Think about the act of painting a wall.

What all is involved in planning a painting project.
What are some of the frustrating aspects of painting with a paintbrush?
Identify, document, and research the pain points and develop a statement that defines your project goal.
Think about different materials and processes that you need to research so that you understand how a conventional paintbrush is made.
How can you reimagine this object so that it provides a much better painting experience?

We all love a perfect toast. Why is it so difficult to get one? Can you think of a better way to toast?

Think about the act of making toast.

What all is involved in planning a toast.
What are some of the frustrating aspects of making a toast first thing in the morning?
Identify, document, and research the pain points and develop a statement that defines your project goal.
Think about different materials and processes that you need to research so that you understand how a conventional paintbrush is made.
Do some research on the history of toasters.
How can you reimagine this object so that it provides a perfect toast each time?
We are specifically looking at the Toaster. Not bread, not jam and jelly, redesign the TOASTER.

Clean hands will go a long way, how do we make the experience clean.

Think about the act of making dispensing hand sanitizer in a public space, like restroom, entrance hallway.

What all is involved in using a hand sanitizer station.
What are some of the frustrating aspects of using it?
Identify, document, and research the pain points and develop a statement that defines your project goal.
Think about different materials and processes that you need to research so that you understand how a hand sanitizer station works.
How can you reimagine this object so that it provides a safe, clean experience?
We are specifically looking at the station. Not the liquid, not a new technology, just a better sanitization experience.

A small piece of tape can be so important at the right moment. A dispenser that does not help you get that piece can lead to such a frustrating experience.

Think about the act of dispensing tape while working at your desk.

What all is involved in using the object.
What are some of the frustrating aspects of using it?
Identify, document, and research the pain points and develop a statement that defines your project goal.
Think about different materials and processes that you need to research so that you understand how a tape dispenser works.
How can you reimagine this object or make it better? Better in what sense?
We are specifically looking at the tape dispenser. Not the tape, just a better tape dispenser.

We will revisit all four of the projects that we finished in the first eight weeks of studio.

The studio will be split into teams of four. We will announce the issue that we are going to be looking at, closer to the starting date of the project.

At TROVA Commercial Vehicles, we have access to an extensive network of automotive experts with centuries of combined experience, yet we operate as one unified team to solve some of the most challenging industrialization problems for our customers. Patrick Collignon, was born in Belgium and has been working most of his career in the automotive and commercial vehicle industry for both General Motors and the Volvo Group. From 2012 until 2017, he was COO for Volvo Group Trucks in North and South America covering three Group brands; Volvo, Mack and Renault Trucks. In 2018-19, he headed a strategic initiative for the Volvo Group in North America to bring a medium duty truck platform to the NA market. Mr. Collignon holds several academic degrees from leading Institutes and Universities both in Europe and the United States. Over the years, Mr. Collignon has incubated several companies and held multiple Board positions. In 2007, he was instrumental in making the Volvo plant in Ghent, Belgium the first CO2 neutral automotive plant in the world. He is heavily engaged in economic development and recently founded a new company; Trova Commercial Vehicles, Inc. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Who is Jasmine Orange? “Hi Everyone! My name is Jasmine Orange. I am a UX Designer with a passion for inclusion and innovation based in Atlanta, GA. I currently work as a UX Designer at Ernst & Young on their Global Market team. I am a member of Ladies That UX, UXHelpers, and IxDA. I am also a speaker, giving presentations about accessibility, inclusion, and design thinking. In my free time, I enjoy running, playing video games, rock climbing, reading, and obsessing over K-Pop sensation, BTS.” https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Differently abled children and adults across India, and people with disabilities are the most ignored section of our society today. Fuelled by the desire to reach the unreached, Satya was set up to serve as an integrated centre for disability rehabilitation in Puducherry. Apart from providing free and quality rehabilitation services to the underprivileged, Satya has been working tirelessly toward making children with special needs (CWSN) as self-sufficient as possible in order to alleviate the social stigma that is prevalent among the public at large. All of Satya’s services are free for children from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. About 75% of Satya’s residents come from BPL families. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Michael is an industrial designer at GE Appliances https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

