How ‘How Stuff is Made’ is Made

Title: How ‘How Stuff is Made’ is Made / WritingintheInformationAge
Course number: E90. 1952 – Adv Proj Ditigal Art I / meet with E90.2952 001
Professor: Natalie Jeremijenko
Distinguished Visiting Course Advisor: Colin Beavan aka Noimapactman

Time: Thursday, 08:55AM – 02:15PM
Place: BARN 402

Example Curriculum:
Current classes working on HSIM Madrid:[how architecture is made] London: New York:

Course Structure:
HowStuffisMade is a 6 – 8 week course introducing college level engineering and design students to the social and political constraints, organizational innovations and global context that inform manufacturing decisions. This course complements introductory engineering and design curricula by providing a dynamic, flexible platform for case-study based content and student-led industry investigations not otherwise included in current engineering and design programs. HSIM modules are applied to / taught within existing semester long classes. Class time is divided between weekly studios and lectures/seminars covering assigned reading (manufacturing site-visits are conducted outside of scheduled class-time).

In Spring 2006, HowStuffisMade will begin distributing a course module to university programs in the San Diego region. National distribution will begin in the Fall of 2006. During the project’s first 5 years HSIM staff will conduct site visits and professional development seminars with selected faculty and administrators from city, state and private institutions. Following this period exemplary faculty will be designated as local area representatives for continuing program distribution and professional development subject to oversight and assessment by HSIM staff members.

Core Content Areas:
HSIM is producing course content in the form of two parallel readers (one for faculty and one for students) addressing core topics. As a nationally and internationally distributed program, HSIM is designed to accommodate core content areas and additional areas of faculty expertise, student interest and geographic relevance: each course will develop as a record of student and faculty investigations and local industry resources. Following review and assessment, materials assembled and produced for each course (additional readings, topics, industry contacts and information) will be publicly compiled and organized on the HSIM on-line site and made available for use by future HSIM faculty and students.
HSIM courses address contextual information via lectures, seminars and readings and guide student-led manufacturing investigations via standards of evidence and faculty/industry feedback. Core areas, addressed in seminars, lectures and readings will include the following:
1. Introduction to Industrial Engineering
2. Introduction to International Labor Economics and Policy
3. Path Dependent vs. Discontinuous models of Design Innovation
4. Introduction to Industrial Ecology
5. Commons-based & open-source information production
6. The Politics of Information
HSIM is currently creating a series of lectures/seminars and bibliographies for each of these areas.

Procedures:
Students begin by selecting a product and dissecting it to determine its component parts. Industry contact, site visits and documentation proceed through the 6-8 period during weekly studio crits. To ‘hand-in’ or publicly publish the encyclopedia entry students email the designer and manufacturers identified (ccing faculty) inviting them to improve the entry and instructing them on how to enter corrections/updates. All students have the option to remain on an auto-alert list that notifies them of any edits made to their entries. The decision to adopt edits remains at the discretion of the students and advising project faculty edits are accepted only after meeting standards of evidence and verification.

Assessments & Evaluations:
Student assessments, based on the quality of their entries, are conducted by faculty. General program assessments will be conducted by HSIM staff. Site and user interface functionality reviews will assess data including results from student, faculty and industry interviews, site traffic rates and content editing frequency.

Related events:
Design Heroix Grand Rounds monthly lecture series

Focus the Nation teach-in

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