MIT: Independent Activities Period: IAP

IAP 2013



Design Thinking For Scientists

Alorah Harman, Course 1 , THE MEME design

Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/10
Attendance: Participants must attend all sessions
Prereq: "scientist" self-label, some experience in a wet-lab ideal.

For the scientist who wants an extra shot of creativity in their IAP!

Design thinking is a framework and a process that uses a designer's tools to analyze and characterize ill-defined problems. Using design thinking, we can supplement a linear approach to a problem (in lab for example) with a more fluid and iterative investigation alongside. 

This hands-on class is about idea generation, communication, and team dynamics specialized for scientists. Working in groups, we'll get a primer on how to think like a designer, especially with regard to mindset, group and solo brainstorming, and how to tease out and categorize qualitative insights to inform the design of quantitative experiments.

To learn by doing, we'll apply our human-centered frameworks to a high-energy 2-day exercise of envisioning the future of "the lab," sharing our end results with each other. All disciplines are welcome, but we'll have a focus on wet-lab environments (especially bio-labs).

**ROOM CHANGE** Saturday and Sunday (1/12-1/13)  1pm-4pm in 32-124. 

Now enrolling excited scientists (U/G/etc.) as space allows until Jan 10th. Contact aharman@mit.edu with interest.

Sponsor(s): Biology
Contact: Alorah Harman, AHARMAN@MIT.EDU


Session I

Jan/12 Sat 01:00PM-04:00PM 32-124

Session II

Jan/13 Sun 01:00PM-04:00PM 32-124