About My Research

This site serves as a reflection of my graduate thesis work in automotive textile design at North Carolina State University.  I began this site in January 2009 and plan to maintain it until my graduation in December 2009.  I have been in the graduate program at the College of Textiles for 1 year of a 2 year program.  During this first year, I have focused on the automotive industry, design, and sustainability.  Now at the half-way point, I have selected my thesis topic and made plans as to how to approach my research so that my work is complete by October 2009.  In the right column of this blog, I have posted my personal timeline to ensure that I am meeting my deadlines.  Please take time to look through all the information included in the right hand column, especially if this is your first time visiting this site.

The purpose of this site is 3-fold.
1) Most scholars are only given 1 chance to write a thesis, and 2 years to learn how to do so.  Sure there are books on research methods and databases of theses to form a background or starting place for your work, but no one really explains to us exactly what this process is like from start to finish.
2) Over the past year, I have learned beyond my expectations about the automotive industry, past, current, and future.  Throughout my next year of study, I have access to resources that would be coveted by any designer in this industry and plan to uncover valuable correlations between design and success.  I will post many images and articles which I find the most enriching.
and 3) Writing my thoughts and progress where it is publicly available will encourage me to meet deadlines and provide a clear platform to keep my committee informed.

My Topic
I will be examining the history of automotive bodycloth development and aligning this with outside factors such as the economy, increase in mass production, increase in technical standards and regulations, the importance of fashion and color, along with what at this time is an unpredictable number of additional variables.  The ultimate question I aim to answer is if there is a concrete way to measure and predict success in order to save time, money, and resources.

1.14.2009

ATS Images

So the final outcome...very bittersweet, mostly sweet.
For receiving 1st place, I was awarded a $1000 scholarship- yey!  
Also, it was that it was planned for the 1st place winners participate in the 2009 AutoWeek Design Forum at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which would certainly be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a student to network with the biggest names and designers in the industry!  However, due to the current "economic climate" of the automotive industry, for the first time, the Design Forum has been "postponed" until 2010.  This event was certainly the second-most motivating factor in my commitment to this competition, but this is how the real world rolls.  I can only spend so long wallowing in this misfortune as I remind myself of my ultimate motivator- self-confidence in successful design, which I achieved with flying colors!
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