EDI Design Bootcamp
Northwestern's MS program in Engineering Design and Innovation starts off with a very unique three-week design bootcamp before classes begin. Sessions on sketching, the Adobe Creative Suite, Solidworks, Arudino, storytelling, and manufacturing tools and capabilities help give incoming students a basic breadth of knowledge in important skills. In between these sessions, students work on an individual, open-ended design project.
Impermanent. Incomplete. Imperfect... When I first learned the theme of our bootcamp project was "Wabi Sabi," the Japanese belief in finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness, I immediately thought back to a moment not so long ago. I was in the midst of a job promotion and a cross-country move from PA to CA when I was finishing my applications for grad school. I remember sitting on my couch, debating whether or not it was really the time for me to go back to school. My roommate looked at me and said, "There's never going to be a perfect time to go back. If it's something you really want to do, you just have to go for it." |
Those words have really stuck with me. When I was offered a scholarship from the James Dyson Foundation to attend Northwestern University's master's program in Engineering Design & Innovation, I immediately knew that I had made the right choice.
I decided to focus my bootcamp project on the idea that there is no "perfect" time, but life is full of so many beautiful moments.
I decided to focus my bootcamp project on the idea that there is no "perfect" time, but life is full of so many beautiful moments.
The Gap? While this gap was slightly different than the traditional sense of a "user gap" in human-centered design, I nonetheless set out to accomplish several things through my design:
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Process
Bootcamp Impact
I learned so much through this hands-on project. I spent a lot of time tweaking the sensors I had used to trigger the rotation, which has made me much more confident in my ability to work with electronics. I also did some woodworking, 3d-printing, and painting, which was a lot of fun! I became more comfortable with some of the machines in the shop (and learned who to ask when I need help in the future). I am really excited to continue using these skills during my time at Northwestern and in the next phase of my career!