Multidisciplinary Research: Challenging and Rewarding or Too Damn Difficult?

Wednesday 13 January 2010
3:30 – 7:00
Organized by Design London
Location - Stevens Building, Royal College of Art, London


There is a lot of encouragement for multi-disciplinary research, from policy makers and research funders, and it is generally seen as a ‘good thing’. Yet the reality is that this is often very difficult to execute. For instance, the definition and the evaluation of the outputs (e.g. prototypes, patents or papers) vary across the disciplines, and the results of multi-disciplinary work might well be regarded as below the standard that each individual disciplines seeks to impose on its own work. Consequently, those engaging in multidisciplinary work lose rather than gain credibility in their own ‘home discipline’. To look at these issues, we are holding a workshop that seeks to examine the barriers, challenges and rewards to multi-disciplinary work. The workshop will be followed by a drinks reception and an exhibition presenting research works from engineering, design and social sciences.

Speakers

Simon Blyth, IDEO and Julien McHardy, Lancaster University
Peter Childs, Professor of Engineering Design, Imperial College
Bill Gaver, Professor of Design, Goldsmiths College
Lucy Kimbell, Clark Fellow in Design Leadership, Said Business School, Oxford
Bruce Tether, Professor of Design and Innovation, Design London, Imperial College
Anthony Dunne, Professor and Head of Department, Design Interactions, Royal College of Art

Discussant

Jeremy Aynsley, Professor of History of Design, Royal College of Art

Organizers

Anne-Laure Fayard, Visiting Scholar, Design London, Imperial College and Assistant Professor of Management, Polytechnic Institute of New York University
Bruce Tether, Professor of Design and Innovation, Design London, Imperial College.

Exhibition

Exhibition will include research projects by James Auger (Royal College of Art), Lucy Kimbell (Said Business School), Anne-Laure Fayard (Design London / NYU-Poly), Patrick Stacey (Design London), Ileana Stigliani (Design London), works from the Interaction Design Studio at Goldsmiths and projectsfrom the Mechanical Engineering Department at Imperial College.


Participation

Places are limited, and will be issued on a first come first served basis. If you want to attend please complete your details here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/X72BKNQ to reserve a place.