What is the Industrial Design Advisory Board? It is a collection of alumni and friends working together to help shape and support the Virginia Tech Industrial Design program. Through advisement, advancement, and advocacy, IDAB seeks to ensure students are supported and prepared for professional success. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Head of UX Research | Portal from Facebook Leading a strong team of Qualitative, Quantitative, and Human Factors Researchers working across both hardware and software to support the growing Portal Team, within Facebook's AR/VR Organization. Built a lean team from the ground up and helped establish the discipline within our organization through embedded partnership and proven impact. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Directs efforts to connect undergraduate and graduate student success with external organizations and employers and develop new and innovative ways to deliver curriculum across all university units. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Developing a portfolio of digital transformation education products that focus on emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR). Supporting higher education and K-12 educational content in 3D design, augmented reality, and product development for students around the world. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

The primary goal of this design research project is to explore the extent to which we can support remote design critique sessions using collaborative AR. We will address this goal by designing, implementing, and informally evaluating the system described above. An additional goal is to design the system to provide a fluid, lightweight user experience, so that students and instructors can focus on the artifacts that they are designing, rather than focusing on operating the system or its interface. Finally, we have the goal of enabling design students to learn the important skills of building physical mockups and engaging in a critique of those mockups, even when in-person critique sessions are not possible.

As a practice we at sP+a believe that India’s vast breadth of socio-cultural environments require multifarious means of engaging with the country’s varying contexts. Type, Program, Design and Building processes are subservient to the immediacy of each project’s unique frame of reference. The studio’s approach hence is to look to context as a repository of latent resources connecting production process and network’s, appropriating techniques beyond their traditional use while allowing them to evolve and persist not just through preservation but more so through evolution. Our practice questions the nostalgia involved with the static ‘museumification’ of craft and tradition as well as the nature of what today comprises the ‘regional’ in contexts amplified by their place in global and regional networks. This attitude enables the practice to look at traditional project types, projecting their formal / relational history within the paradigms of current socio-economic forces. The studio structure actively engages with research, collaborations and collective models of practice not as isolated individual formats but as symbiotic streams feeding into each other. We advocate this hybrid model as an alternative to the traditional architectural practice, believing that this enables us to respond to the specificity of the local by evolving methodologies of extreme subjectivity https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Project 1 (Week 1 - Week 4) is designed as an Individual project and will be focused on understanding the purposes of design research while also connecting the community- and environment-centered research results in your design decisions.

Project 2 (Week 5 - Week 13) is in collaboration with architecture firm SFCS, Inc., located in Roanoke, and Warm Hearth Village, an assisted living community in Blacksburg. During this Team project, Each student will experience working in a design team and simultaneously collaborating with stakeholders. For both projects, the critique sessions will be held exclusively online, but you will have the option to meet with professors in person in between these critiques during studio time. Time remaining after Thanksgiving will be exclusively online, and teams will focus on the project booklets and portfolio pieces.

Time remaining after Thanksgiving will be exclusively online, and teams will focus on the project booklets and portfolio pieces.

