DIAD Research & Scholarship Impact | 2022-2023

• Design thinking for social impact boot camp for high school students
• Evaluating design justice content in higher education courses
• “The Tocqueville Initiative": Developing an after school program to foster interest and knowledge of local government for children
• “Conditions, attempts + alternatives through collaboration"
• Using AR/VR reconstruction in historic architecture study
• "Unlocking the Golden Handcuffs: a Life Design Toolkit for Young Alumni"
• "Flesh, Fiber, and Information”: Exploring tactile and feminist ways of knowing
• “Siloside Trail Project”: Building a multi-use train with indigenous knowledge
• "Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research on Cultural and Technological Change in the Energy Transition"

• "Hacking the Breast Pump” project
• “Gamification of Spoken Data Collection for Sociolinguistic Research"
• "Sustainable Methods of Design Prototyping”
• “Student Wellness Action Plan (SWAP) Quiz”: Making wellness more personalized and accessible for students
• “The Black Melisma Database”: Understanding and uplifting Black musical voices
• “KnitLab”: Using computer-aided knitting machines for data visualization
• "DartDerm: Virtual Dermatology and Dermpath Education Resource”: Enhancing medical dermatological training for dark skin tones
• “Sound Design and Engineering: an experience in hands-on microphone fabrication and film studies”

Knitting Innovation Together

Molly Morin in The Digital Justice Lab and Department of Film and Media Studies, along with Nikki Stevens and Professor Jacque Wernimont, will use their DIAD grant to help tie the innovative potential of knit textiles (pictured) to their environmental impact and cultural history. Funding will enable the first phase of "KnitLab": a programmable knitting machine that runs on contemporary graphics software; documentation for its future use; and a library of knit textiles from new and traditional fibers. Bringing together engineering, design, information theory, art and history, "KnitLab" will facilitate thinking about information theory, code, and data visualization/visceralization, and offer a material resource for design, studio, and experimental projects.

Sustainable Protyping

MShop Operations Manager and Technical Instructor Lee Schuette (pictured) and Director of Sustainability Rosi Kerr will use their DIAD grant to develop a nine-week engineering sciences co-curricular non-credit course titled Sustainable Methods of Design Prototyping. The course will teach fabrication skills that integrate hand tool use, material properties, process, and sustainable practices, and help students build conceptual skills with a vision for "upcycling" or creative reuse of materials. The project integrates design, technology, craft, engineering, and sustainability in order to expand student's ability to design and build in an environmentally reflexive manner.

Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project

DIAD-sponsored Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project is aimed at inspiring speculative fiction based on Dartmouth research to critically examine changes in society, inspire future design, and also comment on how new technologies might affect the way we live. Speculative fiction envisions possible futures at the intersections of technological and societal trends through a human-centered lens. The project brings together award-winning established and rising-star authors abd luminary Dartmouth professors for a writing retreat followed by production of new works of speculative fiction to be published in the special issue of a high-profile magazine. The events include public talks, substantial engagement of Dartmouth undergraduates, creation of original art, as well as readings and promotional activities to elevate public discourse about the future of design in our society. The Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project is co-led by Associate Professor of Engineering and DIAD Co-Director Sol Diamond, Department of English Lecturer Rebecca Clark, and writer and artist Sharang Biswas '12 Th'13 (pictured).