James Ehrlich, Director of Compassionate Sustainability at Stanford CCARE, developed an innovative program with his colleague Alexandra Albinus and the ReGen U design team where middle and high school students at the world-renowned Misk Schools were introduced to the concept of Design Empathy.
Starting last June and continuing until November 2024, a select group of Misk Schools students have been participating in a CCARE-led course on experiential Design Empathy, which is the first step in achieving proven successful teams: by deeply listening, being mindful, and accepting all input as constructive toward shared objectives. The topic is imagining, designing, and simulating a compassionate and resilient ‘smart’ town plan, all based on regenerative and circular principles. As part of CCARE’s participation, Founder and Director Dr. James Doty provided guided morning mindful meditation practices for the students via pre-recorded videos relevant to each day’s program.
Three distinct work areas were set up: one for brainstorming ideas, another for designing a diorama with foam-cut models, and a third where they used laptops to transform their designs into digital realms. One team challenge was to build a physical house (shoebox size), based on passive home design criteria, placing the model homes outside for 48 hours to test climate assumptions with embedded sensors.
Assigned to small teams of 4-5 students, boys and girls were given the objective to creatively iterate toward a unified master plan they all agreed to focus on for the final presentation. Through the lens of compassionate sustainability, students were provided local climate content and context to inform resiliency and natural capacity resources into their design thinking. Another workshop challenge presented was how best to keep their town infrastructure running in case of district utility interruptions.
Digital designing with the students is continuing via Zoom from September 2024 until students present at the Cityscape conference in Riyadh on 14-November 2024. The final presentation will integrate students’ Sketch-up™ software models converted to the Unreal game engine™ and Twin Motion™ for high-fidelity animations, and then programmed within the VillageOS™ software for the students to drive demonstrations of their town designs within an interactive simulation.
Dr. Steffen Sommer, Director of Misk Schools, is profoundly impressed with the program thus far, stating, “It’s quite amazing to see how in the first five days of hands-on activities the students were able to progress so quickly in their understanding of the design tasks and tools at hand. This is such a unique opportunity for Misk students, and we are all quite excited to see them present their final project in November at Cityscape in Riyadh.”
Dr. Doty shares the enthusiasm to continue this impactful program with Misk Schools, “We are in deep gratitude to Dr. Sommer, Vice Principal Hillal Kara-Ali, and all the teachers and staff at Misk Schools, as well as these exceptional Misk Schools students who continue to explore what compassionate, resilient and regenerative design means for the benefit of people and planet.”
CCARE also established a working collaboration with the Carnegie Mellon University spin-off ReadyAi in framing opportunities with AI, Machine Learning, and robotics to inspire students to imagine innovative and autonomous solutions for improving quality of life. CCARE and ReadyAi are also engaged in providing a longitudinal white paper to further enhance and develop programs with Misk Schools in tracking measurable positive outcomes from these summer-to-autumn courses, with the hope to return for many more class years ahead.