At TROVA Commercial Vehicles, we have access to an extensive network of automotive experts with centuries of combined experience, yet we operate as one unified team to solve some of the most challenging industrialization problems for our customers. Patrick Collignon, was born in Belgium and has been working most of his career in the automotive and commercial vehicle industry for both General Motors and the Volvo Group. From 2012 until 2017, he was COO for Volvo Group Trucks in North and South America covering three Group brands; Volvo, Mack and Renault Trucks. In 2018-19, he headed a strategic initiative for the Volvo Group in North America to bring a medium duty truck platform to the NA market. Mr. Collignon holds several academic degrees from leading Institutes and Universities both in Europe and the United States. Over the years, Mr. Collignon has incubated several companies and held multiple Board positions. In 2007, he was instrumental in making the Volvo plant in Ghent, Belgium the first CO2 neutral automotive plant in the world. He is heavily engaged in economic development and recently founded a new company; Trova Commercial Vehicles, Inc. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Who is Jasmine Orange? “Hi Everyone! My name is Jasmine Orange. I am a UX Designer with a passion for inclusion and innovation based in Atlanta, GA. I currently work as a UX Designer at Ernst & Young on their Global Market team. I am a member of Ladies That UX, UXHelpers, and IxDA. I am also a speaker, giving presentations about accessibility, inclusion, and design thinking. In my free time, I enjoy running, playing video games, rock climbing, reading, and obsessing over K-Pop sensation, BTS.” https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Differently abled children and adults across India, and people with disabilities are the most ignored section of our society today. Fuelled by the desire to reach the unreached, Satya was set up to serve as an integrated centre for disability rehabilitation in Puducherry. Apart from providing free and quality rehabilitation services to the underprivileged, Satya has been working tirelessly toward making children with special needs (CWSN) as self-sufficient as possible in order to alleviate the social stigma that is prevalent among the public at large. All of Satya’s services are free for children from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. About 75% of Satya’s residents come from BPL families. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Michael is an industrial designer at GE Appliances https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

What is the Industrial Design Advisory Board? It is a collection of alumni and friends working together to help shape and support the Virginia Tech Industrial Design program. Through advisement, advancement, and advocacy, IDAB seeks to ensure students are supported and prepared for professional success. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Head of UX Research | Portal from Facebook Leading a strong team of Qualitative, Quantitative, and Human Factors Researchers working across both hardware and software to support the growing Portal Team, within Facebook's AR/VR Organization. Built a lean team from the ground up and helped establish the discipline within our organization through embedded partnership and proven impact. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Directs efforts to connect undergraduate and graduate student success with external organizations and employers and develop new and innovative ways to deliver curriculum across all university units. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Developing a portfolio of digital transformation education products that focus on emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR). Supporting higher education and K-12 educational content in 3D design, augmented reality, and product development for students around the world. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

The primary goal of this design research project is to explore the extent to which we can support remote design critique sessions using collaborative AR. We will address this goal by designing, implementing, and informally evaluating the system described above. An additional goal is to design the system to provide a fluid, lightweight user experience, so that students and instructors can focus on the artifacts that they are designing, rather than focusing on operating the system or its interface. Finally, we have the goal of enabling design students to learn the important skills of building physical mockups and engaging in a critique of those mockups, even when in-person critique sessions are not possible.

As a practice we at sP+a believe that India’s vast breadth of socio-cultural environments require multifarious means of engaging with the country’s varying contexts. Type, Program, Design and Building processes are subservient to the immediacy of each project’s unique frame of reference. The studio’s approach hence is to look to context as a repository of latent resources connecting production process and network’s, appropriating techniques beyond their traditional use while allowing them to evolve and persist not just through preservation but more so through evolution. Our practice questions the nostalgia involved with the static ‘museumification’ of craft and tradition as well as the nature of what today comprises the ‘regional’ in contexts amplified by their place in global and regional networks. This attitude enables the practice to look at traditional project types, projecting their formal / relational history within the paradigms of current socio-economic forces. The studio structure actively engages with research, collaborations and collective models of practice not as isolated individual formats but as symbiotic streams feeding into each other. We advocate this hybrid model as an alternative to the traditional architectural practice, believing that this enables us to respond to the specificity of the local by evolving methodologies of extreme subjectivity https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

