Collaborative Design Engineering Studio (STU 1231)

This first-year course is yearlong and addresses the theme of "waste." The first semester focuses on concrete skill development, cross-disciplinary collaboration, problem identification, and working at solution scales ranging from individual products to systems. During the second semester, student teams identify a problem that is socially consequential, yet amenable to tractable solutions. As with the food system and health in prior years, waste was chosen as a theme for its systemic breadth and because it embraces both the idiosyncrasies of human behavior and the more predictable constraints and opportunities of engineering logic. Both semesters encourage students to bridge gaps between academic disciplines and the often messy realities faced by practical, real-world stakeholders.

The aim of the course is to promote a design intelligence that engages quantitative and qualitative thinking and incorporates computational, visual, experimental, strategic, and aesthetic methods. The projects in STU 1231 are intended to give each student foundational design engineering skills and to promote a collaborative spirit among a cohort with diverse technical, experiential, and cultural backgrounds.