Design Lab Launches City-Wide Civic Design Challenge

Calling all entrepreneurs, designers, engineers and problem solvers!

Register for the Kickoff and Information Session on Sept 21
Register for the 2017 D4SD Civic Design Challenge on Sept 22-23

In a combined effort to solve complex city problems through human-centered design and crowdsourcing, the University of California San Diego Design Lab has launched a city-wide civic design challenge called Design for San Diego (D4SD) with support from the City of San Diego, SCALE SD, the Design Forward Alliance, and the National Science Foundation.

Michèle Morris, Associate Director of The Design Lab and Design Forward founder stated that “The Design Lab is committed to applying human-centered design in real world contexts and integrating our efforts with existing civic and community initiatives in San Diego and beyond. D4SD is a fantastic platform on which to demonstrate design’s essential place in the innovation ecosystem and the value it can bring to complex sociotechnical issues like mobility. We are thrilled to be working with our regional and national partners on this initiative.”

This year’s D4SD challenge focuses on urban mobility. We all have places to go and people to see. So whether you’re traveling by car, bike, train, bus, boat or foot for work or play, mobility significantly affects millions of city goers everyday. Join D4SD for an unique opportunity to compete and collaborate with other city innovators to help solve the most pressing mobility-related issues facing our city. Participants will have opportunities to work and learn from UC San Diego Design Lab educators and the City of San Diego data science team to use their Open Data portal (data.sandiego.gov). The best solutions will earn cash prizes and private one-on-one meetings with city leaders and startup investors.

Steven Dow, assistant professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego who is directing D4SD as part of the Qualcomm Institute-based Design Lab, said “D4SD presents a unique educational opportunity, both for university students and for the city’s residents – to gain hands-on experience with real-world issues and participate in San Diego’s innovation community.”

“A class that Dow taught at UC San Diego in the Spring quarter of 2017 helped identify the challenge topics, with students surveying San Diegans, attending meetups with city and community leaders, and conducting targeted interviews. Dow will also teach a Civic Design class this Fall, along with Postdoctoral Fellow Narges Mahyar and Research Scientist Colleen Emmenegger. These students will take part in the challenge alongside the public signing up through the website. Mahyar said, “The course really seeks to blur the boundary between university students, residents, civic leaders, professional designers, and entrepreneurs.”

On September 21, join Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and design icon and Design Lab Director and founder Don Norman for the kick-off and hackathon hosted by SCALE SD, the city’s newest smart-city accelerator, at Downtown Works.

On September 22-23, join other innovators to participate in design sprints, find teammates, build prototypes and win prizes. The final deadline for the challenge is Oct 24.

The official schedule for the D4SD Challenge is:

Thursday, September 21, 2017: 10am – 1pm
Kick-Off & Information Session
Introduction by Mayor Faulconer, Chancellor Khosla & Don Norman
Friday, September 22, 2017: 5:30pm – all night
D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 1
Learn about the challenges, brainstorm, form teams & build prototypes
Saturday, September 23, 2017: all day – 9pm
D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 2
Present prototypes, win prizes & party

Learn more at D4SD.org.

Calling all entrepreneurs, designers, engineers and problem solvers!

Register for the Kickoff and Information Session on Sept 21
Register for the 2017 D4SD Civic Design Challenge on Sept 22-23

On September 22-23, join other innovators to participate in design sprints, find teammates, build prototypes and win prizes. The final deadline for the challenge is Oct 24.

The official schedule for the D4SD Challenge is:

Thursday, September 21, 2017: 10am – 1pm
Kick-Off & Information Session
Introduction by Mayor Faulconer, Chancellor Khosla & Don Norman
Friday, September 22, 2017: 5:30pm – all night
D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 1
Learn about the challenges, brainstorm, form teams & build prototypes
Saturday, September 23, 2017: all day – 9pm
D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 2
Present prototypes, win prizes & party

Learn more at D4SD.org.

Calling all entrepreneurs, designers, engineers and problem solvers!

Register for the Kickoff and Information Session on Sept 21
Register for the 2017 D4SD Civic Design Challenge on Sept 22-23

On September 22-23, join other innovators to participate in design sprints, find teammates, build prototypes and win prizes. The final deadline for the challenge is Oct 24.

The official schedule for the D4SD Challenge is:

Thursday, September 21, 2017: 10am – 1pm
Kick-Off & Information Session
Introduction by Mayor Faulconer, Chancellor Khosla & Don Norman
Friday, September 22, 2017: 5:30pm – all night
D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 1
Learn about the challenges, brainstorm, form teams & build prototypes
Saturday, September 23, 2017: all day – 9pm
D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 2
Present prototypes, win prizes & party

Learn more at D4SD.org.

Software Developers and Designers Risk Over-Automating Enterprises

Don Norman of Cognitive Science and the Design Lab argues for human-technology teamwork among designers in…

Design Lab Uc San Diego Don Norman Creative Education

Rethinking Design Education

Don Norman, Design Lab Director

The Challenge

The requirements of the 21st century are quite different than those of earlier years. New needs continually arise, along with new tools, technologies, and materials. Designers are starting to address some of the major societal issues facing the planet. Does design education prepare them to work with and lead the multidisciplinary teams required to work on these complex sociotechnical systems?

The Origins

We are embarking on a serious effort to rethink design education for the 21st century. We started with the multiple thoughtful articles in two special issues of the journal She Ji on design education (download from our website). This inspired us to assemble a team of senior designers from academia and business to serve as a steering committee to start a large effort to rethink design education.

Earth2 Project Challenges Vaccines, 10 to 100, Ten Days to Vaccinate Everyone

"In collaboration with the University of New Mexico, the Earth2 project is helping to present a 10 day series of seminars on Vaccines and Vaccine Hesitancy, covering topics that range from vaccine-myths to Native American implications and special aspects having to do with other minority and LGBTQ communities, to hearing trusted voices." - David Brin, Author, Futurist, Public Speaker

"Solving the most complex societal programs involves a whole community approach. That's why I'm so excited about the Earth 2 Challenge to reach 100% vaccination which will make our society healthier and safer. But to succeed, we need everyone to participate." - Mai Nguyen, Design Lab Director, UC San Diego

How They Got There: Janet Johnson

Graduate student Janet Johnson is currently working towards her doctorate degree in Computer Science, while also conducting HCI research in the UCSD Design Lab, primarily focusing on XR (extended reality).

So, what is Johnson’s research? Johnson conducts HCI research, primarily focusing on XR. As Johnson describes it, “XR is an umbrella term for augmented reality, augmented virtuality, mixed reality, and virtual reality.” She says to think of it as a spectrum where one end is the real world alone, the other is complete virtual reality, and everything in between is varying mixes of the two. Johnson’s research primarily focuses on this mixed middle ground. “The majority of my research focuses on how we can use mixed reality or extended reality to help a novice…get help from an expert.” She then poses the example of both surgery and CPR. Johnson’s research explores ways for an expert to provide instructions to the novice as if though they were in the same room. Her goal is to help bridge the distance between novices and experts, both physically and skill wise, while also decreasing the amount of time a person receives aid. “By the time a medical personnel arrives at the scene, it’s already been 7 to 10 minutes, so each minute counts for the person’s life,” she explains. “You don’t have time in that 10 minutes to train the people around to be able to do CPR or any other sort of resuscitation, same with surgery.”

As Johnson continues to conduct her research in this field, she’s excited for what the future holds for this technology and the ways she can contribute to it.