After my MRes degree, I joined Young Scot’s TEC panel, a group of young people exploring ways in which digital technology can support health & well-being in collaboration with the Scottish Government. Successfully launched #TECScot report at the DigiFest2020 conference. Since its launch last year, #YSHive empowers young people to be system changers. As a Hive Volunteer, I have had the opportunity to help shape the YSHive volunteering service and designing Young Scot’s #VisionMakers 2022-2025 strategy.

A Saltire ‘Summit’ Award winning member of NHS 24’s Youth Forum, which seeks to engage and listen to a diverse range of young people across Scotland in order to help the design and development of NHS 24 service, I have been able to represent a youth perspective through various opportunities to help shape NHS 24 services; including their ‘Art of the Possible’ engagement workshops, Public Partnership Forums (PPF) and Service Transformation Programme (STP) Board meetings with NHS 24 directors and senior management.

From participating in their Youth Forum, I was asked to join NHS 24’s User Research team as an extension of my MRes studies on a one day a week basis to consolidate my service design skills into practice. In this volunteer role, I had lots of exposure to current and future projects at NHS 24 as they adopt the Scottish Government’s ‘Scottish Approach to Service Design’ (SAtSD) as well as representing NHS 24 at external functions such as; the NHS Scotland event, UX Scotland and the International Design in Government conference.

Invited to join NHS 24’s STP Board by the Director of Service Development representing the Youth Forum. As a STP Board Member, I liaised with NHS 24 directors and senior management to help shape service transformation and strategic development within the organisation. Notably, my representation helped contribute towards Mental Health transformation, like creation of the 111 Mental Health Hub and Breathing Space web chat feature; alongside other ‘tests of change’ at NHS 24.

Elected the first ever postgraduate ‘Lead Rep’ for the new GSA Innovation School with my role representing 70 students across 7 different taught and research programmes between both Glasgow and Forres campuses to ensure the student voice is heard through Board of Studies, Staff Student Consultative Committees and School Forum engagement. As Lead Rep, I played an integral role in managing the Innovation School’s ‘Possibilities’ exhibition for the annual GSA Graduate Degree Show.

During my Saltire Programmes internship, I assisted the project manager in the delivery of a visitor experience featured as part of a £140million distillery investment that later launched in 2018. I was responsible for uploading brand archive material to a digital asset library that resulted in a global marketing tool kit. During my placement, I also assisted in the development of the project’s retail strategy.

Following a six week GSA 'Open Source-Design' live collaborative project working with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, I was one of six Product Design students invited by Snook to participate in a 48 hour 'Hackathon' event which took a creative, person-centred approach to re-imagining unscheduled care by focusing on real stakeholder experiences to develop proposals for innovative solutions that deliver the right care, in the right place, by the right people, at the right time, for people in Scotland. This first NHS sponsored Hackathon in the UK brought together over 150 participants and as a facilitator I helped a group of healthcare professionals and citizens to develop new ideas and deliver concepts to avoid unnecessary A+E admissions.

Awarded ‘Distinction’ for my MDes Thesis project ‘PREFERABLE PROSTHETICS’ which featured an empowering service design proposal for amputees to explore the personal and social dimensions of their prosthetics. I also won SIE’s Gold ‘Scottish Innovative Student Award’ for my MDes Thesis proposal and contribution towards the NHS 24 live project, where our groups ‘CONNECTED COMMUNITY’ initiative established an innovate IoT pre-emptive care strategy for NHS Scotland’s future. Alongside this postgraduate taught (PGT) degree, I was elected the first ever postgraduate ‘Lead Rep’ for the Innovation School with my role representing 70 students across 7 different postgraduate programmes.

Awarded ‘Distinction’ for my BDes Dissertation ‘BEYOND THE HUMAN’ which explored transhuman subjectivity towards a posthuman future. My award-winning final year Self-Initiated project ‘SPECTRUM’ revealed an empathetic and inclusive perspective to autistic awareness towards the neurotypical population. Undertaken many live experience projects throughout this degree working in partnership with third, private and public sectors; notably with AAC Clyde Space, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, and Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH). Alongside this undergraduate degree, I was a proud scholar of both the Robertson Trust’s Scholarship and Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Programmes.

The ALLIANCE is the national third sector intermediary for a range of health and social care organisations, I was invited to help launch the ALLIANCE’s Self Management Week 2021 between 27th September - 1st October as part of the ‘New Research into Self-Management’ panel discussion between myself and Dr Lisa Kidd. I have also presented at other events such as 'Designing for all, with all' and 'Discover Digital'.

Chosen to exhibit at Scotland’s largest annual health and care event 'DigiFest' between 1st – 11th December 2020, I presented my Master of Research project on Day 2 of the DigiFest2020 conference and was a speaker for Young Scot's Technology Enabled Care (TEC) session on Day 6 launching the #TECScot report

McIntosh, Ross (2017) Beyond the human: subjectivity at the transition of our posthuman future. BDes dissertation, The Glasgow School of Art

Featured in the Innovation School's 'Possibilities' exhibition for the annual GSA Graduate Degree Show between 1st-9th September 2018 at the Garment Factory in Glasgow, where I exhibited my personal MDes Thesis project 'PREFERABLE PROSTHETICS' alongside 62 other Design Innovation postgraduates as well as collaborative project outputs from the Master's programme, such as our live project with NHS 24 'Alternative Now' and parallel project 'Soft Power'.

Chosen to exhibit as part of Scotland’s Leading Creative Industries Festival 'XpoNorth' from 27th-28th June 2018 in Inverness for our groups NHS 24 'Alternative Now' live project proposal - NHS ‘Connected Community’ which utilised condition specific IoT health monitoring devices through new clinical interface roles to establish health centred patient communities towards an innovate pre-emptive care strategy for the Scottish Government’s '2020 Vision'.

Featured in the Product Design department's 'Framework' exhibition for the annual GSA Degree Show between 8th-17th June 2017 at the School of Design's Reid Building in Glasgow and 22nd-25th June 2017 at Candid Arts Trust in London, where I exhibited my BDes Self-Initiated Project 'SPECTRUM' alongside my live AAC Clyde Space thematic project outcome 'SPACESPACE' and the Prospectus: School of 2025 collaborative project proposition 'OPUS Institute of Everyday Living'.

Prospectus 2025 was a speculative group project in which we were to create a design proposal for a school of the near future. The school was to respond to social, economic, cultural, political, environmental and technological trends and we were to explore touch points, class structure, teaching methods, learning environment and the schools sense of identity. The outcome for this project was to be presented in the form of an Open Day to exhibit the school through experience prototypes in the Reid Building’s Product Design Studio on 8th December 2016.

For the finale of the GSA Product Design Year 3 'Brand X' project, we set up an 'Home of the Future’ expo at the Barras Art and Design Centre between 31st October to 1st November 2015 in which we exhibited our groups new lifestyle brand proposition for the future of work at home - ‘HYO’ with my contribution of the ‘Scribe’ analogue desk alongside the ‘Activate’ stool, ‘Flow’ bag and ‘Notify’ clock.

From volunteering with the National Autistic Society, I have been allowed various opportunities to represent the autistic community following on from my BDes Self-Initiated project - 'SPECTRUM'. Working with NAS, I have been; a regular public representative for the Glasgow Film Theatre’s 'Access Film Club', featured on an episode of BBC’s Points of View, promoted a case study for their 'News and Views' magazine, participated in industry events and charity engagements to help make Glasgow more ‘Autism-Friendly’ as well as helped promote the National Autistic Society's highly successful 'Too Much Information' campaign.

Following Snook sponsoring our 2017 Product Design Degree Show 'Framework', I volunteered as a GSA student facilitator for their annual CycleHack event, which is a global movement that empowers people to design, prototype and test new ideas towards the barriers that stop or discourage people from cycling in order to make biking easier, more commonplace and accepted in places. My role as a facilitator during the 2017 event in Glasgow included helping CycleHacker delegates within 48 hours to devise and design new cycling innovations from the ground up and test ideas out in the street by re-designing Glasgow to be more 'bikeable'.

Through the Robertson Trust's 'Journey to Success' programme, I helped to 'give back' to my Maryhill community by undertaking a voluntary placement with the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society. During my placement at Mackintosh's Queens Cross Church; I performed as a tour guide, front of house bar manager during live concerts and assisting in the redesign of the societies website and venue advertisement. Following on from my placement, I have continued to help and support the non-profit making charity through continued volunteering at public events as well as raising £923 for the CRM Society through Community Matters grant funding.

