Director, Deason Innovation Gym
I am an expert at navigating the fuzzy front end of the integrated new product development process: from opportunity identification to integrated prototyping for product approval. I bring a design attitude to user-centered methodologies for creating innovation. I am uniquely capable of abductively synthesizing insights from qualitative and quantitative research methods to create effective strategies. I believe that through details every product and service should support a particular experience and resonate with the customer while reinforcing the brand.
I have a strong aesthetic sensitivity combined with technical proficiency and believe that great design resides at the symbiosis of marketing strategy, engineering, and design with the intention of meeting the needs, wants, and desires of the user. I bring a set of innovation methods, design tools, and design management experiences that facilitate the creation of novel solutions. I believe that pursuing inspiration, embracing ambiguity, and maintaining curiosity are necessary for discovering paths that lead to both disruptive and incremental innovations.
Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter
Dr. Seth Orsborn, IDSA is a research professor at SMU in Dallas, TX and director of the Deason Innovation Gym, a 24/7 makerspace at SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering that is open to all SMU students, faculty, staff, and alumni. As COVID-19 cases began to surge in the U.S. in the spring of 2020, Seth and his team at the team at the DIG quickly went to work, manufacturing face shields and delivering them to local medical professionals.
“Hearing that our frontline healthcare workers were struggling to find appropriate and well-designed PPE, we looked for the highest impact in the quickest amount of time,” says Seth. “We used the NIH-approved Design That Matters redesign of Josef Prusa’s face shield, got in-field user feedback, then made a few design changes to increase comfort, durability, and protection.”
For each face shield, Seth and his team 3D-printed the halo, used sewing elastic for the band, and then laser cut the shield itself from PETG or APET. Due to SMU’s transition to remote learning in the spring, they started by producing small batches of 10 face shields and eventually ramped up production to 300 face shields per week. The team assembled and bagged the face shields themselves and donated them to local hospitals and healthcare centers through Dallas, including UT Southwestern Medical Center, Brookdale Hospice Care, and Watermark Urgent Care, a local clinic treating the uninsured.
Seth also stepped up to be the new Vice Chair of IDSA-DFW, one of the earliest professional chapters to emerge from IDSA’s new City-Based Chapter Initiative. “At the beginning of 2020, the creation of IDSA-DFW was already in preliminary discussions,” Seth says. “David Patton, former chair for IDSA-TX, has assembled a fantastic team and I was honored to support him and the team in establishing the city-based chapter and bringing together our inaugural event.”
For 2021, Seth is eager to increase the opportunities between designers, aspiring designers, and design advocates. “I’m starting by creating product design courses that will connect design students with local companies and launching an SMU Product Design and Innovation Council,” he tells us. “The goal is to gather regional design leadership which will inform our community, inspire future designers, and build relationships among product designers in Dallas-Fort Worth through events, speakers, and workshops, in collaboration with IDSA-DFW.”
