{"65774":{"#nid":"65774","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Seniors Team Up on Social and Business Challenges","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThis spring, students in Georgia Tech\u2019s interdisciplinary design studio invented new products and processes for clients ranging from a multinational airline to a nonprofit promoting economic development in Africa. The project teams will join 35 others to compete in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/calendar\/event.html?nid=65356\u0022\u003ESenior Capstone Design Expo\u003C\/a\u003E on Thursday, April 28, at 6:00 pm, in Tech\u2019s Marcus Nanotechnology Building.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nStudents in mechanical engineering, environmental engineering and industrial design, were grouped into small, interdisciplinary project teams. They worked with actual project coordinators from sponsor organizations to design\u003Cstrong\u003E,\u003C\/strong\u003E test, prototype and evaluate their inventions. Projects included: \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003ESports clubhouses and community centers fabricated from shipping containers for rural South African communities with S20 Design and the South African Olympic Committee\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA sleek, modular shelving unit made of lightweight yet durable material for compact furniture company Stoe Living\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA mobile kiln that converts biomass into charcoal, eliminating harmful kitchen smoke and reducing deforestation for ACREST: African Centre for Renewable Energy \u0026amp; Sustainable Technology in Cameroon\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA manufacturing process for biomass briquettes (made of plantain leaves and rice husks) for rural Nicaraguan communities that burns five times more efficiently than wood for Amigos for Christ, an NGO founded by Georgia Tech alumnus John Bland (MgtSci 1983)\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAn active lifestyle baby stroller that morphs between jogging and carriage modes for Orbit Baby\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA study of food and beverage service carts for Delta\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ESmart beverage coolers designed for the front end of big box retailers for Coca-Cola\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETech professors Jon Colton, Jim Budd and Wayne Li co-teach the studio, which aims to teach students the \u003Cem\u003Eart and science\u003C\/em\u003E of design. The studio balances the core undergraduate instruction of innovation, a topic of rising importance, with a multi-disciplinary problem-based approach to engineering with human values, social entrepreneurship and global well being.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe studio is patterned after multi-disciplinary design consultancies like IDEO and Design Edge that work in small teams of engineers, designers and social scientists,\u201d said Li, Oliver Professor of Practice of Design and Engineering. \u201cThe benefit that comes from diversity of thought is that, when you collaborate, the ideas get richer.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor some students, this was their first experience with the studio model of education. \u201cIt\u2019s important to have a studio so the students have a place to \u0027live,\u0027 where their project exists,\u201d said Colton, Professor of Mechanical Engineering. \u201cIt\u2019s also important to have the students co-located so they can work with each other, see what the others are doing, ask questions and get inspiration.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn most cases the projects will be refined by sponsor organizations. For the humanitarian projects, sponsors may seek donors to invest in the ideas or advocate market adoption. \u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents walk away with a full report that they can showcase in job interviews, setting them apart from graduates of other engineering or design programs.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEngineering and design schools combine strengths to innovate for real clients.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27213","created_gmt":"2011-04-26 07:46:18","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:38","author":"Teri Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-04-26T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-04-26T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"65776":{"id":"65776","type":"image","title":"Clubhouses in rural Africa","body":null,"created":"1449176884","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:08:04","changed":"1475894582","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:02","alt":"Clubhouses in rural Africa","file":{"fid":"192400","name":"S20.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/S20_1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/S20_1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":737955,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/S20_1.jpg?itok=UVyu_1wj"}},"65775":{"id":"65775","type":"image","title":"Biomass Briquettes","body":null,"created":"1449176884","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:08:04","changed":"1475894582","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:02","alt":"Biomass Briquettes","file":{"fid":"192399","name":"Picture_10.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Picture_10_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Picture_10_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":506147,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Picture_10_0.png?itok=CL2HUjYa"}}},"media_ids":["65776","65775"],"groups":[{"id":"1221","name":"College of Design"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8039","name":"Humanitarian"},{"id":"12934","name":"interdisciplinary design"},{"id":"10639","name":"Jim Budd"},{"id":"12935","name":"jonathan colton"},{"id":"541","name":"Mechanical Engineering"},{"id":"9164","name":"wayne li"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETeri Nagel, Georgia Tech College of Architecture\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-385-2156\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}