The Aotos EB02 electric bicycle, designed by a team of faculty members and students from the Faculty of Innovation and Design at City University of Macau, has been named a Winner of the 2026 Red Dot Award: Design Concept. The achievement demonstrates how the University's design research can be integrated with industry needs.

The Red Dot Award is one of the most representative international design awards and one of the world's leading and largest design competitions. Its jury and winning works receive broad attention and recognition from the international design community. The award covers areas including product design, brands and communication design, and design concepts. Designed for urban mobility, the Aotos EB02 draws inspiration from off-road styling. The team explored the bicycle's form, power adjustment, and riding interactions, seeking to combine practicality with an intelligent mobility experience.

The award-winning project was developed through an industry–academia–research collaboration between the Faculty of Innovation and Design at City University of Macau and a technology company. Professor You Zhenwei led the project team. Assistant Professors Hu Xin and Li Kerun, together with students Sun Haidong and Zhang Caijin, served as core members of the design team. Through multiple rounds of discussion and refinement, the team addressed product requirements, design proposals, and technical implementation. The final design was developed by combining a human-centred design approach with the company's expertise in product design, technical evaluation, and human–computer interaction.

Focusing on the design of an intelligent electric bicycle, the project aligns particularly with the high-tech industry under Macao's "1+4" strategy for appropriately diversifying the local economy. It also demonstrates how design education can respond to practical industry needs and promote cross-sector collaboration and the translation of ideas into outcomes. By bringing faculty, students, and the company together on a real-world project, the initiative enabled students to engage with the design process from user-needs research and concept development to technical evaluation, strengthening their ability to solve practical problems and collaborate on innovation.

The project team thanks the University and Faculty leadership for their support, which has enabled faculty and students to take part in industry collaboration and international design exchanges. Guided by its vision of "Macao Characteristics, China's Soul, and an International Perspective", City University of Macau is committed to nurturing high-calibre talent with a strong sense of commitment to the nation and Macao, an international outlook, and the ability to innovate and put ideas into practice. Building on this achievement, the Faculty will continue to integrate industry–academia–research projects into teaching and practice, nurturing innovative design talent rooted in Macao and prepared to contribute to the development of the country and the Greater Bay Area, and to the continued development of City University of Macau.

 Winner Representative's Remark 

Sun Haidong

Bachelor of Design Arts, Class of 2023

It is my great honor to stand on the Red Dot Award stage as a student of City University. I would like to thank City University and all faculty members for their dedicated guidance, as well as the AOTOS EB02 project team for giving me this opportunity to participate. This project began as a simple design sketch drawn in a City University classroom. To earn recognition from international judges, our team repeatedly refined and reimagined its core innovations — the A-shaped forward-tilting frame profile, adaptive torque algorithm, and drone-connected ecosystem. Stunning renderings are only the starting point. The true value of this product lies in delivering an excellent all-terrain riding experience, practicing low-carbon mobility, and effectively addressing real-world urban commuting pain points: fatigue on short trips, inefficiency for longer journeys, and traffic congestion. We kept asking ourselves: Is this cross-category electric assist vehicle truly worth users relying on day after day? Refusing to settle for compromise solutions that are "good enough", we kept polishing its form and structure, human-machine interaction, safety performance and battery durability. This is how we earned this recognition from the Red Dot Award. As a soon-to-graduate emerging designer, this honor is not an end, but a brand-new beginning. I will take this achievement as momentum to keep exploring and innovating along the path of product design.