News and Events

Doctor of Design Program Celebrates its First Graduate: Dr. Juhann Waller

Juhann Waller (DDes Cohort 1) is the first student-practitioner of the program to graduate, and will receive his degree in August 2023. Dr. Waller is the CEO of J.C. Waller Associates, PC, based in Greensboro, NC. His doctoral dissertation is entitled “Resilient Infrastructure: An Integrated Design Approach for the Equitable Distribution of Stormwater Capital Improvements Projects for Pluvial Flood Mitigation.” It models a type of applied design research that can be effected in real time, for real change. 

Preparing the next generation of green professionals with LEED Lab

North Carolina State University (NC State) is preparing the next generation of green building leaders through LEED Lab. This multidisciplinary immersion course uses project-based learning in the built environment to educate and prepare students to become green building leaders and sustainability-focused citizens. 

Students Visualize Structures of Oppression; win NC State Envisioning Research Contest

Students in the College of Design recently took top prizes in the Graphics and Data Visualization and photography categories of the NC State Envisioning Research Contest. Three of the four entries from the college were part of the DIY Cartography: Oppressive Infrastructures class, which explored how we as a society are grappling with how to best serve diverse communities and create more equitable futures for all while visualizing the complex historic context around oppressive infrastructures in the US. 

Ethnographic Fiber Artist Karen Baker on Slow Fashion and Natural Products: How One DDes Student Explores the Lost Histories of Textiles

Karen Baker, current student in the Doctor of Design Program at NC State’s College of Design, is a weaver focused on design, history, and critical studies of textile and fiber in Washington, DC. She is currently researching the textile, fiber and craft contributions and techniques of enslaved and free African American weavers before the Great Migration. 

Student Profile: Iyare Oronsaye Seeks to Improve Diversity in Animation

Iyare Oronsaye is currently the director and assistant professor of the animation and illustration program at the University of Northwestern as well as a student practitioner in the College of Design’s Doctor of Design (DDes) program. As a DDes student, Oronsaye is researching how inclusivity can make positive impacts within the animation industry. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Room to Lead

Steven Chavez is a student practitioner in the Doctor of Design program at the College of Design. He is the founder of NAMLA, the National Association of Minority Landscape Architects. Read his recent interview with Landscape Architecture Magazine. 

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. 

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 be… 

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…