My research on Sustainable Design has engaged in a strong collaboration with Autodesk Corporation, in specific with their Sustainability Education Program. I am involved in a series of activities with Adam Menter, Program Manager for Sustainability Education, and Dawn Danby, Senior Manager for Sustainability Design. Specific activities include:
-ECO MATERIALS ADVISER TOOL: This package offers a plug-in for Autodesk Inventor, that allows to calcultate environmental impact of materials, processes and transportation criteria, all in a format of a Life Cycle Analysis. This plug-in has been developed in conjunction with GRANTA Design, in the UK. The database that it includes is one of the most comprehensive libraries on materials and processes. The donation involves 5 licenses, which can be used by students and faculty in the School of Design. This resource is an important curricular component in the Sustainable Product Design course, which is currently being taught with Prof. Lobos and Prof. Babbitt. The version that Autodesk is providing RIT with is a beta version, and the feedback that is provided on the plug-in will be used to refine the program for their commercial release in 2012.
-LECTURES AND TRAINING: Autodesk's Adam Menter and Jamie XXX, Manager for Alias Products, will visit RIT on October 24th. Besides giving a lecture on Autodesk's focus on Sustainability, they will offer feedback to students in the Sustainable Product Design Class. Autodesk has also offered to provide faculty with on-site training on their wide range of products.
-DISSEMINATION OF STUDENT WORK: The projects resulting from the Sustainable Product Design course will be showcased in Autodesk's Sustainability Workshop website, as case studies that illustrate how sustainable eco strategies are applied to design and engineering education. The website can be accessed here: Autodesk Sustainability Workshop
-CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
Prof. Lobos and Adam Menter gave a talk titled "Education and Industry: Working Together to Advance the Practice of Sustainable Design" at the education track of Industrial Designers Society of America International Conference, in New Orleans, LA. September 2011.
Conference information
Talk's video in Sustainability Workshop website
Prof. Lobos, Adam Menter and Dawn Danby will also give a talk titled "Collaborative, cross-disciplinary, project-based courses for Innovation and Sustainable Design" at Autodesk University Conference, Las Vegas, NV. November 2011.
Conference information
