IDSA International Design Conference and Education Symposium
Benjamin Bush, IDSA
Assistant Professor, Auburn University
Assistant Professor Benjamin Bush is a designer, mentor, and educator hailing from the woodlands of eastern Alabama. He believes in hard work, nontraditional learning environments, instilling fun into all walks of life, and building a studio culture that champions teamwork and authenticity.
He teaches sophomore and senior students at Auburn University through their design studios, foundational studies, digital prototyping, and portfolio classes. Benjamin also leads study abroad programs to Ireland and the UK and volunteers with the outdoor design conference known as SHiFT. You can follow Benjamin on Instagram at @publik_school.
International Collaborative Design Sprint
Education Symposium
World Café
Sept 14, 2022
Foyer - Table 2
8:30 AM - 9:15 AM
Each spring, American industrial design students team up with Irish industrial design students to complete a 24-hour design sprint. This year, the leading professors pivoted the project away from traditional product outcomes and challenged the students to forecast a future that included physical interaction points where the city and campus could better interact and grow together.
The professors agreed that this type of project surpassed the current skill sets of the young design students and elected to provide three frameworks to increase the chances of receiving strong deliverables. These frameworks are assigning local leadership, providing lectures from subject matter experts, and requiring the identification of three stakeholders.
This paper includes a case study following two groups’ final deliverables. It also questions how projects of this nature might strengthen the students' design outcomes in the short term and expand their appreciation of applied design research in the long term.