The Success By Design Conference series highlights the economic impact of design in business.

RISD was one of eighteen universities from around the globe selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon Competition. Using only energy from the sun, the team generated enough electricity to operate a modern household and power an electric car.

P’kolino Founders J.B. Schneider and Antonio Turco-Rivas approached RISD with interest in finding design concepts for a line of children’s furniture they wanted to produce. What they received was much more than they expected.

 

Over the past 13 years, RISD has offered a series of interdisciplinary studio classes that teach design through the constraints imposed by extreme environments, which highlight the design process with an unparalleled emphasis on the user.

Without gravity and the inherent exercise it creates on earth, human muscle and bone atrophy quickly. As such, astronauts in microgravity must exercise between two and four hours a day durning long duration flights. Students in the Industrial Design department at RISD considered both the physical and the physiological: the constraints of constructing resistance in microgravity, the challenges of creating exercise variety in simple compact forms, all with the on going struggles with isolation and boredom. 

The magic windows communication project sought to simplify the manner in which astronauts receive and map through large amounts of data. For long duration missions astronauts must constantly maintain communication and manage massive amounts of data to diagnose and repair craft problems as well as physically repair their bodies in the event of injury. 

This RISD-Brown Project redesigned the hazardous material protection suits worn by first responders to offer increased comfort and decreased donning time. The final suit concept can be donned independently in two minutes where the existing suits require five minutes and can not be donned without assistance. 

RISD and MIT began this collaborative partnership in 1992 and it remains active today. This project pairs RISD industrial design students with Sloan MBA students in pursuit of new products, new paradigms, and new business models. Many products from this effort have been patented and gone to market.

The Dupont-sponsored Corian® materials exploration was a mission to move 'America’s Favorite Countertop’ beyond the kitchen. This single semester studio evolved into a multi-year study in expanding the applications for this material in furniture and consumer products.

This research initiative paired students, faculty, and consultants in exploration of New Product Paradigms for Handheld Technology with a focus on the unarticulated consumer needs and desires. This exploration uncovered new product categories, related service delivery, and business models.

The Project, involving more than 100 RISD design students, faculty, and consultants, conceived of a Universal Kitchen as a "kit of parts," with interchangeable, modular components for refrigeration, cooking, water delivery, and storage. This five-year project was showcased in the Cooper Hewitt Museum’s Unlimited by Design Show in 1998, and again in 2004 on the PBS Special Freedom Machines documentary.

Students explored interior layouts for Sikorsky's S-92 Helicopter from VIP and executive transport to multi-mission configurations for search and rescue, and emergency medical response.

A first-time partnership between RISD’s Furniture Design Department and CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements — a division of Swarovski, the world’s leading manufacturer of cut crystal — resulted in an exciting dual opportunity for students: not only did they benefit from the experience of working with a new material, but they also had the opportunity to exhibit their work at the 2007 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York.

In 2005, General Mills came to the industrial design department with the challenge to reinvent the waning cereal category in the club store channels. The students explored buyer behavior, target market profiles, production challenges, home storage, point of purchase, and opportunities for environmental sustainability. 

In a recent issue of The Journal of Ambulatory Care the challenges of collaboration and patient centered healthcare is noted and examined. A recent collaborative partnership between MGH and RISD's industrial Design Department explored such ambulatory care systems.

The One River Project was a joint project of City-State, Center for Landscape Urbanism and Ecology (CLUE), and the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The project looked at the Blackstone River that runs through Massachusetts and Rhode Island and proposed new development recommendations that optimize ecological function, public access, and urban occupation. 

In the pilot partnership with Babson, 39 Babson MBA students and 16 RISD students in eight joint teams collaborated in the first joint Product Design and Development course at Babson