Last year, Carnegie Mellon University hosted a series of events across the United States titled “Pioneering a New Era in Artificial Intelligence.” These events, hosted by CMU President Farnam Jahanian engaged the academic community in discussions on AI-related topics and attracted nearly 2,500 alumni, offering diverse and interdisciplinary perspectives. Dina El-Zanfaly, Nierenberg Assistant Professor of Design at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design and Director of the Embodied Computations Lab, took part in a series of panel discussions with fellow faculty experts, where she shared her unique research and insights in the field of AI.

Kimberly Blacutt and Audrey Reiley (MDes ’25) are bringing innovation to Pittsburgh with the formation of a new maker club aimed at creating affordable assistive technology. Their journey began with their participation in the prestigious TOM Fellowship, part of Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), a global initiative focused on creating accessible technological solutions for people with disabilities, the elderly, and underserved communities.

After an incredible summer of work, the updates to the Coulter Welcome Center are now complete! The student-led effort is a collaboration among the Provost’s Office, the School of Design and the Joseph Ballay Center for Design Fusion, University Communications and Marketing, and Enrollment Management. We want to congratulate Haeyong Kim, Daphne Peters, Hannah Lesser (BDes '24), Felix Cooper (BDes '25) and Helen Zhang (BDes '25) for their incredible work.

Stacey Swinehart Ganderson, a Communications Design alum from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design (BFA ’00), has dedicated her career to inclusive design.  With Stacey’s latest book, “WCAG for Designers: Accessibility Reference Manual,” she’s looking to establish guidelines for greater web accessibility for all.

Isha Hans, a master’s alumna of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design (MDes ’22), has had a busy summer. She published and presented her work at the Design Research Society (DRS 2024), is getting ready for another semester of teaching design at the University of Waterloo, and launched a Kickstarter for what she calls a “Play and Display” experience.

On August 14th, 2024, the School of Design’s Professor Jonathan Chapman will be a keynote speaker at the at the He Kāhui Mano - Tribal Summit. The He Kāhui Mano - Tribal Summit aims to explore the intersection of climate change, culture, and community, focusing on how indigenous communities can tackle local challenges and contribute to global change.

Since 2019, Jennifer Kim Sohn, an alumna of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design (BFA ’84), has been curating 25 Million Stitches: One Stitch, One Refugee.  This incredible project aims to address the vast crisis of human displacement by making the scale of it more visually relatable through stitches – one stitch for one refugee.

The School of Design is proud to announce the student projects that were featured at the 2024 Core77 Design Awards. Recognizing excellence in all areas of design enterprise, the Core77 Design Awards, now in its 12th year, celebrates "the richness of the design profession as well as the insight and perseverance of its practitioners." The Core77 Design Awards offers both students and professionals the opportunity to promote their best work on a global scale across 22 distinct design disciplines.

Michele Hratko, a rising sophomore at the School of Design (BDes ’27), was recently tasked with the design and branding for the CMU Dancer’s Symposium’s Spring Showcase – Reverie. Dancers' Symposium (DS), CMU’s largest student-run dance organization, aims to provide an open and supportive environment to further the exposure of dance, music, student choreography, and student performance.

Congratulations to our outstanding students who made the College of Fine Arts Dean’s List for Spring 2024. The criteria for the dean's list is the top one-third of QPAs in each school within CFA.