At TROVA Commercial Vehicles, we have access to an extensive network of automotive experts with centuries of combined experience, yet we operate as one unified team to solve some of the most challenging industrialization problems for our customers. Patrick Collignon, was born in Belgium and has been working most of his career in the automotive and commercial vehicle industry for both General Motors and the Volvo Group. From 2012 until 2017, he was COO for Volvo Group Trucks in North and South America covering three Group brands; Volvo, Mack and Renault Trucks. In 2018-19, he headed a strategic initiative for the Volvo Group in North America to bring a medium duty truck platform to the NA market. Mr. Collignon holds several academic degrees from leading Institutes and Universities both in Europe and the United States. Over the years, Mr. Collignon has incubated several companies and held multiple Board positions. In 2007, he was instrumental in making the Volvo plant in Ghent, Belgium the first CO2 neutral automotive plant in the world. He is heavily engaged in economic development and recently founded a new company; Trova Commercial Vehicles, Inc. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Who is Jasmine Orange? “Hi Everyone! My name is Jasmine Orange. I am a UX Designer with a passion for inclusion and innovation based in Atlanta, GA. I currently work as a UX Designer at Ernst & Young on their Global Market team. I am a member of Ladies That UX, UXHelpers, and IxDA. I am also a speaker, giving presentations about accessibility, inclusion, and design thinking. In my free time, I enjoy running, playing video games, rock climbing, reading, and obsessing over K-Pop sensation, BTS.” https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Differently abled children and adults across India, and people with disabilities are the most ignored section of our society today. Fuelled by the desire to reach the unreached, Satya was set up to serve as an integrated centre for disability rehabilitation in Puducherry. Apart from providing free and quality rehabilitation services to the underprivileged, Satya has been working tirelessly toward making children with special needs (CWSN) as self-sufficient as possible in order to alleviate the social stigma that is prevalent among the public at large. All of Satya’s services are free for children from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. About 75% of Satya’s residents come from BPL families. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Michael is an industrial designer at GE Appliances https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

What is the Industrial Design Advisory Board? It is a collection of alumni and friends working together to help shape and support the Virginia Tech Industrial Design program. Through advisement, advancement, and advocacy, IDAB seeks to ensure students are supported and prepared for professional success. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Head of UX Research | Portal from Facebook Leading a strong team of Qualitative, Quantitative, and Human Factors Researchers working across both hardware and software to support the growing Portal Team, within Facebook's AR/VR Organization. Built a lean team from the ground up and helped establish the discipline within our organization through embedded partnership and proven impact. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Directs efforts to connect undergraduate and graduate student success with external organizations and employers and develop new and innovative ways to deliver curriculum across all university units. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

Developing a portfolio of digital transformation education products that focus on emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Augmented Reality (AR). Supporting higher education and K-12 educational content in 3D design, augmented reality, and product development for students around the world. https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136

The primary goal of this design research project is to explore the extent to which we can support remote design critique sessions using collaborative AR. We will address this goal by designing, implementing, and informally evaluating the system described above. An additional goal is to design the system to provide a fluid, lightweight user experience, so that students and instructors can focus on the artifacts that they are designing, rather than focusing on operating the system or its interface. Finally, we have the goal of enabling design students to learn the important skills of building physical mockups and engaging in a critique of those mockups, even when in-person critique sessions are not possible.

As a practice we at sP+a believe that India’s vast breadth of socio-cultural environments require multifarious means of engaging with the country’s varying contexts. Type, Program, Design and Building processes are subservient to the immediacy of each project’s unique frame of reference. The studio’s approach hence is to look to context as a repository of latent resources connecting production process and network’s, appropriating techniques beyond their traditional use while allowing them to evolve and persist not just through preservation but more so through evolution. Our practice questions the nostalgia involved with the static ‘museumification’ of craft and tradition as well as the nature of what today comprises the ‘regional’ in contexts amplified by their place in global and regional networks. This attitude enables the practice to look at traditional project types, projecting their formal / relational history within the paradigms of current socio-economic forces. The studio structure actively engages with research, collaborations and collective models of practice not as isolated individual formats but as symbiotic streams feeding into each other. We advocate this hybrid model as an alternative to the traditional architectural practice, believing that this enables us to respond to the specificity of the local by evolving methodologies of extreme subjectivity https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/96346952136