Skip to content

Design Lab Launches City-Wide Civic Design Challenge

Design Lab Launches City-Wide Civic Design Challenge

Design Lab Launches City-Wide Civic Design Challenge

Calling all entrepreneurs, designers, engineers and problem solvers!

 

Register for the Kickoff and Information Session on Sept 21
Register for the 2017 D4SD Civic Design Challenge on Sept 22-23

In a combined effort to solve complex city problems through human-centered design and crowdsourcing, the University of California San Diego Design Lab has launched a city-wide civic design challenge called Design for San Diego (D4SD) with support from the City of San DiegoSCALE SD, the Design Forward Alliance, and the National Science Foundation.

Michèle Morris, Associate Director of The Design Lab and Design Forward founder stated that “The Design Lab is committed to applying human-centered design in real world contexts and integrating our efforts with existing civic and community initiatives in San Diego and beyond. D4SD is a fantastic platform on which to demonstrate design’s essential place in the innovation ecosystem and the value it can bring to complex sociotechnical issues like mobility. We are thrilled to be working with our regional and national partners on this initiative.”

This year’s D4SD challenge focuses on urban mobility. We all have places to go and people to see. So whether you’re traveling by car, bike, train, bus, boat or foot for work or play, mobility significantly affects millions of city goers everyday. Join D4SD for an unique opportunity to compete and collaborate with other city innovators to help solve the most pressing mobility-related issues facing our city. Participants will have opportunities to work and learn from UC San Diego Design Lab educators and the City of San Diego data science team to use their Open Data portal (data.sandiego.gov). The best solutions will earn cash prizes and private one-on-one meetings with city leaders and startup investors.

Steven Dow, assistant professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego who is directing D4SD as part of  the Qualcomm Institute-based Design Lab, said “D4SD presents a unique educational opportunity, both for university students and for the city’s residents – to gain hands-on experience with real-world issues and participate in San Diego’s innovation community.”

“A class that Dow taught at UC San Diego in the Spring quarter of 2017 helped identify the challenge topics, with students surveying San Diegans, attending meetups with city and community leaders, and conducting targeted interviews. Dow will also teach a Civic Design class this Fall, along with Postdoctoral Fellow Narges Mahyar and Research Scientist Colleen Emmenegger.  These students will take part in the challenge alongside the public signing up through the website. Mahyar said, “The course really seeks to blur the boundary between university students, residents, civic leaders, professional designers, and entrepreneurs.”

On September 21, join Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and design icon and Design Lab Director and founder Don Norman for the kick-off and hackathon hosted by SCALE SD, the city’s newest smart-city accelerator, at Downtown Works.

On September 22-23, join other innovators to participate in design sprints, find teammates, build prototypes and win prizes. The final deadline for the challenge is Oct 24.

The official schedule for the D4SD Challenge is:

  • Thursday, September 21, 201710am – 1pm
    Kick-Off & Information Session
    Introduction by Mayor Faulconer, Chancellor Khosla & Don Norman
  • Friday, September 22, 2017:  5:30pm – all night
    D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 1
    Learn about the challenges, brainstorm, form teams & build prototypes
  • Saturday, September 23, 2017:  all day – 9pm
    D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 2
    Present prototypes, win prizes & party

Learn more at D4SD.org.

Calling all entrepreneurs, designers, engineers and problem solvers!

 

Register for the Kickoff and Information Session on Sept 21
Register for the 2017 D4SD Civic Design Challenge on Sept 22-23

In a combined effort to solve complex city problems through human-centered design and crowdsourcing, the University of California San Diego Design Lab has launched a city-wide civic design challenge called Design for San Diego (D4SD) with support from the City of San DiegoSCALE SD, the Design Forward Alliance, and the National Science Foundation.

Michèle Morris, Associate Director of The Design Lab and Design Forward founder stated that “The Design Lab is committed to applying human-centered design in real world contexts and integrating our efforts with existing civic and community initiatives in San Diego and beyond. D4SD is a fantastic platform on which to demonstrate design’s essential place in the innovation ecosystem and the value it can bring to complex sociotechnical issues like mobility. We are thrilled to be working with our regional and national partners on this initiative.”

