17th Intl Summer School on Engineering Design Research for PhD Candidates (Jul/Aug 2015, Germany/Luxembourg)

Dates: 28 June – 3 July 2015 / 2-8 August 2015
Locations: Gut Schöneworth, Freiburg/Elbe, Germany / Franciscan Mother House, Luxembourg
Website: http://www.ssedr.org
Deadline for application: 10 April 2015

The aims of the Summer School on Engineering Design Research are to make PhD students who are working on topics related to Design Science better qualified and equipped for their research by (i) helping them select a theoretical foundation and develop a research approach, and (ii) encouraging discussion and collaboration.

7th Intl Conf of the Design Education Forum of South Africa: Ethics and accountability in design – do they matter? (Sep 2015, Midrand South Africa)

Dates: 2-3 September 2015
Location: Midrand Graduate Institute & Vaal University of Technology, Midrand, South Africa
Website: http://www.defsa.org.za/
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 April 2015

Design communities in 2015 are called on to respond to the Millennial imperative “to do the right thing, to know the truth of a situation, to have a job that means more than a pay cheque and to live a life that matters” (Chester, cited in Mind the Gap, Codrington and Grant-Marshall 2004:63). We, as stakeholders and leaders in the design community take responsibility to lead with integrity and commit ourselves to the co-creation of a shared design ethos.

Aiming our intentions, efforts and influence toward ‘that which ought to be’, DEFSA 2015 seeks to honour and grow an emerging principle-driven, civic minded and human-centred design culture that takes issues of the sustainability, credibility, corporate social responsibility, professional accountability and personal integrity to heart. The typical worldview rhetoric of what should be done is redirected towards individuated responses and actions that foster meaningful change.

Mudd Design Workshop IX: Design Thinking in Design Education (May 2015, Claremont California USA)

Dates: 28-30 MAY 2015
Location: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, USA
Contact: Sydney_Torrey@hmc.edu and Gordon_Krauss@hmc.edu
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 January 2015

THE VISION To bring together 50-75 engineers, designers, and educators to explore the role of design thinking in the design education process and how design thinking education may be better addressed through different pedagogies.

CEEA 2015: Experiential Engineering Education (May 2015, Hamilton Canada)

Dates: 31 May – 3 June 2015
Location: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Website: http://www.ceea2015-mcmaster.ca
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 26 January 2015

The Canadian Engineering Education Association’s Annual Conference (CEEA2015-McMaster) will be held at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario from May 31 to June 3, 2015. All areas of engineering education research and practice are invited, but we would like to theme the broader discussion around what experiential education means for our students. This conference offers a unique venue for academics and practitioners to discuss recent trends in engineering education and education research. The conference includes workshops, plenary sessions, and technical sessions.

AIGA/DEC Conference: Spaces of Learning (April 2015, Toronto Canada)

Dates: 16-18 April 2015
Location: School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Website: http://spacesoflearning.aiga.org/
Deadline for submission of proposals: UPDATED 14 November 2014

This conference seeks to activate three conversational platforms embedded in the conference title.

1) Design Education as Interface
2) Design Education as Diverse Cultural and Social Space
3) Design Education as Politics.

The conference will explore the idea that graphic design education is rapidly evolving: the social spaces we work in, and the practices of teaching and learning we engage with, are themselves mediated by larger contexts of social, cultural, political and technological change. Mindful of these changing contexts our conference will seek to pose questions about the assumptions we make about the relationship between making design, thinking about design, asking questions about design and theorizing design in as open and potentially interdisciplinary a framework as possible.

We will also address how, as a specific discipline of making, we are uniquely placed to explore the limits of the emerging conversation about visual communication and visual culture in contemporary spaces of learning.

MODE 2015 – Motion Design Education Summit (June 2015, Dublin Ireland)

Date: June 3-5, 2015
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Website: http://www.modesummit.com/index.html
Deadline for abstracts: EXTENDED 15 January 2015

The University of Notre Dame, The Ohio State University, Kent State University and Michigan State University jointly present the 2nd MODE Summit. This international event brings together motion design educators from different areas of expertise to present work and discuss motion and how it enhances, effects, changes messages, meaning, and communication. The conference takes place in Dublin, Ireland, 03–05 June 2015 at the O’Connell House and the Royal Irish Academy.

