[Air-l] Design in the University: an On-line Conference

[Ken Friedman]

The editors of Design Research News invite you to participate in an 
unusual on-line conference titled "Design in the University." The 
conference will convene on the PhD-Design list to examine the issues, 
challenges, and problems of planning university level design 
education. What makes this conference unusual is the fact that the 
keynote "speakers" will focus on a specific project: the proposal for 
a new school of design at the University of California, Irvine.

In the fall of 2000, the University of California at Irvine 
established a committee to develop a proposal for a new design 
school. Their mandate was to plan a school balancing inquiry into the 
nature of design and the design process with training in professional 
design practice. To write its report and guide the university debate, 
the committee studied today's leading design schools while working 
with a wide range of experts to plan the university-level design 
school of the future.

The committee faced two major challenges. One was economic. The new 
design school would have to contribute to the economic growth and 
prosperity of a complex multi-cultural state positioned at the edge 
of the increasingly important economy of the larger Pacific region.

The second challenge was quality - conceptual, intellectual, and 
professional. The new school must further and advance the work of one 
of the world's great universities, enhancing the university while 
drawing on its resources.

After two years of work studying everything from design programs and 
best practices in curriculum planning to demographic trends and 
professional development, the committee delivered its report. The 
June 2003 issues of Design Research News reviewed the report:

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/design-research.html

The report is available in free .pdf download at

http://www.evc.uci.edu/growth/design/SoD-proposal.pdf

This on-line conference offers you an opportunity to meet the 
committee, to reflect on the questions they asked, and to ask 
questions of your own.

Speakers at the on-line conference will include committee chairman 
professor Richard Taylor of information and computer science, 
professors Kristen Day and Sanjoy Mazumdar of urban and regional 
planning, professor Alladi Venkatesh of management, as well as 
Michael Clark, professor of English and comparative literature and 
associate executive vice chancellor for academic planning.

Respondents include professors Lorraine Justice, head of industrial 
design at Georgia Technical University, Keith Russell of Newcastle 
University in Australia, Charles Burnette of the University of the 
Arts in Philadelphia, Christene Nippert-Eng of Illinois Institute of 
Technology, and David Durling of Staffordshire University.

The conference open on November 10, convened by Ken Friedman of the 
Norwegian School of Management and Denmark's Design School. Following 
a brief introduction, Prof. Taylor will lead off and Prof. Justice 
will respond. This will be followed by two or three brief invited 
comments. The floor will then be open for conversation among the 
speakers. At this point, any conference participant will be free to 
ask questions or to offer comments.

The first session will last for four days. The second session will 
open with Prof. Day, following a similar four-day format. Prof. 
Mazumdar will speak third, followed by Prof. Venkatesh. Vice 
Chancellor Clark will speak last.

This conference offers participants a chance to benefit from the 
three-year process of research and development at the University of 
California, Irvine.

In today's economic climate, few universities - and fewer design 
schools - will have the budgetary resources to build (or rebuild) 
design education on the level of a new purpose-built school. What 
this conference offers to existing schools is an opportunity to learn 
from improvements and changes implemented elsewhere, adapting them to 
local needs and opportunities as they shape programs for the future.

To participate in this conference, please go to URL

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/phd-design.html

Click on the line that reads

Join or leave the list

Follow the on-screen instructions to join.

We hope you will join us in what promises to be an extraordinary 
on-line event with speakers and participants from around the world.

David Durling and Ken Friedman