Design Education Revolution

Don’t miss out on this afternoon panel discussion on the state of design education. Is our current system of design education meeting the needs of todays business, or is it time for a design education revolution as well? Become part of the discussion as design educators and business leaders go head to head to discuss this issue. 

The panelists include…

Katie Wray - Director of Design Strategy at Tellart, a product and service design firm specializing in the development and prototyping of web, mobile, and embedded systems. Katie graduated from the Industrial Design Department at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). While at RISD, Katie spent a year in the European Honors Program in Rome, Italy, where she interned as a market researcher. Her senior thesis work as the student team leader for a medical simulation project with RISD ID and members of the Tellart leadership spawned an interest in medicine, and she has since studied to become a licensed Emergency Medical Technician in RI.  Her interests in service and information design led her to work on two National Science Foundation Research for Undergraduates (NSF RFU) projects: “Pedestrian Emergency Evacuation Simulation,” University of Rhode Island, 2004; and, “Artistic Rendering in Information Visualization,” iMedia and Fraunhofer (Darmstadt, Germany), 2005. Katie’s work has been represented in conferences including the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCSC), and Department of Homeland Security Research and Development (DHS R&D).

Michael Menone - the new Design Director of Evo Design. Michael  graduated from Pratt University in 2003 and has risen through the ranks in  the five years he has been at Evo, Mike has received multiple design awards, Including the prestigious iF product design award he received in 2006 for the Olive Buoy, a product he initially designed as a school project. As Design Director, he oversees all product design from electronics to footwear to toys.

 James Reed - Head of Industrial Design, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. With over 12 years of experience teaching and innovating industrial/interaction design curricula at Syracuse University and MassArt,James has been a practicing designer since 1984. His professional work ranges from architectural furnishings to sporting goods products. He is currently Head of the Industrial Design Program at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Principle of Read Design, a product design studio.

Aiden Petrie - Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer for Ximedica (formerly Item Group), Aidan drives innovation in their core markets of medical device development & consumer healthcare. With a passion for product innovation and the design process, Aidan has spoken at IDSA conferences on the national level, had articles published on design leadership for the Design Management Institute (DMI), spoken on the value of an art education to the Rhode Island Art Education Council and is an adjunct Faculty member to the Graduate Industrial Design program at RISD. Aidan is on the Commercial Advisory Board of MassArt.

Michael DiTullo - is a design geek. While you are out at a bowling night, you can bet he is designing stuff just for fun. Michael is a Design Director at Converse in North Andover Mass where his team works on a wide array of product for the historic brand. Prior to his position at Converse Michael was a designer at Brand Jordan and Nike in Portland, Oregon. Michael started his career at Evo Design, a multidisciplinary design firm, and still frequently collaborates with the team there. In his spare time, Michael is a contributor for core77.com and idsketching.com. His work has been featured in publications internationally and has won numerous design awards. Michael resides in Cambridge with his wife Kristina, who is a visual artist and their dog, Louie, who is spoiled

and

Alan Ruddig - Currently Lecturer and IDSA Student Chapter Faculty Advisor in the Department of Industrial Design in the School of Design College of Imaging Arts & Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY. Alan was formerly the Industrial Design Unit Manager for Eastman Kodak Company and a Senior Industrial Designer David Cooper Associates, Ltd.
 

 Moderated by Richard Watson from Essential.