Research + Innovation

Jan 7, 2022

From A-to-Z: Lesley-Ann Noel and Decolonizing Design

Assistant Professor of Art + Design Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel aims to bring underrepresented voices into everyday design education through social innovation, inclusive community-led research and public health solutions. By creating tools such as the Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the “Who Am I” Positionality Wheel, she is making conversations around race and bias more common in classrooms and workplaces.

Prasad Joshi Portrait over blueprint graphics

Dec 20, 2021

Learning Beyond the Classroom: An Alumnus Celebrates a Patent Award Milestone

Prasad Joshi is a 2018 graduate from the Master of Industrial Design program at the College of Design, and was recently awarded a patent along with fellow student Charity Kirk for their work on a bassinet design. He shared his experiences with applying an interdisciplinary approach to a new design, the importance of collaboration and how a student project became a patented product.

Dec 16, 2021

Dr. Traci Rose Rider releases new book on health-focused building standards

Traci Rose Rider, assistant professor of architecture and member of the Doctor of Design and PhD faculty, has recently released a new book titled "Building for Well-Being: Exploring Health-Focused Rating Systems for Design and Construction Professionals" with co-author Margaret van Bakergem.

Oct 25, 2021

Big Data, Big Design: Why Designers Should Care about A.I.

Professor of Graphic Design Helen Armstrong has a new book about artificial intelligence and machine learning, all through the lens of a designer.

Oct 21, 2021

MLA Students Participate in Green New Deal Superstudio

Three projects from NC State students in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning were featured as part of the Green New Deal Superstudio. The Green New Deal Superstudio is a national conversation to translate the framework of the Green New Deal into actual projects by landscape architecture programs in higher education, as well as professional practices and individuals in those fields.

Sep 15, 2021

What if 40% of the Triangle’s food came from regional NC sources by the year 2040?

Design Alum Erin White [M.Arch. ‘11] talks about Community Food Lab, food insecurity and his experience working to design vibrant and resilient food systems. His work with Project 40 in the NC State Institute for Emerging Issues blog, answering the question of “What if 40% of the Triangle’s food came from regional NC sources by the year 2040?”

LAS Graphic Design Story Helen Armstrong

Sep 9, 2021

Using Design Thinking to Investigate the Potential of Knowledge Graphs

In the midst of the pandemic, The NC State Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS) partnered with our master’s students in the NCSU College of Design’s Graphic Design Department to tackle the potential for a knowledge graph to support the work of intelligence analysts.

Sep 2, 2021

Exploring Nature as a Resource in Virtual Reality

GGRAPH 2021 Groovy Graphics Assignment, “Photogrammetry for a Virtual Reality Nature Scene.” As part of their on-demand talk, the two discussed capturing nature using photogrammetry and building a virtual reality nature scene.

Arena, grandstand, and racetrack, North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh. Drawing by Matthew Nowicki, from the Special Collections Research Center, NC State University; Racetrack and observation building, North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh. Drawing by Matthew Nowicki, from the Special Collections Research Center, NC State University.

Aug 17, 2021

Exploring the Incomplete: Built/Unbuilt issue of Southern Cultures

Burak Erdim served as the guest editor of the summer 2021 issue of Southern Cultures, Built/Unbuilt. Erdim, a native of Izmir, Turkey who grew up in Oxford, Mississippi, has always been fascinated by the definitions of the American South, and explores the concept throughout his scholarly and academic work.

Aug 13, 2021

Design Appoints Kofi Boone as Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor

The College of Design has named Kofi Boone, FASLA, professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning, as the Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor. Boone has been at the College of Design since 2004. His work is in the overlap between landscape architecture and environmental justice with specializations in democratic design, digital media, and interpreting cultural landscapes.

Jul 29, 2021

Designlife Podcast: Jonathan Williams and Designerly Knotting

On this episode of the Designlife Podcast we’re joined by Jonathan Williams, a DDes Student and educator working in New York. Jonathan is currently researching how something as simple as tying a knot can transform how we approach design from an early age.

