By Sissi De Flaviis
The School of Industrial Design hosted their 42nd Annual Graduation Exhibition – first-ever online – to commemorate all the students who completed their capstone research project this year.
When the three-day in-person show at Carleton’s University Centre was postponed due to the global pandemic, the school hosted an online celebration for the 49 graduating students through Zoom on April 23. Following the celebration, the online exhibition was published on the school’s website on May 14.
Tammy Tracey, event co-ordinator, said hosting the showcase online allowed the student projects to reach a wider audience since the show’s link was promoted through various platforms such as, the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario (ACIDO) and Core77.
The annual showcase has been used as a platform for students to present their research to alumni, future employers and the industrial design community at large.
“Because our students use the grad show as a platform, we wanted to give a place for the students to have a voice still,” said Tracey.
The director of the School of Industrial Design, Bjarki Hallgrimsson, wrote in an online statement that the show exceeded the school’s expectations.
Sophie Nakashima
“It has allowed our students to demonstrate how they persevered through a difficult year-end and still managed to produce the high calibre of projects that the school is known for,” wrote Hallgrimsson.
The online show was designed and assisted by five students from the graduating class: Alex Young-Davies, Andres Vasquez Valiente, Jason Wong, Sunghyun Lee and Sophie Nakashima.
“I hope they continue with the online show for future graduating classes, even after the pandemic,” said Nakashima.
“It’s just a really good way to share this work with other schools and also other relatives who maybe couldn’t have actually made it to a show.”
Stove Project Wins Three Awards
One project that stood out this year is a stove system called Moshi Inje created by Tatum Dietrich.
Tatum Dietrich
Moshi Inje means ‘smoke outside’ in Swahili, the language used in Tanzania, where Dietrich spent two weeks doing field research.
“I think that’s the number one thing that made it so unique was the fact that we were able to collaborate with the people who we were designing for,” said Dietrich.
Her stove system reduces health risks related to cooking in Maasai’s homes by providing a compatible way of removing the smoke from their cooking area, reducing the amount of carbon emissions and burning fuels.
The Moshi Inje stove does not require changes to be made to the home and it is the only stove to exhaust underground rather than through the roof.
“If everyone in Tanzania were to adopt clean stoves like my stove, it would save 206,000 hectares of forest every single year,” said Dietrich.
“On top of that, since it burns completely clean, 13 clean stoves offset the amount of carbon emissions equal to an average American’s annual carbon footprint.”
Dietrich’s project won first place and the Market Ready Award at the Rocket competition – a contest for Ontario’s graduating industrial designers hosted by ACIDO.
“I was very excited because it’s definitely the competition that you kind of hear about since first year and everyone wants to go,” said Dietrich.
Her project also won the Best Project Idea Award at the Scotiabank Climate Change Challenge through the Enactus national exposition.
Tracey said the school is looking at expanding the online exhibition for future years.
“We can plan it a bit bigger or a bit better,” said Tracey.
“Maybe we can add videos for each of the students and add more images.”
Monday, June 22, 2020 in Faculty of Engineering and Design, Grad Stories, Industrial Design
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