2014 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan B and Macnally, Shane J and Butler, John (2014) Instrument access device. [Technical Publication]
    2014 Shibley, Kirk Anthony and Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane Joseph and Halpin, Lucy Dolores and Williams, Stephen (2014) Pneumoperitoneum device. [Technical Publication]
    2014 Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Bonadio, Frank (2014) Wound retractor system. [Technical Publication]
    2014 Bonadio, Frank and Halpin, LD and MacNally, Shane and Shibley, KA and Vaugh, Trevor and Williams, S (2014) Method for performing surgical laparoscopic procedure on uterus of patient by surgeon, involves inflating bag to create artificial pneumoperitoneum that extends abdomen and provides additional working and viewing space. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2014 Bonadio, Frank and Halpin, LD and MacNally, Shane and Shibley, KA and Vaugh, Trevor and Williams, S (2014) Inflatable artificial pneumoperitoneum bag has length and width, where artificial pneumoperitoneum bag neck portion is provided with first end and second end, where first end forms bag opening. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2014 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Deegan, Catherine and Vaugh, Trevor (2014) Wound retractor. [Technical Publication]
    2014 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and Butler, John (2014) Wound retractor device. [Technical Publication]
    2013 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor (2013) Instrument access device for use during laparoscopic surgery to facilitate instrument access to insufflated abdominal cavity has instrument receiver with cannula that extends in use through incision protected by retractor member. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2013 Shibley, KA and Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane and Halpin, LD and Williams, S (2013) Pneumoperitoneum device for tissue isolation and/or extraction in laparoscopic procedure, has inflatable bag having opening to receive tissue. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2013 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan B and Macnally, Shane J and Butler, John (2013) Instrument access device. [Technical Publication]
    2013 Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Bonadio, Frank and Deegan, Catherine and Macnally, Shane J (2013) Apparatus for inserting a surgical device at least partially through a wound opening. [Technical Publication]
    2012 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane Joseph and Reid, Alan (2012) Wound retractor device. [Technical Publication]
    2012 Shibley, Kirk Anthony and Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane Joseph (2012) Pneumoperitoneum device. [Technical Publication]
    2012 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Macnally, Shane J (2012) Instrument access device. [Technical Publication]
    2011 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Deegan, Catherine and Vaugh, Trevor (2011) Wound retractor. [Technical Publication]
    2011 Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Bonadio, Frank (2011) Wound retractor system. [Technical Publication]
    2011 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan and MacNally, Shane (2011) Instrument access device used for laparoscopic surgery and surgical procedures, has instrument receiver that receives instrument, and connector extends between proximal element and instrument receiver. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2010 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan and MacNally, Shane (2010) Instrument access device for instrument access system, has connector member connecting proximal member with instrument seals, where proximal member and connector member are configured to retain proximal end of retractor member. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2010 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan B and Macnally, Shane J and Butler, John (2010) Instrument access system. [Technical Publication]
    2010 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan B and Macnally, Shane J and Mulhall, Michael (2010) Instrument Access Device. [Technical Publication]
    2009 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor (2009) Device. [Technical Publication]
    2009 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor (2009) Holding device for use during eg laparoscopic procedure, has two gripping units, where one of gripping unit grips organ and other gripping unit mounts holding device to desired location, and device is mountable to interior of wall. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2009 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Macnally, Shane and Vaugh, Trevor (2009) Surgical sealing device for providing hand or instrument access during surgical procedure has sealing valve with sealing members moved in open configuration which facilitates passage of object through sealing valve to access internal cavity. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2009 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane Joseph and Reid, Alan (2009) Wound retractor device. [Technical Publication]
    2008 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Macnally, Shane (2008) Surgical device ie wound retractor device, inserting apparatus, has separate holder element holding surgical device in low-profile configuration, and formed separately from conveying device. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2008 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and Butler, John and Macnally, Shane J (2008) Hand and instrument access device. [Technical Publication]
    2008 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor (2008) Instrument insertion device. [Technical Publication]
    2008 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Macnally, Shane (2008) Instrument access device for use during eg aparoscopic choecystectomy procedure, has distal anchoring ring provided to locate within wound interior, and retractor with sleeve extending from ring to retract sides of wound opening. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2007 Vaugh, Trevor and Butler, John and MacNally, Shane and Bonadio, Frank (2007) Instrument access device. [Technical Publication]
    2007 Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Bonadio, Frank (2007) Surgical device. [Technical Publication]
    2007 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane Joseph (2007) Apparatus for inserting a surgical device at least partially through a wound opening. [Technical Publication]
    2007 Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Bonadio, Frank and Mcmanus, Ronan and Macnally, Shane and Cuschieri, Alfread and Reid, Alan and others (2007) Surgical devices seal, has two sealing members each having accessway that provide access from one side of sealing members to other side of members, and biasing unit biasing two sealing members towards one another. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2007 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Deegan, C and Vaugh, Trevor (2007) Wound retractor for use during laparoscopic surgery, has connecting member extending between proximal and distal members, and release member stowed away before release member is required to be used to release distal member. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2007 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor (2007) Cannula has lip seal movingly coupled to proximal section, to facilitate relative movement of instrument shaft between seal and proximal section and to maintain sealing engagement between shaft and proximal portion. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2007 Vaugh, Trevor and Butler, John and Macnally, Shane and Bonadio, Frank (2007) Instrument access device for use in accessing a wound interior has an opening portion for partly opening a seal to allow insertion of an instrument in which the seal is reinforced upon engagement with the instrument. [Technical Publication] [Full-Text]
    2006 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Deegan, Catherine and MacNally, Shane (2006) Surgical instrument. [Technical Publication]
    2005 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor (2005) Seal for a cannula. [Technical Publication]
    2005 Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and Bonadio, Frank (2005) A surgical sealing device. [Technical Publication]
    2005 Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and Butler, John and Deegan, Catherine (2005) Wound retractor device. [Technical Publication]
    2004 Vaugh, Trevor and Butler, John and Bonadio, Frank (2004) Surgical sealing device. [Technical Publication]
    2003 Bonadio, Frank and Butler, John and Vaugh, Trevor and MacNally, Shane and Reid, Alan (2003) Surgical device. [Technical Publication]
    2003 Butler, John and Bonadio, Frank and Vaugh, Trevor and McManus, Ronan and MacNally, Shane and Deegan, Catherine and Cuschieri, Alfred and Reid, Alan (2003) Device. [Technical Publication]
    2002 Butler, John and Bonadio, Frank and Bell, Duncan and Woods, Lisa and Vaugh, Trevor (2002) Device. [Technical Publication]
    Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2024) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

    Professional Associations

    Description Function From / To
    Anthropological Association of Ireland Member 01/05/2016 -
    Institute of Designers in Ireland Member 01/01/2012 -

    Honors and Awards

    Date Title Awarding Body
    01/12/2019 Best paper - International conference of Education Pedagogy International conference of Education Pedagogy
    01/05/2016 Postgrad Ireland 'Best New Course 2016' for the MSc in Design innovation Postgrad Ireland
    01/09/2018 Postgrad Ireland 'Best New Course 2018' for the MSc in Design innovation Food Postgrad Ireland
    01/09/2016 IDI Collaborative Award for Iterations Design & Practice review Institute of Designers of Ireland
    01/01/2009 Cleveland clinic's top 10 innovations (ASC/Olympus) Cleveland clinic