Jul 12, 2021

DDes Student Designs Learning Assessments for Deaf Children

When user experience designer AJ Polanco decided to advance his career by earning a doctoral degree, his search for the perfect opportunity led him to become part of the first cohort of eight students to enroll in the College of Design’s brand-new Doctor of Design program in 2018.

Jun 23, 2021

NCSU entrepreneurs’ new tech cuts website load times

When Camden asked Ben for help on a web design project–as a junior in high school–a friendship and business partnership formed. The above is the concept behind Padeo, a newly launched startup developed by co-founders Ben Hardison and Camden Conekin [BGD '20], who met each other in high school.

Jun 21, 2021

Can You Teach Design From a Box? Design Lab Thinks So.

The Design Lab plans to offer two Digital Design Camps this summer. One week of Design Foundations for middle school students and one week of Design Explorations for high school students. This program will be an intensive, pre-college experience that introduces students to the fundamentals of design and the process of creating portfolio quality projects in a virtual studio environment.

Jun 17, 2021

Navigating an Unfamiliar Landscape

College of Design faculty faced uncharted terrain - and persevered - when COVID-19 forced them to convert their landscape architecture studio to a hybrid model. A change of scenery was in order when Gene Bressler and Carla Delcambre embarked on their fifth year of teaching an introductory graduate landscape architecture design studio.

May 21, 2021

Whose data is it anyway? Ever had trouble accessing your own medical data?

How can the design of an intelligent interface empower patients to access secure personal data repositories, thus giving patients agency over their own medical data? Over the course of the semester our MGD studio collaborated with a team at IBM Watson Health, led by Debi Ndindjock, to find out.

Department Head Tsailu Liu in the Lampe Drive space under renovation

May 4, 2021

Early Champions for the New Design Center at 111 Lampe Drive

As renovations for the Design Center at 111 Lampe Drive continue to progress, students are preparing to utilize the blank spaces for fall 2021. A key aspect of this renovation is creating collaborative studio spaces that can support the numerous studio partnerships. One of those companies, Eastman, pledged a major gift to become the first partner to name a space in the new facility.

Apr 28, 2021

NC State Holds 2020-21 University Teaching Awards Virtual Ceremony

NC State honored winners of the 2020-21 University Teaching Awards in a virtual ceremony on Apr. 21.

Mar 30, 2021

LAEP Professor Robin Moore Receives Holladay Medal

LAEP Professor and Director of the Natural Learning Initiative, Robin Moore, has received NC State's highest honor for a faculty member.

Feb 22, 2021

Q&A with Burak Erdim on his new book, Landed Internationals

Professor Burak Erdim recently released a new book, Landed Internationals, and discusses it in this Q&A.

Feb 8, 2021

College of Design to Receive Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

The College of Design will receive a $40,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support its work with the Governor Morehead School for the Blind (GMS).

Jan 21, 2021

Closing in on a Doctorate

AJ Polanco is the first person in his cohort to successfully complete the academic requirements of the Doctor of Design (DDes) program.

Art-Design-Excellence-in-Assessment-Honoree

Dec 22, 2020

Masters of Art + Design Program Recognized for Excellence in Assessment

The Masters of Art + Design program has been recognized by the NC State Graduate School as a 2019-2020 Excellence in Assessment Honoree.

The GD303 course brings textbooks to life with its AR technology.

Dec 1, 2020

Deborah Littlejohn wins a 2020 Design Incubation Award

Deborah Littlejohn won a 2020 Design Incubation Award for her work in her GD303 course, which incorporates augmented reality into textbooks.

Nov 21, 2020

Coastal Dynamics Design Lab Continues Community Flood Work with Two New Grants

The Coastal Dynamics Design Lab continues its work throughout the State of North Carolina with two new grants received.

Duke, NC State and Five NC Counties Partner to Fight COVID

Nov 4, 2020

Duke University, NC State College of Design, and five NC counties partner to use behavioral science and design to improve county COVID responses

The Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University has partnered with the NC State College of Design and five North Carolina counties to form a multidisciplinary collaboration aiming to use behavioral science and design to improve county COVID responses.

