SKIN OPTIMIZING REDESIGN PROJECT

Course Description

"How do we design real products for real companies, benefiting customers, the companies themselves, and the rest of the world? And how do we know they are better? This studio course provides tools for sustainable design innovation and metrics to measure success. Students use creative and analytical skills, generating new ideas and 3D CAD renderings and evaluating designs with screening-level life-cycle assessments and two eco-labeling systems (Cradle to Cradle and EPEAT). Green innovation tools taught include systems thinking, energy effectiveness, lightweighting, design for lifetime (repair, recycling, etc.), material choice, biomimicry, and persuasive design. Some assignments are individual and theoretical, but the bulk of the course is spent working in groups, using tools such as message boards and screen-sharing video chats."

-MCAD Course Description

Project Description

The final project in Collaborative Product Design paired each team to a company to redesign their product using a combination of strategies that included LCA (lifecycle analysis) and Epeat. My team's project consisted of redesigning the Skin Optimizing Platform for the engineering consultant group Newton. We presented the final presentation of our top ideas for the redesign of the Skin Optimizing Platform to the company.