Design that Matters:

Global Design Network 2002

 

ThinkCycle and Design that Matters

ThinkCycle is an academic, non-profit initiative engaged in identifying and addressing design challenges related to underserved communities and the environment.  ThinkCycle seeks to create a culture of open-source design innovation, with a collaborative community of individuals and organizations around the world. In spring 2001 an experimental design studio was run at MIT called Design that Matters (DtM01).  The goal of the studio course was for students to solve "real-world" design challenges posed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in underserved communities. Student teams built working prototypes with peer review from domain experts, and documented their evolving design using the ThinkCycle. In July 2001, a workshop was organized at MIT, Development by Design, which brought together academia, industry and NGOs to discuss approaches towards appropriate design of technologies for environment and underserved communities.

Global Design Network in Spring 2002

The DtM design studio and dyd workshop have both emphasized that the critical challenges of sustainable development and the environment must continue to be addressed by meaningful collaboration among various institutions. Faculty and students at several universities around the world have now taken the initiative to develop similar design studios, which are being run in conjunction with the MIT Studio in 2002. Each studio will be run in a unique manner with participation of local organizations and ongoing collaboration among the schools. The following studio courses are part of the Global Design Network:

 

Design that Matters, Cambridge, USA

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lead Contacts: Timothy Prestero and Nitin Sawhney

Website: http://www.thinkcycle.org/dtm

 

Learning from Grassroots Innovators, Bangalore, India

Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology

Indian Institute of Sciences (IISC)

National Innovation Foundation

Lead Contacts: Poonam Kasturi and Umakant Soni

Course abstract (Poonam Kasturi, March 7, PDF file)

Website: http://cpdm.iisc.ernet.in/dtm.htm

 

Collaborative Design Studios, Lisbon, Portugal

GASA-FCT-UNL, New University of Lisbon

IST, Technical University of Lisbon

Lead Contacts: Julia Seixas and Manuel Heitor

Website: http://gasa.dcea.fct.unl.pt/thinkcycle/index2.asp  (Portuguese)

 

Platform for Social Design (PSD), Kharagpur, India

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Lead Contacts: Anupam Basu and Sudeshna Sarkar

Website: http://www.facweb.iitkgp.ernet.in/~design_platform/

 

Social Design Studio, Sao Paulo, Brazil

University of Sao Paulo with network of organizations

Lead Contact: Gilson Schwartz

Announcement: http://www.cidade.usp.br/sds/  (Portuguese)

 

Engineering Design for Development, Nairobi, Kenya

University of Nairobi with Numerical Machining Complex (NMC) Ltd.

Lead Contact: Kamau Gachigi

Course abstract (Kamau Gachigi, April 18, PDF file)

 

Additional collaborative (informal) courses may be run at a number of schools such as INCAE, Costa Rica and IIT, Bombay. Several students at universities have begun to setup independent working groups for designing solutions to challenges on Thinkcycle:

 

The ThinkCycle Initiative at Pittsburgh (March 4, 2002)

University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University

Lead Contact: Mahesh Bandi and Andre J. Lapierre

Group Website: http://wood.chem.pitt.edu/thinkcycle/tcyclepgh.htm

 

Online Links and Resources

 

What Next and Getting Involved?

If you wish to create your own local design initiative and working groups linked with ThinkCycle, please contact us and we should find ways to support your efforts. Contact:

 

Challenges for Design Studios

We encourage all participating universities and organizations to provide well-posed challenges on ThinkCycle for use by all design studios.

 

We expect all design studios to create a website with more details about their ongoing activity. We also expect some shared studio sessions and collaborative efforts among the schools in scouting challenges and developing design solutions.

 

 

Updated: July 23, 2002