This spring marked my third anniversary as the Director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego (a blink of an eye!). What I enjoy most about my role is that no two days are the same and that I am surrounded by brilliant and passionate faculty, students, researchers, and designers who are radically changing the world. What brings me joy is being witness to a thriving community in which Design Lab members are constantly reaching new heights. This spring, our faculty were honored with university-wide teaching and research awards, students reached monumental milestones (✅dissertation completed), many colleagues advanced in their careers by receiving tenure and promotions, and stellar students are graduating after being skilled up to design a better world.
We are well into our World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024 designation year, with over 100+ events held, and new cross-border collaborations have taken shape. On tap for the near future is the grand opening of the iconic pavilion located at Plaza de Panama in Balboa Park, a 7-day World Design Experience across locations in San Diego, and the World Design Policy Conference. We are nearly halfway through our celebration of 366 days of design. The grand finale signature event, the Convocation Celebration, will take place at the Design and Innovation Building and Epstein Family Amphitheater at UC San Diego. Come celebrate with us for any or all of these design activities in 2024. There is so much more to come!
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Congratulations to faculty... |
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Steven Dow, who has been promoted to full professor. Steven has been instrumental in the maturation of the Design Lab. Thank you, Professor Dow, for your leadership and dedication to your students, colleagues, and the Lab!
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Haijun Xia for his award of a Hellman Fellowship! The proposal is on building an human-centered interface foundation for effective human-AI collaboration. Check out his lab's website.
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Lilly Irani, the founding faculty director for the new UC San Diego Labor Center. She says, "There’s a lot of legislation coming to California to regulate AI and we want to make sure that workers’ voices are heard.”
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Edward Jay Wang for a research article he co-authored, "Ultra-low-cost mechanical smartphone attachment for no-calibration blood pressure measurement," received 17,967 article downloads in 2023, placing it as one of the Top 100 downloaded overall papers published in Scientific Reports last year.
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Dr. Srishti Palani successfully defended her thesis, "Beyond the Search Bar: Augmenting Discovery, Synthesis & Creativity By Mining Unstructured User-Generated Context." She received her doctorate from the department of cognitive science under Professor Dow.
Dr. Junghwan Park successfully defended his dissertation, "Optimizing Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions: Incorporating Idiographic, Dynamic Predictions to Support Physical Activity." He received his doctorate from the School of Public Health and Human Longevity and was advised by Eric Hekler.
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Graduate student Matin Yarmand, together with Professor Nadir Weibel and co-authors, received an honorable mention for Best Paper at CHI2024 earlier this month. "'I'd be watching him contour till 10 o'clock at night': Understanding Tensions between Teaching Methods and Learning Needs in Healthcare Apprenticeship" was presented at the conference.
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Other research published or presented this quarter includes: |
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A poster by Jessica de Souza et al. under Edward Wang on a smartphone-based tool for self-assessment of breastfeeding-related conditions to support remote postpartum care to new mothers.
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Two papers from the Unbiased Health team (under Nadir Weibel and in conjunction with the University of Washington) as part of a long-term project to identify biases in provider-patient interactions and improve physician training with the goal of elevating quality of care for marginalized groups.
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A paper by Elizaveta Pertseva et al. under Michael Coblenz to help bridge the gap between best practices in software engineering and how scientists use software in their work.
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A poster on a design of a new format for a vortex whistle spirometer (for testing lung capacity) by Ava Fascetti et al. under Ed Wang: their proof of concept can be mailed as a flat piece of paper and assembled, origami-style, by a patient for home use, replacing 3D-printed options and thereby increasing capabilities for screening in communities without easy access to clinics or 3D printers.
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A poster on evaluating video conferencing and desktop virtual platforms for supporting remote education by Matin Yarmand et al. under Nadir Weibel.
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| Congratulations to Michael Meyer, who received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2023.
Michael was the Design Lab’s first faculty hire, and has been an invaluable member ever since, leading our academic offerings as Faculty Director of the Undergraduate Design Minor.
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The inaugural Humanity-Centered Design Summit will take place on November 14 and 15, and will feature the presentation of the Don Norman Design Awards and an afternoon of an "Un-Conference." For more information or to register, please visit the Don Norman Design Awards website.
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| World Design Experience Powered by San Diego Design Week |
Did you miss out on the World Design Festival in Tijuana? Mark your calendars now for World Design Experience, happening in San Diego September 18 - 25! A call for submissions is open now through June 17.
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Design Lab leadership, staff, and students were among the thousands of people who gathered in Tijuana earlier this month for the World Design Festival powered by Tijuana Design Week. Highlights included a talk by Design Lab founder Don Norman, pop-up events at curated spaces around town, and the grand finale: a concert given by the San Diego and Tijuana youth symphonies. Check our Instagram page for more photos and videos.
More World Design Capital events:
- The EXCHANGE Pavilion comes to the Plaza de Panama at Balboa Park July 27
- The World Design Policy Conference will be held November 12 - 13
- The World Design Convocation Celebration will be held at the Design and Innovation Building and Epstein Theater Saturday, November 16
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Stories Unsheltered, our Bay to Park Paseo contribution at UC San Diego Park & Market downtown, has completed project work and installation is underway. The interactive piece, which consists of a mural and statues + voice recordings telling the stories of San Diego’s unhoused population in their own words, has been a joint effort between the lab and Urban Interventions. Read more.
Special thanks to Michèle Morris, Steven Dow, Nivardo Valenzuela, Ampi Averbuj, Christine Brumbach, Jackson Cassidy, Jarenz Castillo, Tienna Chen, Yuancheng Chen, Kristen Ching, Dania Garcia, Winston Jefferies, Naomi Kim, Colby Lee, Sabrina Mao, Matthew Morris, Julian Salud, Armin Suraj, Frances Sy, Thomas Wang, David Wu and Annie Ye.
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Agile Electrification is a Design Lab spinoff project by designers-in-residence Andrew Krause, Chantelle Domingue, James Quazi, and Mark Hansen. The Agile Electrification platform, still under development, is a“playbook” that solar installation contractors can use to help homeowners accurately model their energy use over time in a way that isn't currently being done. The platform helps homeowners and small businesses find a viable path toward a common goal—a great example of human-centered design. Visit agileelectrification.org for more information.
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Nastasha Tan '10 on Design Education
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“Design has a huge role to play in defining how [new] technologies are brought responsibly to market," says Nastasha Tan '10, now Chief Design Officer at Kite. Read her perspective on how we can best educate young designers for roles in today's job market.
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Junior Designer Perspective |
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Sabrina Cheng, a sophomore studying interdisciplinary computing and art + cognitive science with specialization in design interaction, has used the lab's Junior Designer (JD) program to build new skills in unexpected ways. Last year, when there were no immediate opportunities in UI/UX offered to JDs, she said yes to work in marketing and communications. Soon, the project turned into an internship, which turned into a job. "Be open to anything," she advises other students. "Put yourself out there, even if it's scary...It's OK to be uncomfortable, because that's how you learn."
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The Design Lab at UC San Diego is an anchor institution within the San Diego-Tijuana region that pairs design education and research with community needs to create positive and impactful real-world solutions and design-driven innovations.
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