This video is from the April 26, 2023 Making Sustainable Design, From the Classroom to the World symposium organized by the MIT Morningside Academy for Design, which took place at the MIT Museum. The event featured three primary speakers and this video documents a presentation by MIT D-Lab Research Scientist Dan Sweeney. For more details on the event and all speakers, see below.
How can design address different dimensions of sustainability? We will explore this question through three dialogues, ranging from the design of solar-powered vehicles, to the definition of analytical and sensing mechanisms to improve buildings’ thermal performance, to the elaboration of energy-efficient systems to cook. The event will show how sustainable design solutions are possible for every scale and context, and how these solutions can transition from academic experimentation and research to real-world implementation.
This contribution to the Boston Design Week visualizes the MIT Morningside Academy for Design and MIT’s commitment to finding sustainable design solutions for a planet subjected to multiple environmental and climatic crises. The dialogue will complement the many activities programmed around Earth Day in the Boston area.
Topics & Speakers
Our dialogues, presented and moderated by Tony Hu, will present three main design projects, all sharing the same desire to identify the most apt environmental solutions for a particular geographic context, using the most appropriate technological means.
- MIT’s first solar-powered car, designed and manufactured by the Solar Electric Vehicle Team, a student group under the MIT Edgerton Center. Every two years they create a solar powered vehicle that competes in prestigious national and international competitions. Vice-Captain Maria Aguiar will represent her team.
- Technology leveraging robotics and AI to design impactful solutions for the built environment, imagined and developed by Norhan Bayomi, co-founder of Lamarr.AI.
- Clean cooking products for the developing world: led by Daniel Sweeney, MIT D-Lab’s Biomass Fuels and Cookstoves Group researches, designs and tests solutions to reduce the environmental repercussions of food preparation on contexts reliant on the use of biomass.
More information
MIT D-Lab Biomass Fuels and Cookstoves
MIT Morningside Academy for Design
Contact
Dan Sweeney, MIT D-Lab Research Scientist