From Arctic living to inclusive education to asphalt recycling—industrial design projects at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada are taking on a wide variety of global challenges. Fourth-year projects by more than two dozen students were showcased at the 39th annual Industrial Design Graduation Exhibition. Most revolved around the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals and 20 subgoals, such as ending poverty and hunger; creating responsible consumption practices, clean energy, gender equality and decent working conditions.
More than one million Canadians have to drive two hours to access obstetrics and gynecology services moved Caroline Smeenk to devise a maternal home care system that allows more cost-effective and accessible health care for rural Canadians. “We chose targets that were important, impactful for us,” says Smeenk.
Hannah Goss designed a balancing game called wobble that encourages kids to play and learn balancing skills. Thomas Wagner’s Arctic growing chamber is a portable greenhouse. Nick Grossi worked on a water intake filter for a pump that drops into the closest body of water to fight fires.
The traditional repair and maintenance of North American road infrastructure drove Alireza Saeedi to design Infinitium, an asphalt recycling unit that would keep construction workers safe and reduce global dependency on non-renewable resources. See these and other projects.
Lois Frankel, IDSA, is the IDSA Student Chapter advisor at Carleton University.