Themes for case-study presentations – 10%
| Topic | Student Name | Presentation Date |
| A short history of the petroleum industry | Angel Chang | Wednesday, October 13 |
| Plastic predecessors: Tortoiseshell, Ivory, Amber | Max Sun | Wednesday, October 13 |
| Less but better (Dieter Rams Ten Rules on Good Design) | Lana Damian | Wednesday, October 20 |
| Death by Design | Scarlet Ng | Wednesday, October 20 |
| Spaceship Earth | Natasha Xiao | Wednesday, October 27 |
| The design of the Coca Cola bottle | Snow Chen | Wednesday, October 27 |
| the sea chair project | Angela Zhang | Wednesday, October 27 |
| Fast fashion brands: H&M and Zara | Jennifer Cheung | Wednesday, November 3 |
| Tomorrow. Grassroots Solutions to Human Extinction | Huaze Shao | Wednesday, November 3 |
| Before plastics: Drinks from bottles and straws | Kat Valachova | Wednesday, November 10 |
| Plastic and the toy industry | Ken Wu | Wednesday, November 10 |
| Before plastics: Chopsticks and cutlery | ||
| The origin of oil in the Jurassic era | ||
| Oil production in the 19th century | ||
| Top 10 supertanker disasters and pipeline crashes | ||
| 3D printing materials and sustainability | ||
| Bakelite | ||
| Galalith | ||
| The Panton & The Monobloc Chair | ||
| United Nations Environment Program |
Choose one here.
Check out the rubric here.
Research and Development – 60%
During the entire semester you will explore innovative ways to transform discarded materials or products into something new and precious. You will start this journey by working in groups, serving a specific Chinese community. Think of your group as a design firm and the community as your client. Your common goal is to become as knowledgeable as possible about your subject, and to come up with viable project ideas and prototypes that can be sustainable and fair business models generating a positive social impact for a local community you will be serving. You will propose new solutions to implement in the community by utilizing their own trash preferably, but you can also collect trash from other places. Your project should be more than just a product, it should educate and raise awareness of environmental issues. Along with that, it should be an idea that can be replicated for the people from the community. Ideally scalable to be manufactured for other communities as well. You will produce and present a large amount of research as well as hands-on work such as making experiments, creating instructions, and developing prototypes throughout the course that will be the result of your research. Buying new materials to create your project is not allowed. You will be graded on the novel applications of your proposals, coherence between the research and proposals, and the thought and work dedicated to develop them.
– Research 15%
Exhibition: (Wednesday, September 29)
You will work here as a team.
In this exhibition your mission is to change how we see trash. You will rise awareness about trash pollution by creating art installations and displaying a series of artifacts made out of trash. Additionally you will present the same day your research about the community you are serving to.
- Art installation 50%: Working in groups we will propose an art installation to create awareness about the plastic trash we are producing on campus or in Shanghai in general. This installation will be exhibited at the gallery in week 5. You will be using the trash you and your peers collected during the previous weeks. This installation must look like an art installation and not like abandoned trash. Try to modify the trash as little as possible, so it can be recyclable after.
- Research 50%: We will invite members of the community to see the presentation of your research and to give you feedback. Make sure your presentation include the following:
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- Introduction of the community member(s) you are collaborating with, such as some basic information, their work, and maybe photos if they give consent. The goal is for visitors to know them more as individuals. You will have time to build on this part over the semester, so right now it doesn’t have to be perfect.
- Identify the problem/opportunity you want to solve. Use video or photo documentations which demonstrate the community’s needs and shortcomings of existing solutions if there is any.
- Proposal of at least 3 design ideas (proposals).
- Consideration on how your design ideas meet the users’ needs and predict the impact they will have on the user. Come up with hypotheses for each idea.
- Description of the subsequent steps to test your hypotheses. Include how you will carry them out and describe what success should look like.
Consider creative ways to show your research, for example through a short video or photo documentary.
– Development 45%
Presentation: Presentations of Experiments 10% (Wednesday, October 27)
You will work with your group and individually.
You will present advances on your research and experimentation to receive feedback with a proposal.
A proposals should include:
- project title (2-4 words). This is critical!
- A brief, description of your idea (250 words)
- What is it?
- Intended next steps you will take the next weeks to develop your idea.
Presentation: Presentations of Prototypes 15% (Wednesday, November 17)
You will work individually or in pairs.
You will present your advances on your experimentation and your initial prototypes to receive feedback. Be prepare to user test your prototypes with the community.
Presentation: Final Presentations 20% (Wednesday, December 8)
You will work individually or in pairs.
You will present your advances on your experimentation and your final prototypes to receive feedback.