1st Program-Wide Industrial Design Competition

The Industrial Design program completed its first program-wide competition this past Friday in partnership with Floyd Energy Fest. There were 25 teams of three to four Industrial Design students and each group had at least one student from 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years. In this one-and-a-half-week challenge, students had to design and conceive an energy solution, product, or service that promotes both renewable energy and energy conservation.

In recent history, the Industrial Design Program has been recognized for its work in aging in place, interaction design, and healthcare products. Having a design brief focus on energy conservation and renewable energy was a fresh topic for the program to approach as a group. Even though each of the students would be coming to the project with a different perspective and skill set, this was an opportunity to start from the ground level together. As stated by Billy Weitzenfeld, a sponsor from the Floyd Energy Fest, “the solutions to our energy problems happen on a continuum from grassroots movements to big events, like government policy;” so the jury was pleased to see that the students had generated an intriguing variety of proposals.

This past Friday, teams hung their posters and brought their physical models for display in room 300. The jury, provided by Floyd Energy Fest, selected 10 teams to give short verbal presentations. Following these presentations, the jury selected three winners which were awarded cash prizes.

The top ten teams will have their work featured at the 3rd Annual Floyd Energy Fest on July 13, 2019. All of the entries will be on display this week in the Cowgill Lobby.  Please congratulate the winners:

1st Place:  GreenRoom, designed by Kylie Quinn, Cristina Dunning, Elise Holford, and Andrew Gibson

2nd Place:  Hexios, designed by Sarah Tram, Elisabeth Streff, Bradley Turner, Sam Becce

3rd Place:  Lux, design by Seth Brown, LJ Smith, Zach Mortman, and Abby Chidlow

SustainFloyd is a nonprofit organization which focuses on energy, agriculture, society housing, and the sustainability of Floyd itself as a community. The organization puts on Energy Fest in order to raise awareness, education, and participation in topics related to renewable energy, energy conservation, and healthy living.