Sep 22, 2020

New Name, Continued Direction: Landscape Architecture’s Name Change Reflects Continued Work with Communities

“This change better aligns our department with both our curriculum offerings and the work our faculty have been doing, both researched-based and in the community, over the last several years” said Meg Calkins, department head of landscape architecture and environmental planning.

Peatland: Strategies for Restoration, Design, and Planning of North Carolina Peatlands, authored by Madalyn Baldwin (MLA 2019)

Sep 4, 2020

Exploring Coastal Conservation: Students and Faculty Win ASLA Awards to Preserve NC

Three submissions were selected for Honor Awards as part of the 2020 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Professional and Student Awards.

Justin-Johnson-Designlife-Podcast-Portrait

Aug 20, 2020

Designlife Podcast: Justin Johnson

Today we are discussing how gaming, especially in a virtual reality setting, can be applied to treating post traumatic stress disorder. We’re joined by NC State College of Design Assistant Professor and Doctor of Design student practitioner, Justin Johnson. As a combat veteran and lifelong gamer, Justin has been researching how the natural environment can…

Aug 14, 2020

Designlife Podcast: Elen Deming

The Doctor of Design (DDes) was established in 2016, making it one of the newest programs the college has to offer. It is also the only one of its kind in the country that offers a blended online learning model for design research. The Doctor of Design has garnered attention and enrollment from students across…

Disaster Resilient Graduate Certificate Image

Aug 12, 2020

College of Design Develops New Graduate Certificate in Disaster Resilient Policy, Engineering and Design

The certificate will educate the next generation of practitioners and scholars to reduce the rise in disaster losses and assist communities to adapt to a changing climate.

Aug 12, 2020

DDes Student Researching How to Design VR That Heals

Justin Johnson is researching how VR can be used to treat PTSD and promote cognitive restoration.

Jul 21, 2020

Designlife Podcast: Anne Spafford

If you’re spending a lot more time at home and not in the office lately, there’s a chance you have become much more aware of how you value the outdoors. You might be spending more time on your local greenway, sprucing up the garden in your back yard, or just taking a few minutes away…

Jul 17, 2020

From Architecture to Augmented Reality

A lack of access to information, language barriers, excessive time costs and a poor implementation of two-way communication methods are just a few of the reasons why residents across the country don’t speak up during public municipal government hearings. These reasons not only affect how communities develop and are granted resources, but they also have a direct correlation to the health and well-being of certain neighborhoods.

Jul 13, 2020

DDes Student Puts Research into Practice as Town Manager

As a student practitioner in the DDes program, Moore gets to explore ways in which the town has the capacity and the capability to change as new residents and new economic decisions come into play.

Coastal Dynamics Design Lab winning submission

Jul 8, 2020

Coastal Dynamic Design Lab Wins Top Honor from NCASLA

The College of Design's Coastal Dynamics Design Lab won the NCASLA 2020 Award for its Twin Creeks project in the research category.

Above: A new landscaping design series includes this pollinator-friendly border template.

Jul 2, 2020

New Landscaping Design Guide Features Native Coastal NC Plants

A new set of landscaping design templates is available online from the Coastal Landscapes Initiative. The 10 designs feature plants native to coastal North Carolina and are intended for anyone interested in updating their yard or garden.

student working on Story Go Round project

May 27, 2020

Berreth, Fitzgerald and Polyak to Present at Prestigious SIGGRAPH 2020

It all started with some wooden spools. Brooks Hall was being rewired for internet, and a faculty member stumbled across 20 wooden spools lying in the breezeway between two buildings.