7th Intl Conf on Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (June 2015, Vancouver Canada)

Dates: 9-12 June 2015
Location: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Website: http://eesd15.engineering.ubc.ca/
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 16 September 2014

The 7th International Conference on Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (EESD15) will explore current and future ways of thinking in the emerging field of EESD and will celebrate the ground-breaking work accomplishing in EESD since 2002. The conference will be held from June 9-12, 2015 at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Vancouver campus, overlooking beautiful Howe Sound in Vancouver, Canada.

EESD15: 7th Intl Conf on Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (Jun 2015, Vancouver Canada)

Dates: 9-12 June 2015
Location: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Website: http://eesd15.engineering.ubc.ca
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 16 September 2014

The 2015 Engineering Education for Sustainable Development conference at the University of British Columbia will explore current and future ways of thinking in this emerging field and celebrate the ground-breaking work accomplished in EESD since 2002. After 6 successful EESD conferences, EESD15 will be the first to be held outside of Europe. EESD15 is the premiere forum for contributing to, and learning about, engineering education for sustainable development.

Please refer to the website for details.

Emerging Practices: Design Research and Education Conf (Oct 2014, Shanghai China)

Dates: 13 October 2014
Location: College of Design & Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Contact: Davide FASSI (emergingpractices@tongji.edu.cn)
Deadline for submission of proposals: 16 June 2014

Part of the Shanghai Design Week (October 10-17, 2014)

In this new era, design must, and is currently being, redefined. Social and economic changes impel designers to “think bigger.” For the design discipline, the expanding roles and tools of design make it more possible than ever to connect and to integrate multi-disciplinary knowledge within the social and economic context, and to tackle real world problems. Moreover, during the course of blurring the boundaries between professions and developing new approaches, design explores the new frontier by dealing with matters that center around goodness, happiness, and wellbeing of the entire human community. Design is immersed in values that were not even recognized a couple of decades ago, and the legitimization of design will now be measured more on how it can enable us to survive on this planet. Such emerging design practices and thoughts raise the bar for design knowledge, in terms of its breadth, depth, and complexity. The areas where they start to grow, especially the intersections between design professions, approaches, and values, merit a closer examination.

Based on the above observation, Tongji University’s College of Design and Innovation (Shanghai, China) hosted the first Design Research and Education Conference titled “Emerging Practices” in 2012. This conference, since its very beginning, is devoted to exploring the new practices, values, and approaches arising from, or influential to, design and design education. It is an arena in which these three concepts are explored by facilitating heated discussions respectively or in an integrative manner. We sincerely invite scholars, researchers, practitioners, educators, and design students, interested in the possibilities the wide spectrum of design offers, to participate and contribute their ideas. This conference has been developed into a regular unit of Tongji Design Week, during which a series of design research-and practice-based events are held in October every year.

We are pleased to announce here that the third Emerging Practices: Design Research and Education Conference will be held on October 13th, 2014. This conference will be organized as an interactive form, providing discussions that will be able to facilitate participants to further develop their original ideas and proposals. Full papers will be completed after the conference and will be compiled into the conference proceedings with an ISBN number.

EAD11: 11th Conf of the European Academy of Design: The value of design research (April 2015, Paris France)

Dates: 17-19 April 2015
Location: Paris Descartes University – Paris College of Arts
Website: http://www.europeanacademyofdesign.org 

Design today is increasingly being recognized as creating value – whether for cultural and collective intelligence, for embedding new technology into new behaviours, for fostering or acting as a force for change in societies and for companies confronted with complex problems. This value is based on design research within a large variety of settings and scientific backgrounds. The gestalt of the conference is “the whole is more than just the sum of its parts”. Taking this principle to heart, the conference will bring together all stakeholders in design research and design process innovation. University labs, design schools, and R&D departments from industries have been invited.