Each summer Microsoft Research hosts a Faculty Summit at its headquarters, and part of the event is a Design Expo featuring work by interaction design students. Participation is by invitation only, and Microsoft Research selects faculty and students from institutions around the world that represent the state of the art in interaction design. This year Interaction Design Professor Axel Roesler was again invited to attend. He had groups of students in the Winter Quarter 2013 Design 483—Advanced Projects in Interaction Design—respond to the Microsoft Research theme of “making data useful.” From the five projects developed in class, Community Slate was the one chosen for presentation at this year’s Design Expo.
The students who worked on Community Slate were just-graduated Dana Lee, Kim Lewis, and Erin Murphy as well as continuing students Jonathan Cook, Asmi Joshi, and Brad Trinnaman. They presented their work at the gathering and had it reviewed immediately afterwards by a principal researcher in Microsoft Research and the head of an interaction design program in London. A video of their presentation if available online. This year’s projects are discussed in a Seattle Times article and a PBS Idea Lab blog post. Attending the Faculty Summit gave Roesler and the students the opportunity to hear top-level speakers in their field and network with researchers from around the world. Community Slate also was selected as the runner up student project in the Core77 2013 Design Awards service category, and it was short-listed for the IxDA 2014 Interaction Awards in the connecting category.
photo credit: Ellen M. Banner of the Seattle Times from the article linked above.