This year’s D4SD challenge focuses on urban mobility. We all have places to go and people to see. So whether you’re traveling by car, bike, train, bus, boat or foot for work or play, mobility significantly affects millions of city goers everyday. Join D4SD for an unique opportunity to compete and collaborate with other city innovators to help solve the most pressing mobility-related issues facing our city. Participants will have opportunities to work and learn from UC San Diego Design Lab educators and the City of San Diego data science team to use their Open Data portal (data.sandiego.gov). The best solutions will earn cash prizes and private one-on-one meetings with city leaders and startup investors.

Steven Dow, assistant professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego who is directing D4SD as part of  the Qualcomm Institute-based Design Lab, said “D4SD presents a unique educational opportunity, both for university students and for the city’s residents – to gain hands-on experience with real-world issues and participate in San Diego’s innovation community.”

“A class that Dow taught at UC San Diego in the Spring quarter of 2017 helped identify the challenge topics, with students surveying San Diegans, attending meetups with city and community leaders, and conducting targeted interviews. Dow will also teach a Civic Design class this Fall, along with Postdoctoral Fellow Narges Mahyar and Research Scientist Colleen Emmenegger.  These students will take part in the challenge alongside the public signing up through the website. Mahyar said, “The course really seeks to blur the boundary between university students, residents, civic leaders, professional designers, and entrepreneurs.”

On September 21, join Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and design icon and Design Lab Director and founder Don Norman for the kick-off and hackathon hosted by SCALE SD, the city’s newest smart-city accelerator, at Downtown Works.

On September 22-23, join other innovators to participate in design sprints, find teammates, build prototypes and win prizes. The final deadline for the challenge is Oct 24.

The official schedule for the D4SD Challenge is:

  • Thursday, September 21, 201710am – 1pm
    Kick-Off & Information Session
    Introduction by Mayor Faulconer, Chancellor Khosla & Don Norman
  • Friday, September 22, 2017:  5:30pm – all night
    D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 1
    Learn about the challenges, brainstorm, form teams & build prototypes
  • Saturday, September 23, 2017:  all day – 9pm
    D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 2
    Present prototypes, win prizes & party

Learn more at D4SD.org.

Calling all entrepreneurs, designers, engineers and problem solvers!

 

Register for the Kickoff and Information Session on Sept 21
Register for the 2017 D4SD Civic Design Challenge on Sept 22-23

In a combined effort to solve complex city problems through human-centered design and crowdsourcing, the University of California San Diego Design Lab has launched a city-wide civic design challenge called Design for San Diego (D4SD) with support from the City of San DiegoSCALE SD, the Design Forward Alliance, and the National Science Foundation.

Michèle Morris, Associate Director of The Design Lab and Design Forward founder stated that “The Design Lab is committed to applying human-centered design in real world contexts and integrating our efforts with existing civic and community initiatives in San Diego and beyond. D4SD is a fantastic platform on which to demonstrate design’s essential place in the innovation ecosystem and the value it can bring to complex sociotechnical issues like mobility. We are thrilled to be working with our regional and national partners on this initiative.”

This year’s D4SD challenge focuses on urban mobility. We all have places to go and people to see. So whether you’re traveling by car, bike, train, bus, boat or foot for work or play, mobility significantly affects millions of city goers everyday. Join D4SD for an unique opportunity to compete and collaborate with other city innovators to help solve the most pressing mobility-related issues facing our city. Participants will have opportunities to work and learn from UC San Diego Design Lab educators and the City of San Diego data science team to use their Open Data portal (data.sandiego.gov). The best solutions will earn cash prizes and private one-on-one meetings with city leaders and startup investors.

Steven Dow, assistant professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego who is directing D4SD as part of  the Qualcomm Institute-based Design Lab, said “D4SD presents a unique educational opportunity, both for university students and for the city’s residents – to gain hands-on experience with real-world issues and participate in San Diego’s innovation community.”

“A class that Dow taught at UC San Diego in the Spring quarter of 2017 helped identify the challenge topics, with students surveying San Diegans, attending meetups with city and community leaders, and conducting targeted interviews. Dow will also teach a Civic Design class this Fall, along with Postdoctoral Fellow Narges Mahyar and Research Scientist Colleen Emmenegger.  These students will take part in the challenge alongside the public signing up through the website. Mahyar said, “The course really seeks to blur the boundary between university students, residents, civic leaders, professional designers, and entrepreneurs.”