May 15, 2020

New Ph.D. Students Present Their Research Areas

Four Ph.D. students in the College of Design Ph.D. program successfully presented their research interest areas on May 7 to over 50 members of faculty, staff, and students in the College of Design. The presentation of research interest areas is an introductory presentation for first-year students and introduces these individuals to the Ph.D. community. The…

Apr 10, 2020

Lizabeth Wardzinski: The Love for Building with Purpose

Lizabeth Wardzinski, a PhD candidate at the College of Design, has recently been awarded the Dumbarton Oaks Junior Fellowship in Urban Landscape Studies for the 2020-21 academic year. The fellowship program is widely considered a leader in fostering research in the humanities and provides substantial financial and academic resources over the course of nine months so candidates can focus solely on their studies.

Entrance and Basic Needs Hub at Oberlin Road site, as designed by Daniel Garrett.

Jan 14, 2020

Exploring Solutions, By Design

Barrie’s studio class, Affordable and Supportive Housing for NC State, explored possible solutions to student housing insecurity. The concept connected with the results of a 2017 research study by the NC State Food and Housing Security Initiative, co-chaired by psychology professor Mary Haskett and Sarah Wright, TRIO academic coach at the university, which found that almost 10 percent of NC State students had experienced homelessness within a 30-day period.

Jan 4, 2020

What role might machine learning ethically play in retail spaces?

Last spring, grad students in the Master’s in Graphic Design Program at North Carolina State University partnered with an auto parts company to explore this question. The company was particularly concerned with protecting the privacy and agency of their customers.

Kofi Boone and Lee Cherry at the DDes Symposium

Jan 3, 2020

DDes Students Shared Dissertation Work at Second Annual Symposium

Participants in the Doctor of Design (DDes) program shared the outcomes of their research projects at a symposium held in August 2019. The program, now admitting its third cohort, is a hybrid program for seasoned practitioners to further their careers in design. The symposium included a poster session to celebrate the first anniversary of the…

Death Valley Design Build Project by George Elvin

Nov 13, 2019

George Elvin Wants to Evolve Biomimicry

George Elvin recently spoke with Spring Partners Design about resilient architecture. Below is a snippet of the article. Read the full article on Spring Partners Design’s website. The general theme of architect George Elvin’s career is, simply, innovation — innovation in work systems, in design, and in construction. Currently a professor at North Carolina State…

Rendering of student housing options by Tom Barrie

Nov 6, 2019

Partnering to Combat Student Housing Insecurity

November 5, 2019 | Lea Hart In 2017, NC State University psychology professor Mary Haskett published a research study with some unsettling findings: 14 percent of NC State students had experienced food insecurity over the previous 30 days and 10 percent had experienced homelessness or housing insecurity. In the time since, Haskett has been on a mission. Together with…

Carolina Gill and Kelly Umstead, NC State College of Design

Oct 21, 2019

New Grant will Leverage Human Centered Design to Improve Maternal and Infant Outcomes

Professors Carolina Gill and Kelly Umstead from the Industrial Design program at NC State are partnering with Alison Stuebe, MD, MSc from the UNC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kristin Tully, PhD from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and Emily Patterson, PhD of The Ohio State University’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. The team has received a $2.5 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality at the United States Department of Health and Human Services to identify underlying contributors to postnatal morbidity and mortality and co-develop more effective, sustainable, and scalable postnatal care.

Oct 1, 2019

Bag the Pack Project Brings Sustainability to the Wolfpack

Students in the NC State Chile Sustainable Design Study Abroad Program developed "Bag the Pack," a project that creates reusable bags with a Wolfpack flair!

Sep 25, 2019

Architecture Students Win 2019 Studio Prize

Eleven graduate students envisioned micro house villages for homeless and disabled veterans in North Carolina to win the prestigious Studio Prize by ARCHITECT Magazine.

Sep 12, 2019

Doctor of Design Students Explore Success After Failure

The Doctor of Design (DDes) program held its second annual symposium, Success After Failure: Designing Through Challenges, on August 16, 2019.

Aug 14, 2019

Architecture Professor Builds Up Accolades

Patrick Rand won the UNC System’s excellence in teaching award this year; news he received while overseas on his Fulbright.