We reached Continuum at 630pm (slightly behind schedule, in keeping with the IDDS style) and were delighted to find a huge array of food had been prepared for us. We were graciously received by all the Continuum staff and they even had the courtesy of providing name badges for those of us who had forgotten our IDDS versions! Continuum’s President, Gianfranco Zaccai, welcomed us with a short speech in which he stressed the importance of conferences such as IDDS for helping to foster new ideas and new ways of solving real life problems through design innovations. He pointed out that even though it was possible to send a man to the moon–using an almost unlimited amount of time and resources–the task of designing a simple, cheap, effective and implementable technology was in fact far more difficult and required far more innovation.

The participants and the Continuum employees then split into two groups, one of which went on a tour of the building, while the other listened to presentations given by IDDS participants. I was in the first group and we were treated to presentations from Mariela Molina, Bryce Butcher, Suprio Das and Bernard Kiwia. Mariela, of Universidad Rafael Landivar Guatemala and Bryce, of Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA), talked about two very different projects. Mariela told the group of the work she was doing on water purification through solar panels and then Bryce followed this with an interesting presentation on a latrine design project entitled “Eco Loo”. Bryce worked with fellow team members from the California Institute of Technology and her own college to attempt “to provide simple, efficient solutions to the latrine problem in developing countries”. Her team went on a field trip to Guatemala to discover more information and then developed a design that they believe could help to stop the spread of latrine caused disease. To find out more about Bryce’s project check out their website.

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We were really pleased to hear that our friends over at Design Squad were the recipients of a Peabody Award for last year’s season. We had a great time hosting the finale in our studio last Summer. Great job guys!

Here’s the press release.

Also check out this time lapse video of our shop crew deconstructing the enormous grass hill we built in our lobby for the kids to test their designs on.

I spent the earlier part of the week at SCAD at a design charrette we helped them host. Design for the other 90% was the theme. Some 200 or so industrial design students are spending 4 1/2 days working in groups of 5 or 6. The groups were assigned regions and topics – South America, peace and stability for instance. Each day (and most of each night) the groups are getting first hand experience with a phase of our design strategy process – alignment, discovery, analysis and envisioning. Its inspiring to see these talented young designers applying their time and talents to understanding and proposing solutions to some of the worlds real problems.

I’m hoping this experience will inspire them. I think it will. Focusing 4 days on far off lands and how most of the people on this planet live must seem such quite a departure from designing cars of the future and jet skis!

Congrats to the folks at SCAD (and Continuum’s Beth Johnson) for all the work to set this up. But, most of all thanks to the students participating. Perhaps you can see that you can make a difference in this world.

Check out details on the event

http://scadcharrette.net/

PBS’s Design Squad, a reality show that exists to get kids to explore what it’s like to work in all types of engineering and design, was a category on Teen Jeopardy this week. Sadly, it was the last category the kids picked. Let’s change that. Design and engineering are fields to get psyched about – let’s help people understand and embrace their value.

We had fun working with PBS on the finale for Design Squad’s first season. We were reminded of the importance of early engineering and design education.

Check out more information on the Jeopardy episode and National Engineering Week in general. While you’re at it, check out the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair.