EUREKA! 2018 Interdisciplinary Collaborative Initiative for Social Change

November 1-3, 2018 was an intense weekend for the 26 selected RIT participants for the EUREKA! Blitz.

This EUREKA! event was led by four EUREKA! alumni/ School of Design alumni: Michael Kelly, Karley Allis, Dan Grinthal, and Shaemus Spencer. Cause Collaborative assisted with this year's event.

The six teams did their research at the Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services organization headquarters and at a nearby church. Their challenge was to address the prompt created by RRRS: to find ways to utilize and manage clothing donated to the organization in order to create marketable products and to increase resource efficiency. RIT alum and design and innovation lead at RRRS Michael Kelly selected one of the six submissions for immediate implementation and also selected ideas from three other teams to integrate into RRRS workflow.

Teams began their process by finding ways to organize and store donated clothing, and from there, determined the types of products that would be possible for RRRS clients to manufacture on site and to sell at the Rochester Public Market and online.

The winning team's solution was selected by a team of judges that included Michael Kelly, Shaemus Spencer, Justin Callaghan, and Kieran Redmond, all of whom are RIT alumni.

Team Iris, the winning team, created an innovative and practical system of marking and organizing donated items for more efficiency. Team members included Ezra Boyd, Jingyu Cao, Nik Delgado, Tess Roberts, and Brianna Young. Other concepts included the design of a hair scrunchy, which is currently in production, and a simple instruction system for sewing that is perfect for multi-lingual audiences.

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 eureka.cad.rit.edu
and in the 2015 video.

This is the entire group after the presentations.

Branding for this EUREKA! event was created by Evgenia Tranevskaya.

Faculty helpers for EUREKA! 2018 from left:

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

My energy right before the introduction of EUREKA! 2018!

Team Iris introduction and planning for the next day at RRRS.

Michael Kelly on the steps of the future RRRS headquarters.

The group exploring the neighborhood to conduct research.

Team Iris after the presentation. Members from left:

Ezra Boyd, Nik Delgado, Brianna Young, Tess Roberts, and Jingyu Cad.

Team Iris with the judges after the presentations.

The EUREKA! 2018 facilitators from left:

Dan Grinthal, Karley Allis, Shaemus Spencer, and Michael Kelly.

Judges for EUREKA! 2018 from left:

Shaemus Spencer, Kieran Redmond, Justin Callaghan, and lead facilitator and client, Michael Kelly.

The EUREKA! 2018 team from left:

Evgenia Tranevskaya, Namhee Kim, me, Logan Bicknell, and Meghan Lewis.