Course Description

Design Realization is a project based class. It is a compression of the proposed introductory BID classes Design 200A/200B, focusing mostly on design realization (200B). This class is not your usual interface design class or hardware/software integration class. It will be a studio class in that students will work in teams for the various exercises and the term project. We will emphasize the cycle of ideation/presentation/critique. Reviews will look at not only the inventiveness of problem finding and problem solving, but the quality of expression found in the concept, form, and behavior of created artifacts. Projects will involve creating hardware and software.

The project theme is "Physical Instruments for Digital Data." Students will be encouraged to find their own interpretation of the project.

We will draw on expertise and practices in art, science, and non-engineering design disciplines as well as engineering. Engineering students seeking broader understanding of design are encouraged to participate.

A recurring theme will be the relationship of representation to reality, whether it's sketching to working through an idea, PowerPoint presentations to created artifacts, or the use of images in a display to actually being there. We will look at how meaning is constructed and how we come to think about beauty, elegance, and poetics. But mostly we will make things and talk about them.

SKILLS AND PREREQUISTES
CS 160 (or equivalent) is required.

Other useful skills that are highly recommended are: ethnographic research methods, sketching and drawing, photomontage (e.g. Adobe Photoshop), 3d visualization (foam core modeling, AutoCAD), 3d animation (e.g. VRML), rapid prototyping , rapid software prototyping, etc. (It is not expected that any student will possess all these skills, but the greater the familiarity with these techniques, the more effective the course will be.)