March 8, 2024 11:03 PM
Peter Scupelli gave an invited lecture at the Politecnico di Milano, titled “AI & SUSTAINABILITY: some dexign thinking for alternative futures,” for the Service Design and Innovation – Smart Service course taught by Prof. Marzia Mortati in the Master’s Program in Product-Service Systems Design, at the Politecnico di Milano, on March, 8, 2024.
November 10, 2023 10:29 AM
The 2023 Global Design Futures Network Symposium and Workshops are being held at the Tsinghua Southeast Asia Center in Bali, Indonesia November 16-19, 2023.
Global Design Futures Network (GDFN) was established through a memorandum of understanding signed in May 2023 by the Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University, the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano, and the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. The aim is to establish a global design futures learning platform and community, attracting global government, universities, institutions, scholars, and students to jointly promote the emergent practices mixing design and futures studies, and provide frontier methods and tools to address global challenges.
GDFN will gather academic resources and practical design futures cases from a global network and sustainably promote collaborative learning, teaching, and research. In addition, by organizing the establishment of academic exchange platforms and corporate cooperation platforms, we co-design future visions for global issues such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the challenges of the Anthropocene, climate adaptability, a community with a shared future for humankind, and future well-being.
There are five workshops:
GDFN co-founders Prof. Peter Scupelli, Prof. Anna Barbara, and Prof. Zhiyong FU will facilitate a community symposium to discuss the GDFN’s emergent mission, vision, and roadmap for the next three years.
Organizers: Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
Design Department, Politecnico di Milano
School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University
HOST: Department of Information Art & Design, Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University
CO-HOST: Tsinghua Southeast Asia Center
September 1, 2023 1:45 PM
Peter Scupelli will be a visiting researcher in design futures methods at the Politecnico di Milano. Peter will also co-teach Design Futures-related methods in the Ephemeral Design course with Professors Anna Barbara, Nicolò Gobini, and Francesca Molteni.
Last updated: 1:44 pm
September 1, 2023 1:42 PM
Peter Scupelli will present a paper titled “Teaching to transfer Causal Layered Analysis from Futures Thinking to Design Thinking” at the 2023 IASDR conference held in Milan, Italy October 9-14 at The Politecnico di Milano.
Abstract
We live in exponentially changing worlds. Design educators are challenged to teach new design methods to productively engage with ongoing societal problems with planetary implications such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the unfolding climate disaster, zero-carbon lifestyles, circular economies, nuclear disarmament, etc. Such societal-level problems require both short-term design action and strategic long-term vision goal alignments. How might design educators teach new design methods effectively and efficiently within already packed design education curriculums? In this paper, I describe a required design futures course that teaches an experimental form of design, called Dexign Futures, it merges design thinking with futures thinking. One often unstated goal of teaching new design methods is to enable students to transfer such knowledge to other design courses, and, ultimately, to their professional practice. The futures thinking method, Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is the focus of this paper. Prior research on Dexign Futures, made clear that with a “Personal Futures CLA” assignment, only 19.8% of design students could articulate how the Futures Thinking method CLA related to future design methods and practice. In this paper, I describe a new way to teach CLA called “Studio Project CLA”; it more than tripled the number of undergraduate design students (62%) who described applications of CLA to their design practice. I posit that transfer of knowledge mechanisms likely explain observed performance gains. I hypothesize key insights relevant for design educators to create design exercises for undergraduate design students that likely facilitate knowledge transfer from futures thinking methods into design practice.
February 2, 2023 3:03 PM
Peter Scupelli gave the closing keynote lecture titled “Some experiential dexign thinking for alternative metaverses” at the “REFLECTING on the Metaverse through Experiential Futures,” as part of the Design Thinking JAM, Sixth Edition of the Observatory of Design Thinking for Business, Rethinking Design Thinking, School of Management, Politecnico di Milano. Hosted at the NHOW Milano (Via Tortona, 35 – 20144 Milano), January 26, 2023.
August 5, 2022 4:20 PM
Peter Scupelli will be a visiting professor in design at the Politecnico di Milano. Peter will be co-teaching Design Futures related methods in the Ephemeral Design course with Professors Anna Barbara, Nicolò Gobini, and Francesca Molteni.
Last updated: 1:44 pm
October 15, 2021 7:50 PM
Peter Scupelli will present a paper titled “Teaching Designers to Anticipate Future Challenges with Causal Layered Analysis” at the 2021 IASDR conference held in Hong Kong December 5-9 at TThe Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Abstract
Low-probability disasters like global pandemics, nuclear war, earthquakes, solar flares and so forth require anticipatory imagination and strategic preparations. The COVID-19 global pandemic amply illustrated how being unprepared results in tragic outcomes for human lives, families, organizations, and economies. Preparing for different kinds of possible futures requires new thinking, imagining, and acting. Globally, design educators are challenged to prepare the next generation of designers for a rapidly changing world. How might designers learn to meaningfully engage with the challenges of our time (e.g., climate emergency, sustainable development) and emerging opportunities (e.g., AI, fourth industrial revolution, and so forth)? In this paper, I describe two futures thinking methods taught in a design centred futures course taught in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA). First, an Alternative Futures exercise with a 2×2 matrix that yields four possible futures. Second, students explored one possible future in-depth with Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). The design futures course was taught with the flipped-classroom active learning pedagogy through five activities: online learning, mini-lecture, demonstration, small group in-class workshop activities, and weekly reflection/discussion. I report on text analysis of student weekly reflections parsed with five codes related to CLA (i.e., personal insights, thinking structures, design insights, CLA details, other). Step-by-step scaffolding and multiple integrated learning activities helped students to engage with futures studies methods. CLA provided students with new thinking structures for sensemaking, new insights into futures thinking, and design methods and process insights on how to design for future challenges.
Last updated: 4:21 pm
June 1, 2018 5:49 PM
Peter Scupelli taught the Design Thinking and Futures Thinking workshop June 7-9, at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The workshop was called “Using the Flipped Classroom to Teach Design Thinking and Futures Thinking.”
The world is changing at an exponential rate. How might design educators teach different types of design thinking to address challenges such as societal level sustainability? How might technology be used to create innovative learning experiences for students? How might students get more practice opportunities and feedback to better learn new kinds of design thinking. The School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University launched a new curriculum undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students in 2014 to teach design led societal level sustainability. In this workshop, participants experience teaching innovations developed to teach alternative versions of design thinking for societal level sustainability through case studies of four courses taught. For example, in the Dexign Futures course, Design Thinking and Futures Thinking are combined to align short-term design with long-term visions. The Dexign Futures course was taught as a flipped classroom course with two main parts: (a) interactive online modules with interactive feedback that prepare students for (b) in-class hands-on design activities. Workshop participants will learn how to apply the design based teaching innovations demonstrated in the case study to solve current student learning challenges.
http://www.ieeac2015.org.cn/p/17/20180614/163847274598383.html
learning environments lab 