WEBVTT

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Good afternoon.

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Welcome, everyone.

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Thank you so much for
coming, one and all.

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It's great to see you, and
we're delighted to welcome you

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to this event, Tomorrow's
Designers Designing Today.

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I'm John Ochsendorf a
professor here at MIT

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and founding director of the
Morningside Academy for Design.

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And today we're partnering with
the Boston Design Week as well

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as the MIT Museum to bring
you an exciting program

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of three talented designers
and their faculty supervisors.

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And then at the end of
our event today, we're

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going to introduce a new
cohort of design fellows

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for next year.

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So it's great to be here.

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It's great to have
all of you here,

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and I'd just like to say
a few words about Boston

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as a hub for design.

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Of course, we think about
Boston as a hub in many ways,

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but Boston Design Week
is really an opportunity

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to showcase design across
all of greater Boston,

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across many different
disciplines.

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And of course at
MIT, we see design

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in many corners
of the institute.

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But we don't often
bring them together

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to learn from each other.

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And so that's really what
we're doing here today.

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And in fact, the Morningside
Academy for Design--

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or MAD, as we say--

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is barely a year old.

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It's a new entity
at MIT, created

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to elevate design, and
education, and research,

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and outreach.

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And we were founded on Pi Day.

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We were announced to the
world just last year,

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so it's just about 400 days
ago that we were announced.

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And about six months
ago, or 200 days ago,

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we had our first launch event
here in this same space,

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The Power of Design.

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So for those of you who are
interested in learning more

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about Morningside or about
these previous programs,

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please go to design.mit.edu,
which we've created as a place

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to bring together design
across the institute.

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What is MAD?

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What are we trying to achieve?

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Our goal really is to support
students, first and foremost.

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We want students to develop
their talent as designers,

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to dream about
becoming MAD fellows.

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And our hope is that
within a generation

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or to the MAD fellowship
will be similar

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to other prestigious
fellowships around the world,

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whether it's a Fulbright
or a Marshall scholarship,

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that people aspire
to come to MIT to be

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a completely MAD fellow.

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So that's our goal.

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That's our hope.

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But even greater than
that, we hope MIT students

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from many different backgrounds
and then beyond in MIT

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develop design portfolios,
they have an education

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that offers them
open-ended projects

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to work on in a collaborative
way that are directly serving

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people, serving society.

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And wouldn't it be great
if any student of any major

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had a design portfolio
that showcased

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the projects they worked on?

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And wouldn't that be more
meaningful than a resume

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with a numerical GPA at
the top that doesn't really

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tell you about what
the person's achieved?

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So that's our hope,
student first.

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We've created a first-year
learning community.

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We've created funds to support
students and maker projects.

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And in all of this, we are
creating a very big tent

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here at MIT in greater
Boston and around the world

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for design.

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So if you want to get involved,
please reach out to us.

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There are many ways
to be involved.

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And of course, two
years from now,

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we will be opening a major
new design hub on campus.

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And for a little more on that
and more and to introduce

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and kick off
today's program, I'm

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absolutely delighted to
welcome and introduce

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my colleague, Hashim Sarkis,
who's the Dean of Architecture

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and Planning at MIT.

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He's internationally known as
a cross-disciplinary designer,

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but he's also been
a real champion

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for helping to create and
spread design across all of MIT.

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So thank you, one and
all, for being here,

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and please join me in
welcoming Dean Hashim Sarkis.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Good afternoon, everyone.

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Thanks a lot, John, for
this kind introduction.

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And thank you for including
me in this second launch

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of the academy
here at the museum.

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The academy was founded
a year and a bit ago,

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so this is the second year.

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This is the second
launch, and this is

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the second cohort of fellows.

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And if I can dwell a little bit
more on the idea of the second,

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that would be my contribution
perhaps to the discussion

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today because it is very
integral to the notion of what

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design is.

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It's very easy for
any organization

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to have its first launch.

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It's very difficult for it
to have its second launch

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or its second year.

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Many journals started
journal issue number one,

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and they fold.

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[INAUDIBLE] you know
how many companies

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get their first funding
and then they disappear.

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To make the second
is hugely important.

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I think from here on it'll
be like drinking water.

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[CHUCKLING]

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I think it was Domenico
Fontana, a Renaissance scholar,

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who defined architecture as
being the second building.

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And by that, he meant
that architecture

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is a conscious act.

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Design is a conscious
act of reiterating.

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So there's no such
thing as design.

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There's something
called redesign.

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Design is a conscious act
of reiteration improvement

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rather than just launching
an idea and getting it going.

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And I feel like we are here.

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The second cohort has
the responsibility

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of thinking what
the first cohort did

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and taking it further.

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And the third will be only
a second to the second,

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and we can repeat
that ad infinitum.

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So for everything you have
achieved, I feel like today

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and this second
launch, second cohort,

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is by far the most important
milestone in the evolution

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of the academy.

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So please go on.

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Be seconds again,
and again, and again.

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[CHUCKLING]

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May you have a great afternoon.

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I would like to now introduce
Barbara Grunfeld, the Director

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of Accelerated
[? DesignX ?] at MIT,

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who has herself a lot of
experiences in launching

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and relaunching, including
the second iteration

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under the academy.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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I have-- Hello, everyone.

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Thank you for coming
out and celebrating

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with these wonderful fellows.

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I can't wait to hear
what you have been up to.

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I can't believe
it's been a year.

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It feels like
yesterday we were here,

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and these fellows are
about seven months

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into their project.

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And they're going to share
some of that with you today.

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So the mission of the MAD, or
Morningside Academy for Design,

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is--

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now I see if I can remember--
is about transforming education,

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be a catalyst for innovation,
and empower society.

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And you certainly have been
living up to that mission.

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And I'm super excited
to see your projects

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because you have been
creative, you've been daring,

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and, more importantly, you
take, let's say, your passion

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for having an impact on our
world really, really seriously.

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And that's where design
innovation comes in.

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And what the Morningside
Academy for Design

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is really aspiring
to do is to be

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this force for creative
optimism across campus.

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Really, really
transdisciplinary approach

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to what we need to do to solve
some of these huge problems

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we've kind of created
for ourselves as humans.

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So you can see that
in these fellows

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because they come from
across the institute.

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We have people coming from
electrical engineering,

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architecture, and
then we have also

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from CSAIL, wherever you are.

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And we're going to hear
their presentation shortly.

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So the way we think this
is going to go today,

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we'll try to follow
this format is

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that we will have the fellows
come and present 10 minutes,

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followed by a conversation
with their advisors.

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And then save your
comments and thoughts

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because you have a chance to
talk to them once all of them

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have presented.

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But this is a big moment
for all of us here.

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I have not seen these
presentations before,

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and they have been working
now for about seven months.

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So without any
further ado, I think

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I'll call the first group.

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And this I have to read.

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So the first group
is Justin Brazier,

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and he is an aspiring architect
and a designer working

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on his masters in
architecture here at MIT.

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And he's interested
in affordable housing

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and urban architectural gardens,
which you will see more about.

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And he's joined with
his wonderful advisor

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for this project,
Professor Sheila Kennedy.

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She is an educator.

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She's an innovator,
and she's an architect,

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and she's a professor of
architecture here at MIT.

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So Justin, are you ready?

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Do you want to go?

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Shall we give them a good hand?

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[APPLAUSE]

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Get them going?

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]