Technology Design Foundations (TDF), offered this semester for the first time to an MDes cohort, introduces design and technology frameworks essential to the creation of products, services, and experiences enabled by emerging technologies. TDF is a core class in the required curriculum of all MDes students in their first semester. The course follows a human- centered design process that includes research, concept generation, and prototyping, with an emphasis on iteration and refinement through digital fabrication. A technical semester-long project challenges students to create a product- service system leveraging hardware and digital technologies to address a well-defined need. The course is taught by Vivek Rao and Adam Hutz, and was GSI’d by Rundong Tian.
Check out the five group projects below:
stud.io is a projector that transports the collaborative spirit of art studio into your own home. Working, learning, and existing remotely is hard. stud.io as a concept stems from the motivation to address this problem by introducing tangible interactions into a remote creative workflow.
Glasshouse is a consumer device which augments the act of growing plants indoors with a social interaction through remote lighting changes projected onto the plants. It explores the concept of remote tangibility in a time of togetherness.
Frindle aims to respond to the needs of the elderly body and mind by restoring an ability and the associated confidence that they might have lost in the time of aging. Frindle creates a way for the elderly to experience writing with pen on paper more accessibly.
Mems is a magical experience to relive memories with your loved ones, curating photos and videos into highlight reels which can be transferred to your television with an accompanying wand and cloche. Images are “brought to life” with gesture control technology.
GAZE THROUGH THE SECOND SEX
Gaze Through the Second Sex is a corset consisting of 31 reflective components that flip to reflect the gaze of the audience. It questions the power dynamics between the one who gazes and the one who is being gazed by applying an eye-tracking interface.