Selected as a class representative during the first and second year of my undergraduate degree between 2013-2015. My duties as a class representative included participating in Staff Student Consultative Committees (SSCC) meetings each term to ensure the student voice was heard as well as organisational and leadership responsibilities for my class of 30 Product Design students.

After successfully presenting at the industry conference in 2020, I was invited back to launch DigiFest between 1st-2nd December 2021 by interviewing the Cabinet Secretary on the refreshed Digital Health and Care Strategy.

Out of over 1000 shortlisted candidates, I was chosen as one of 50 finalists for the Social Shifter’s ‘Global Innovation Challenge’ 2021 with my SPECTRUM project that embraced positive perspectives that “we are all on the spectrum” to reveal a more preferable future for those diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. My finalist pitch was featured in the 'Global' category of the competition among seven other top competitors across the Americas, Europe & Central Asia.

Nominated for the Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards 2021 in the Volunteering category by NHS 24 for demonstrating an outstanding contribution to volunteering and exceeding expectations through my roles as a Youth Forum & Public Partnership Forum (PPF) member, as well as a Service Transformation Programme (STP) Board member and User Research volunteer. I received a #YSAwards certificate of recognition to celebrate my volunteering achievements.

Successfully nominated for the Summit Award by NHS 24 for demonstrating an outstanding contribution to volunteering and exceeding expectations through my roles as a Youth Forum & Public Partnership Forum (PPF) member, as well as a Service Transformation Programme (STP) Board member and User Research volunteer. The Summit Award is peer assessed by a panel of Saltire Ambassadors who decide who merits it for effort, commitment, leadership and impact.

Sole recipient of a Digital Health and Care Institute (DHI) fee-waiver studentship for my practice-based Master of Research project realised in January 2020: 'SELF-MANAGEMENT BEYOND THE SELF' which explored how participatory design can help discover the barriers and facilitators of self-management practice for type 1 diabetes, towards user-centred design principles to develop preferable relationships for digital long term condition devices and systems.

In its inaugural year, the SISA programme saw over 1000 students participating across the three levels of the programme - I was selected as one of 5 winners of the prestigious Gold award for demonstrating a "highly innovative mindset" during the programme and intent to continue to innovate through further studies. From being chosen for this award, I will be provided with ongoing, relevant support from SIE and participating Scottish Innovation Centres - DHI, The Data Lab & CENSIS. I was presented my award at a Parliamentary Reception at Holyrood on 23rd October 2018: sie.ac.uk/parliament-hos…

Received a highly commended award for SIE’s Fresh Idea Competition in November 2018 for my SPECTRUM startup submission of an app to bridge the divide between the autistic community and neurotypical population by inspiring inclusive mindsets that 'WeAreAllOnTheSPECTRUM'. Completed the Exploration Day in February 2019 which focused on communicating our ideas and pitching skills.

Chosen for this highly competitive award from the Roberson Trust where I was awarded funds of up to £4000 to undertake a project that would fulfill my academic potential and make a real difference to a community. This award was merged with my BDes Self-Initiated project 'SPECTRUM' in 2017 which aimed to establish an empathetic approach to Autism through encouraging positive conversations between the autistic community and neurotypical population effectively.

As part of my Saltire Programmes Internship, this extra-curricular CMI Level 5 Award in Professional Consulting within Challenges Worldwide’s ‘Institute of Consulting’ demonstrates my professional understanding of consulting capabilities within (Unit 5030) ’Planning and managing consultancy interventions’ during my role as Macallan Expansion Project Assistant at Edrington.

Selected to represent the Saltire Programmes initiative at my university between 2016/17. I also have designed the Saltire Foundation/Programmes Internship promotional flyers & posters since 2016. Notably, I exclusively designed the promotional material for the internship programme’s 10th anniversary in 2017 which seen over 1200 students across every university in Scotland apply.

Proud to be the first ever designer at The Glasgow School of Art to successfully become a Saltire Programmes Scholar after undertaking an 8-week internship with Edrington’s Macallan Expansion project where I worked under the Project Manager towards the Visitor Experience delivery of the new £140million Macallan distillery investment.

Proud recipient of The Robertson Trust’s Scholarship bursary in recognition of academic potential. As a Robertson Scholar, I undertook Outward Bound residential courses, a voluntary Community Placement, as well as their 'Journey to Success’ self-awareness training and mentoring programme throughout my 4-year undergraduate degree to maximise my potential at university.