On September 21, join Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and design icon and Design Lab Director and founder Don Norman for the kick-off and hackathon hosted by SCALE SD, the city’s newest smart-city accelerator, at Downtown Works.

On September 22-23, join other innovators to participate in design sprints, find teammates, build prototypes and win prizes. The final deadline for the challenge is Oct 24.

The official schedule for the D4SD Challenge is:

  • Thursday, September 21, 201710am – 1pm
    Kick-Off & Information Session
    Introduction by Mayor Faulconer, Chancellor Khosla & Don Norman
  • Friday, September 22, 2017:  5:30pm – all night
    D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 1
    Learn about the challenges, brainstorm, form teams & build prototypes
  • Saturday, September 23, 2017:  all day – 9pm
    D4SD Challenge: Design Sprint & Hackathon – Day 2
    Present prototypes, win prizes & party

Learn more at D4SD.org.

Read Next

Indigenous knowledge and advocacy is now seen as vital to the fight against climate change

As nations develop strategies to combat climate change, they're beginning to turn to solutions from the indigenous communities that have been on the front lines of the efforts to protect the planet.

A 2021 report from the indigenous rights organization, the ICCA, details just how much the rest of the world depends on indigenous communities for preserving planetary health.

"In Latin America and the Caribbean, Indigenous and tribal peoples manage between 330 and 380 million hectares of forest," the ICCA report said. "Those forests store more than one-eighth of all the carbon in the world’s tropical forests and house a large portion of the world’s endangered animal and plant species. Almost half (45 per cent) of the large ‘wilderness’ areas in the Amazon Basin are in Indigenous territories and several studies have found that Indigenous peoples’ territories have lower rates of deforestation and lower risk of wildfires than state protected areas."
Enrique Zavala

Enrique Zavala on Empathy in Design | Design Chats


Enrique Zavala, Research Assistant at UC San Diego, speaks on the importance of being empathetic in design research.

Design Chats is a video series where we sit down with design practitioners to answer questions about how they utilize human-centered design.

View our Design Chats playlist on the Design Lab YouTube Channel
Design Lab Self-driving Nissan Toyota Ford Duke Stanford E-hmi

Design Lab Collaborates with Amgen to Explore Adoption of Medical Therapies

The Design Lab has recently embarked on an exciting collaboration with Amgen to explore the…

Ucsd Extension Design Bootcamp

Design Lab and UCSD Extension Team Up for Design Bootcamp

This past July, San Diego high school students embarked on a five-day dive into anthropology and design as part of Design Bootcamp, a collaboration between the UC San Diego Design Lab and UC San Diego Extension.

The class first emerged from the demand for design workshops in San Diego coupled with UC San Diego’s interest in offering classes to pre-collegiate students. “This first Research Scholars ‘Design Bootcamp,’ if you will, is our first prototype,” says Michele Morris, Design Lab Associate Director. “The needs of the University, the expertise of the Design Lab, and the community platforms of UC San Diego’s Extension all came together seamlessly.”

Mayya Azarova, a Design Lab Anthropology PhD candidate, joined the team as the Bootcamp’s inaugural instructor.  Coupling her background in anthropology with design, the team customized an offering focused around ethnography and empathy-building.
Design Lab Eric Hekler Public Health Technology

Eric Hekler Joins Design Lab Team

UC San Diego Design Lab is excited to welcome Eric Hekler, an Associate Professor in…

Design@Large UCSD Design Lab

Design@Large Spring 2022


For the first time in the nearly 10-year history of the Design@Large speaker series the UC San Diego Design Lab is partnering with California 100, an initiative focused on identifying and uplifting transformative ideas, people, and projects through research and engagement that accelerate progress towards a shared vision of California’s future over the next century.

**This will be a hybrid event (in-person and remote). Capacity is limited. Please register ahead of time.

TOPICS
- 4/13, Alternative Transportation Futures
- 4/20, Climate Risk Reduction and Technology
- 4/27, Housing Justice and Urban Design
- 5/11, Transborder Regions and Immigrant Integration
- 5/18, Future Prospects in Health Equity and Tech Innovation
- 5/25, The Future of Work and Higher Education

There will be no Design@Large classes on 04/06, 05/04 or 06/01.
There are no speakers on 03/30, but class will still take place for students.
Back To Top