Our final SMARTSPACK Consortium Meeting! Thanks to all our team (University of Malta, Multi Packaging Limited, Lewis Press Ltd., and iAutomate Ltd.) for their hard work and dedication throughout these three years, it passed by in a blink of an eye and was a wonderful experience full of innovation, thought-provoking meetings, and interesting discussions! We developed a novel product which will disrupt the current market, looking forward to the next steps of our project
An exciting day for SMARTSPACK at University of Malta! We proudly set up the first prototype of our UX design–driven packaging automation line being tested in our labs. This project is lead by Prof. Philip Farrugia, with Alessandra Bianco and Tamasine Camilleri as research support officers.
Special thanks go to Dr Sean Agius, and I-Automate (Malta) ltd. for their dedication and work in the design and production of this proof-of-concept smart manufacturing line. Together with our industrial partners Lewis Press Ltd. and Multi Packaging Limited as technical support has been instrumental throughout this process to bring this project to life!
Well done to the SMARTSPACK team! RSO Alessandra Bianco and PI Philip Farrugia presented at the Science In The City 2025 Festival: Past Forward, which reflects on how history shapes today’s innovations and future challenges
Our novel solutions offer smart packaging opportunities that meets evolving consumer demands for safe, personalised, and high-quality solutions in food and pharmaceutical packaging applications
We are pleased to share that our article, written by Mr. Kurt Zerafa of Lewis Press Ltd., has been published in the Chamber of Engineers’ magazine Engineering Today, Issue 72, pages 32-33.
The article, titled “How High-Quality Packaging Keeps Your Medicine Safe and Effective” details the role that packaging plays throughout the healthcare supply chain, and its importance in delivering safe medication to patients.
The work carried out by Lewis Press Ltd. in the SMARTSPACK project aims to provide innovative and high-quality packaging which meets the strict healthcare regulations whilst exceeding consumer expectations.
Glad to announce that our paper titled “Meeting Multi-User Needs in Early Design Stages: A Data-Driven Conceptual Framework for Smart and Sustainable Packaging” has been published in the MDPI Applied Sciences Journal. This paper, which concerns the development of a novel conceptual design support framework for sustainable smart packaging, is authored by Tamasine Camilleri, Philip Farrugia, Marvin Bugeja, and Paul Refalo. The results presented in this paper stem from an Ph.D. in Engineering carried out at the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, at the University of Malta.
Our RSO Alessandra Bianco presented outstanding work at the 25th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED Conference) 2025 at the University of Texas at Dallas under the inspiring theme “Design is a Team Sport”. Their paper, co-authored with Philip Farrugia and Maresca Attard Pizzuto and titled “Requirements to Balance Risk and Multi-User Experience: The Case of Pharmaceutical Packaging Design”, establishes the requirements needed to balance risk and multi-UX in pharmaceutical packaging design. This work extends on current practices towards more inclusive, innovative and collaborative design practices, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector.
21 June 2025
SMARTSPACK Usability Study Evaluation of SMARTSPACK Packaging Designs
A very big day for the SMARTSPACK team! Our researchers at UoM have conducted a usability study with consumers to test our novel design concepts! The outcomes of this study set the direction for the next steps in the final push towards project completion! We look forward to what the future innovative design brings! We would like to extend a massive thank you to the participants who volunteered for this study, their feedback has been insightful and illuminating.
28 May 2025
University of Malta Research Expo 2025 Technical Presentations and Poster
Our RSOs Alessandra Bianco and Tamasine Camilleri have disseminated insightful outcomes of the project in their presentations!
Alessandra gave a thought-provoking presentation titled “Determining Requirements for a Design Support Framework That Balances Risk Management and Multi-User Experience Within Packaging”, takes the pharmaceutical packaging industry as a case study to identify key requirements for an effective design support framework or tool. The outcomes of this study act as a reference point for assisting packaging design engineers in the pharmaceutical industry.
Tamasine presented a poster titled “A Multi-User Experience Data-Driven Design Support Framework: A Sustainable Smart Take-Away Food Packaging Case Study”, discloses the PRIME framework which employs data-driven approaches, such as the application of topic modelling and text classification. This research focuses on providing a knowledge-graph-based framework applied in the early design stages to capture multi-user requirements.
This wonderful experience gave us the opportunity to share our radical work with leading researcher across multi-disciplinary fields.
12 December 2024
SMARTSPACK Final Year Project Technical Presentation
Research related to the SMARTSPACK project was disseminated in the final year project progress talks organised by the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at UM, held at the University of Malta Valletta campus. The presentation was titled ‘Modular Test jig for Smart Packaging Solutions‘ and delivered by Mark Mifsud.
The SMARTSPACK team met for the last time for 2024! This marks the final meeting before the end of stage 2 of the project. We are looking forward to the upcoming third and final stage of SMARTSPACK, where interesting discussions and exciting advancements will be made! Looking forward to what the next stage has to bring!
25-29 August 2024
ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC-CIE) Washington, D.C., USA
Our paper, “Towards a Multi-User Experience Data-Driven Design Framework for Sustainable Smart Take-Away Food Packaging,” was presented by Tamasine Camilleri. The paper was co-authored with Prof. Ing. Philip Farrugia, Prof. Ing. Paul Refalo and Prof. Ing. Marvin Bugeja.
June 2024
Challenges in Designing Smart and Sustainable Packaging
In the constantly changing landscape of manufacturing and packaging, sustainability has emerged as a pivotal element driving innovation. As of 2021, the EU generated approximate 188.7 kg of packaging waste per person. The incorporation of smart manufacturing in the creation of smart packaging signifies a significant stride towards an environmentally conscious future.
Max Peschel from the Munich University of Applied Sciences met UM’s research team working on the SMARTSPACK project. Our innovative packaging will be tested for usability on a customisable testing jig
10 May 2024
The Importance of Food Grade Paper for Packaging: Ensuring Safety and Quality
In the modern world, where convenience and hygiene are paramount concerns, the packaging of food plays a crucial role. Manufacturing boxes that come into contact with food using food-grade paper demonstrates a commitment to ensuring the safety and quality of packaged food products.
Food packaging not only preserves the freshness and quality of products but also ensures they remain safe for consumption. Among the number of materials available for packaging, food grade paper stands out as a preferred choice, particularly for items that come into direct contact with food.
April – May 2024
Consumers’ Expectations for Sustainable Smart Take-away Food Packaging
RSOII Tamasine Camilleri is conducting a questionnaire on smart sustainable take-away food packaging, to generate knowledge on what consumers require from such a packaging. This will be used throughout the SMARTSPACK project, to facilitate the user-centred design approach to the SMARTSPACK innovative packaging.
03 December 2023
Malta Independent Article – Unpacking the Future: How Smart Manufacturing Power Sustainable Smart Packaging
SMARTSPACK held two usability studies to evaluate several packaging concepts with relevant stakeholders. This provided invaluable insight on their requirements for the SMARTSPACK platform, which will be developed throughout the project. Thanks to all participants for their invaluable insight and time
20 November 2023
THINK Magazine Article – SMARTSPACK and the Circular Economy: Closing the Loop on Packaging Materials
Packaging in the consumer product landscape might seem like gloss and glitter, but it serves an essential function: it presents the product to the consumer and safeguards it from harm. However, packaging is often quickly discarded and raises concerns regarding sustainability. Because of this, in the quest for more sustainable packaging solutions, the principles of circular economy are gaining prominence.
