About the Design Expo
Each year, Microsoft Research sponsors a semester-long class at leading design schools. Students are asked to form interdisciplinary teams of two to four students to design a user experience prototype. From these groups, a representative team from each school presents its work to leading academic researchers and educators at the Faculty Summit Design Expo.
This annual forum is designed to encourage creative, exploratory thinking and allow students to hone their presentation skills, while gaining valuable feedback from notable design leaders from inside and outside of Microsoft. Students engage with other student design teams worldwide, cross-pollinate ideas and research, and develop lasting ties through social and group activities.
2010 Teams and Presentations
This year’s theme, “Service meets Social,” focuses on the marriage of exceptional process and ideas. On Monday, July 12, from 1:15 to 4:15 PM, the following six schools presented their best design solutions to the audience and selected design critics at the Design Expo portion of the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit.
- Feature story: Fostering Student Innovation
- View the entire Design Expo video (Length: 2:53:38)
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Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CAKevin Kwok, Wayne Tang, Rachel Thai, Winnie Yuen
Steps is an online resource and community for educators. With lesson plan databases, member profiles, and a series of expandable integrative applications and devices, Steps brings networking to K-12 education and allows innovative ideas to be shared beyond the classroom. View the presentation video (Length: 31:05)
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Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PAAliya Baptista, Sarah Calandro, Stephanie Meier, Eric Spaulding, Cheryl Templeton
GURU is a service that helps teenagers discover and grow creative interests and learn about the vast array of creative careers with the help of industry professionals. GURU has two components—a website and a browser widget. The browser widget recommends careers and professions to teens, based on the content that they are viewing. On the website, teens can explore day-in-the-life stories and other content posted by professionals, ask questions of professionals, and share their interests with friends. GURU is based on an advertising model and is free to both teens and professionals. View the presentation video (Length: 24:47)
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Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London, UKAmy Congdon and Natsai Chieza
The team theme was around biotechnological services, entitled “Social Pica.” They were thinking about biotechnological alternatives to or extenders of forms of communication, offered as “social snacks.” View the presentation video (Length: 29:49)
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New York University, New York City, NYNoah Waxman, Julio Terra, Tianwei Liu, Cindy Wong
Farmbridge is an online platform that supports local food communities by making it easier for neighbors to form groups and gain access to locally farmed food. Farmbridge offers management tools for community organizers as well as social software to allow neighbors to engage. View the presentation video (Length: 29:58)
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Universidad Iberoamerica, Mexico City, MexicoFrancisco Martinez Weil, Valeria Narro, Maria Jose Saint Martin
Because government-run schools in México simply cannot scale to the country’s population growth, many are left without education. Teens who are not able to attend school need a chance to improve their knowledge and skills. Kueponi is a system that creates and facilitates partnerships between universities and companies that provide teens with a chance to obtain competitive and technical skills in place of school. View the presentation video (Length: 21:35)
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University of Washington, Seattle, WAAndrew Battenburg, Minnie Bredouw, Tim Damon, Sophie Milliotte, Jon Sandler, Tanya Test
Open Door creates sustainable local communities through the exchange of goods and services by creating a platform that fulfills service needs, like Craigslists does, while facilitating social relationships, like Facebook does. View the presentation video (Length: 25:57)