Education Papers

IDSA publishes a selection of peer-reviewed academic education papers each year. These are collected during a community-wide open call period when design educators and practitioners submit materials for review by a group of judges serving on IDSA’s Academic Jury. The program also helps provide content for the annual Education Symposium, where some authors are invited to present their work from the stage to a live audience. To view the full Education Papers jury please visit meet the jury page.

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A Design Letter on Addressing Ableism Internalized, For the Betterment of the Classroom, Studio, and Future Designers
Ableism is deeply ingrained into every part of the world we live in: our physical surroundings, the language we use, and even our culture and shared patterns of thinking. Designers like to think we are above this. We are
Deborah Lalush
An Application to Industrial Design Studio Projects
As robots become more prevalent in homes and public spaces, there is a growing need for their development in industry and inclusion in industrial design curricula. However, teaching robot design poses challenges due to their unique nature of autonomous
Yong-Gyun Ghim
University of Cincinnati
What would happen if a matriarchal design pedagogy was considered, our patriarchal training was unlearned, and we abandoned solutionism for unknowing—replacing human-centered design (aka design for consumption) by genuinely designing for the pluriverse? What would happen if we smashed
Ayako Takase, Heather Snyder Quinn
Rhode Island School of Design, DePaul University
Case Study on a Graduate Industrial Design Studio
It is well-established that professional industrial designers who have designed and launched consumer products must gather and respond to feedback from users to create a design that is well received in the market. Designing in a silo leads to
Kathryn Wozniak
NC State University
The boundary of uncertainty is at the edge of what a learner can do without help. At this boundary, a learner can only succeed by collaborating with someone who has a broader knowledge, experience, or skill set. When someone
Paul Skaggs, David Morgaon
Brigham Young University
Navigating Patent, Business, and Invention Strategy
Patton Design’s 40+ years of success creating inventions that shift the societal paradigm of mechanization and complacency have yielded a unique methodology for combining design exploration with patent creation, the concept of which encapsulates profound opportunities for innovation. The
Doug Patton
Patton Design
Helping Students Get to the Point
When undergraduate industrial design students cannot see a clear path moving forward, they can default to familiar ideas and struggle to look at a situation with new eyes. A short oral narrative is one tool that helps students make
Richard E. Fry
Brigham Young University
A Case Study for Teaching More Sustainably
With issues like climate change, pollution, deforestation, drought, extreme weather patterns, and a world population that is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, there has been a strong push in industrial design education to teach sustainability to the
George K. Chow
University of Houston
This paper discussed how to use co-design approach to cultivate a strategic mindset of designers, which includes analytical thinking, problem-solving, communication skills, and management skills. With these capabilities, designers can respond to the increasing complexity of business and solve
Xue Dong, Carol A. Dimopoulos
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
Multifaceted Experimental Design Research
The global population is ever changing; living longer than ever before, society calls for new and creative tools and services to serve a population of adults living longer – and better – than ever before. Preparedness, including financial preparedness,
Sheng-Hung Lee, Joseph F. Coughlin, Maria C. Yang, Alexa Balmuth, Olivier de Weck, and John Ochsendorf
MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT AgeLab, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering