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The Design Challenge

Your design challenge is to create a concept design for a physical or virtual installation that will increase public understanding and acceptance of prescribed burns as an important tool for ending devastating megafires. You can define how the public will interact with the installation. For example, it could be displayed at a national park or museum, used online as part of a curriculum for students or a social media campaign, viewed as a traveling pop-up exhibit, or you could imagine something else entirely. Selected teams will receive support as part of a summer internship program to make their concept designs a reality.

Key Dates and Activities at the Design and Innovation Building (map)

  • Design Challenge Kickoff, Thursday, April 7, 4-5 PM (rm 202) – video here
  • Design Thinking Workshop, Friday, April 15, 10-11:30 AM (first floor @ The Basement)
  • Submissions Due, Saturday, April 16 @ 11:59 PM
  • Project Showcase, Wednesday, April 20, 5 PM (after Design@Large panel)

Registration and Project Teams

Please register here to ensure you receive all relevant information. UC San Diego undergraduate and graduate students can form their own team or attend the workshop on Friday, April 15 to find a team. Individual submissions are accepted but not recommended. It is also recommended that teams not include more than five members. No previous skills are required to participate.

Support for Teams

Support for teams will be available at the Basement at the Design and Innovation Building on Friday, April 15 and Saturday, April 16, starting with a design-thinking workshop at 10 AM on the 15th and followed by access to subject-matter and design-thinking experts to accelerate progress.

Submission and Judging Criteria

Submissions must be emailed by the team lead to mfloca@ucsd.edu by 11:59 PM on April 16 with the subject “Design-A-Thon submission”, copying all other team members at their UCSD email address.

The email should include:

  1. A pdf of a poster with an overview of your concept design. Please format your poster to be printed 24” x 36”.
  2. A video presentation (no longer than five minutes) explaining the concept. We suggest using Zoom to record the presentation, uploading the video to google drive, and including a link to the video in your email.

Showcase and Summer Internships

We will hold a showcase of all submissions on Wednesday, April 20 at 5 PM after the Design@Large panel on Climate Risk Reduction and Technology. We will print your posters for you to display there. At that time, we will announce the teams that have been selected to further develop their design concepts during a paid summer internship.

Questions?

Contact mfloca@ucsd.edu