Mike Dory
Thursdays, 9:30-12 (2/23 - 4/13)

OVERVIEW

Design Expo is an eight-week design challenge — seven weeks during the semester, and one after. Students will work in groups to understand, and then respond to, a brief from Microsoft Research (MSR), and then present their work for feedback and iteration. Each week will also feature guest presenters from the practitioners from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Kickstarter, and more.

This year's theme is "Intentional Design for Positive Cultural Impact in Mixed Reality," and allows for a wide variety of interpretations. Given the scale and range of the topic, it will be critical for students to focus in on a particular community, type of interface, and problem that has impact. Students will form their own small groups of 3-5 people (before applying), and each group will research the challenge, propose possible innovations or solutions, and then iterate those proposals. A successful proposal can be a demo ("We've imagined a new possibility, and this is what it would look like") or a prototype ("We've imagined a new possibility, and we built a small version of it.")

At the end of the workshop, one group will be selected by outside reviewers to travel to Redmond, WA in July to present their proposal at MSR's Faculty Research Summit along with other students from top institutions around the world.

This workshop will run from 9:30-12 for seven sessions, and will meet for one additional session in July, prior to the trip to Microsoft.

COMPENSATION

Design Expo an extra-curricular workshop. As such, accepted groups will be awarded a small research stipend, pending a successful completion of the program.

SPECIFICATIONS

Students will submit their proposals as a group by January 31st at midnight. Selected groups will be notified of their acceptance by February 7th.