“What could the future of industrial design education look like, not tomorrow—but 25 years, 50 years, or more—from today?” That’s what the organizers of the new IDSA Education Futures—making its debut at the IDSA West District Design Conference (WDDC) 2017—are asking. No idea is too far out there!
“This NEA grant is key to realizing our vision to inspire the next generation of industrial design innovators by engaging with thousands of kids, teens and families.”
—Stewart Reed, chair, ArtCenter Transportation Design Dept.
The US Department of Commerce is awarding $15 million to move ideas to market and promote innovation. Almost three dozen nonprofits, institutions of higher education—such as Pratt Institute in New York City—and entrepreneurship-focused organizations from 19 states will benefit from the Regional Innovation Strategies Program.
University of Oregon (UO) in Portland, site of the IDSA West District Design Conference 2017, has kicked off a new sports product design master’s degreethat's touted as the only graduate program of its kind in the United States. Students learn not only sports product design—but also inclusive design, marketing, branding, human performance, innovation, ecology, materials and manuf
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) has teamed up with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)—site of IDSA’s Midwest District Design Conference 2016—to develop new ways to improve quality of life for the 50-plus population.
Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI is offering a new undergraduate program that draws from the disciplines of art, design, engineering and entrepreneurship. Product Design and Innovation (PD+I) is set to launch in 2017, and will meet the growing design and manufacturing needs of southwest Michigan and the Midwestern United States—a region that WMU touts as “a hotbed of design and manufacturing activity.”
The vice chair of IDSA’s Florida Chapter, Franco Lodato, PhD, IDSA, is marking some milestones in November 2016. He’s taking on a new position in his 30-year career; the design school he's co-launching has been given the green light by the Florida Department of Education to open next year; and Lodato is organizing events to help promote IDSA and industrial design in the state.