Selected Teaching

DESIGN 6152: Design and Making Across Disciplines II

Spring 2025| Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2-4:30pm

Studio Coordinator: Prof. and Chair Jenny E. Sabin
Studio Instructors: Design Tech Innovation Fellow Marirena Kladeftira, Instructor Lawson Spencer, Visiting Lecturer Laura Gonzalez

This studio is part 2 of an introduction to fundamental concepts in Design Technology. Studio work includes exposure to different theories, research, and practices of emerging technologies, generative design, digital fabrication, computational design, new materials, bio-inspired design, and adaptive vs. responsive materials.

By the end of this studio, students on the pre-thesis track should master research methods essential for rigorous academic inquiry. This includes understanding the state of the art with comprehensive review and synthesis of existing knowledge relevant to their topic of interest.

On the studio professional track, students should be able to identify user needs, market gaps, understand stages of product development, conduct and integrate user studies, as well as how to effectively and clearly pitch and brand their project/product.

Student work featured from Fall '24:
Upper Left: "Resilient Adaptive Network: A Bio-Inspired Pneumatic System" by Vita Amalia Sipayung, Xiaoman Yang, Zijie Zhou
Upper Right: "Light and Motion" by Anxin Lian, Bo Li
Bottom: "Resilient Tensegrity Structure" by Mercy Akande, Weiching Chen

DESIGN 6197/4197: Special Topics Anthropocentric Models of Making With Cooperative Robots

Spring 2025 | Fridays, 11:15am-1:45pm

Instructor: Marirena Kladeftira (Design Tech)

This course is founded on the critical premise that acts of design and making are intrinsically connected to
socio-environmental parameters and mandates. in response to growing skepticism around automation in design-related
disciplines it speculates on new models of sustainable making in the Anthropocene with a humanistic approach: crafting
responsible and inclusive collaboration between human and robotic agencies. Students are invited to challenge current
perspectives in digital fabrication by investigating individual and collective agency in hybrid teams of making that prioritize
flexibility, adaptability, and vocational fulfillment. Instead of automating all parts of the making process, we will examine how
robotic systems can complement human action and restore agency to craftspeople and makers. Collaborative non-linear
fabrication processes allow the human to intervene and respond on-the-fly to errors and uncertainties during the making process
in consideration to geometric, material, and environmental challenges respecting the nuances of traditional craftsmanship.

This seminar will take a deep dive into technical and conceptual aspects, building a knowledge base on human-robot
collaboration and the role of technology in democratizing acts of making. Through a combination of tutorials and hands-on
experimentation students will be introduced to the fundamentals of robotics, assembly routines, how to work with multi-robotic
cooperative systems, and the computational framework compas. Complemented by a series of invited talks, workshops, and
readings students will have the opportunity to reflect upon current perspectives of human-robot collaboration in design and
making practices. Participants will be tasked to conceptualize and implement a collaborative human-robot fabrication process,
as well as write a short essay on a forward-looking vision -”manifesto” on how they envision human cooperation with machines
in the digital era challenging the current status quo.