Here For Good: Using apps to support Tourette’s syndrome

When we connect the Here for Good mission with our personal knowledge and networks, amazing things become possible.

In late 2018, design lecturer Robyn Latimer provided a real live brief to our Communication Design students. The brief was close to her heart.

She put forward a mission, that if successful, would significantly benefit the not-for-profit Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia. Robyn was uniting her teaching work, alongside her community work and her personal story as a parent.

What she perhaps didn’t realise at the time was that she would also demonstrate the power that we have as educators, and the power of our network, across Australia and New Zealand. Check out the video

The brief is now a real-life project, being implemented across Australia.

Our students Andy Lee and Ruby Trenerry designed TAC’TICS, a scalable and immersive scavenger hunt app to promote awareness and understanding of Tourette syndrome.  Conceived at our Billy Blue College of Design at Torrens University,  TAC’TICS is now taking flight across Australia.

And it’s generating national discussion.

I’m proud as punch that TAC’TICS is making national press coverage this week.  You may have seen this already, on The Examiner, which also made front page in print! Twice on Channel 9 News last night ( Channel 9 – Melbourne News – Chris CrewthertwitterChannel 9 – Melbourne News – School Event). They have also been covered in The Daily Edition, WA Today, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times and The Age.

Remember this… we are allowed to think big, and we should use the power of our international network.

Launched at our 2019 Laureate Australia and New Zealand Leadership Summit in Melbourne, 200 of our top staff tested TAC’TICS in real time and provided feedback to our students.  Along the way, Laureate Australia and New Zealand also donated $12k to the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia.

A project that is fundamentally Here for Good.

I share this story with you because this is the type of outcome we should regularly aspire towards.

Through Torrens University, Think Education and the Media Design School, each of us has an incredible platform to think outside the box, and we all have the opportunity to unite through our purpose of being Here for Good.

Congratulations Robyn. It’s a story that deserves attention and a topic that warrants national discussion, especially because this week is National Tourette Syndrome Awareness Week.

Regards,

Linda Brown
CEO and President of Torrens University Australia