RISD

The tech startup culture born in the ’90s has given rise to all kinds of entrepreneurial offshoots, including what rising senior Callie Clayton 17 TX refers to as “citizen science.” As one of this summer’s 10 Maraham STEAM Fellows, Clayton is interning at an innovation hub in Brooklyn: Genspace, one of 30 community bio-labs that have sprung up across the country.

Open to science teachers, businesspeople, journalists and other amateur scientists, Genspace offers affordable access to a lab where people can conduct individual research. Clayton has already met a visiting designer exploring how sound waves affect the growth of Kombucha (fermented tea) and an industrial designer working on biogenetically generated materials for use in home goods, such as lampshades.

“What I’m really interested in is how little government regulation there is around citizen science,” says Clayton. “That allows for a lot of innovation.”

Click to read more…

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island School of Design has one of the best graphic design bachelor’s degree programs in the country, according to College Choice.

College Choice, a website that helps students and their families choose colleges, ranked the top 50 programs, placing RISD 48th.

“The undergraduate program in graphic design at Rhode Island School of Design allows students to fully absorb an informed design process that provides lifelong support as they go on to engage in real-world design opportunities,” the website stated.

Click to read more…

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Most art exhibits tend to go in for things of beauty. But if you’re looking for a show that’s all about pushing the envelope and thinking outside the box, then check out what RISD’s graduating MFA students are up to, in a show at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

That’s not to say this show doesn’t have its share of beautiful objects, it’s just that most have an unexpected twist, if not a touch of the outrageous. Take Jisoo Lee’s metal baseball cap topped with globes of braided metal and delicate silver flowers attached with springs.

Click to read more…

For the first-time ever, Rhode Island School of Design’s Institute for Design + Public Policy will offer a session designed specifically for Rhode Island-based leaders and innovators thanks to a new partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation.

Throughout the five-day institute, running August 4-5 and 10-12 in Providence, participants will build their design capacity through experience-based training grounded in a challenge brief. They will immerse themselves in a collaborative, rigorous studio workshop exploring human-centered design as a tool for addressing complex public policy issues, ultimately building a cross-sector community of practice for design and public policy. Led by expert design instructors from RISD and featuring guest lecturers and critics from across sectors, the studio topic will beCIVILian: Reimagining a More Civic Rhode Island. In the face of issues such as climate change, globalization and terrorism, participants will examine what the notion of “civics” means as both an idea and a community and individual practice in today’s world.

Click to read more…