EUREKA! 2017 Interdisciplinary Collaborative Initiative for Social Change

October 5-7, 2017 was an intense weekend for the 16 selected School of Design and RIT participants for the EUREKA! Blitz.

This EUREKA! event was led by four EUREKA! alumni/ School of Design alumni: Michael Kelly, Justin Callaghan, Mimi Ace and Kimberly Patt. This event was made possible with the generous funding of local advertising and public relations agency Dixon Schwabl.

The four teams did their research at the Maplewood YMCA on Driving Park Avenue. Their challenge was to address the prompt created by Lifespan: to find ways to enhance the experience of members of the Lily Cafe, a Lifespan initiative at the Maplewood YMCA, and to increase the sense of community between older adults and adolescent members of the YMCA. The Lily Cafe was used as the starting point to create a greater sense of community and intergenerational contact at the YMCA.

Teams were paired with Lily Cafe members to gain insight,
and to widen the scope of their exploration and investigation.
In addition, we had the expertise of the Inclusive Designer and Gerontologist, Pattie Moore, and the design thinking of Dixon Schwabl Creative Director and 2005 Graphic Design alumnus
Marshall Statt.

The winning team's solution was selected by a team of judges that included Graphic Design Lecturer Steve Scherer, Ryan
Moore, 2009 Graphic Design Alumnus and Director of Design at Dixon Schwabl, and Kristine Santillo, Program Director of Lifespan's Multipurpose Aging Resource Centers.

Team Willy, the winning team, featured an interest-based mentor program, where Lily Cafe members and teens would be connected, working together on activities and programs of interest to them. The program is aptly called the Y's and the Y'sers.

The objective of this annual event is to provide the opportunity for School of Design students to work together in the pursuit of initiating social change through the power of design.

More information on the blitz is provided on eurekarit.tumblr.com
and in the 2015 video.

All of the EUREKA! participants after the presentations.

Branding for EUREKA! 2017 was created by Eliana Jacobs.

School of Design faculty at the kick-off on thursday night in Carlson Auditorium.

Mindy Magyar, Patti Lachance, Mitch Goldstein and Nancy Bernardo.

The EUREKA! 2017 facilitators

Justin Callaghan, Kimberly Patt, Mimi Ace, and Michael Kelly.

Lily Cafe Manager Michelle DeBoo and Kristine Santillo, Program Director of Lifespan's Multipurpose Aging Resource Centers.

Inclusive Designer, Gerontologist and RIT alum Pattie Moore providing insight at the Maplewood Y

on Friday.

Dixon Schwabl Creative Director and 2005 Graphic Design Alumnus, Marshall Statt at the Maplewood YMCA with the teams on Friday.

Team Willy hard at work with facilitators Mimi Ace and Kimberly Patt in the Lily Cafe.

The CARBS team with their Lily Cafe mentor.

Executive Director of the Maplewood YMCA Kate Eberts answering some questions for teams.

Team Generation Box

John Keefe, Aaron Koons, Cindy Castillo Lake, and SIQI Xu.

Team CARBS

Angela Sarfo-Abadio, Dylan Davis, Isabel Thelen, and Cynthia Muniz.

Team Minus One

Yinan Luan, Laura Knaflewski, Christine Van, and Tianzhi Li.

Judges' deliberations. Kristine Santillo, Steve Scherer, and Ryan Moore.

The winning team, Team Willy, with judges.

Ryan Moore, judge, Cole Johnson, Steve Scherer, judge, Jennifer Schroll, Aurora Prosch Newman, Qiaochu Liu, and Kristine Santillo, judge.