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.

2.27.2010

Chicago, Chicago

I've returned from a wonderful trip to the mid-west!

As mentioned in the previous post, I traveled to Chicago for the International Conference on Design Principles and Practices. Not only did we have wonderful weather for February in the Windy City, but the Conference was extraordinary! I didn't hear an actual count for the number of participants, but my guess would be well over 100- and it certainly proved to be an international crowd. Speakers were representing research from all over North and South America, Europe, Asia and newly formed countries which I had never even heard of. Regardless of nationality, we all spoke the common language of Design.

Most conference attendees were also speakers and were divided into 8 different "streams". These included:
Architecture, The Built Environment and Planning
Business, Economics and Knowledge Management
Social Policy, Culture and Welfare
Design Policy, Planning and Politics
Design Research
Digital, Internet and Multimedia Design
Engineering
Industrial Design

We were welcome to join any presentation, but were grouped by stream for "Talking Circles". These provided a chance to speak about our international commonalities within Design. I joined the Industrial Design Stream. We spoke mostly about multi-disciplinary Design and how, while nearly all designers are well versed in supporting disciplines, such as engineering and business, they are often not credited with these skills. We spoke about how the term "Design" even seems to take on a negative connotation around particular fields (such as engineering). Although I will not discuss this at length here, it is a topic I am very passionate about. Please email me if you'd like to discuss further. For a summary of this discussion, we concluded that while Designers are well-rounded in various disciplines, the key is to speak in the language of others. Because Designers are creative, and are both left and right brained, they can use the vocabulary of engineers, financial planners, and marketers. This flexibility is necessary for any productive business.

For more information on the Conference, please check out the website:
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1 comment:

  1. auto motixMay 22, 2010 at 6:02 AM

    this is very good to know about it ,let your readers know the importance of automobiles technology.
    thanks
    Rebuilt Engine

    ReplyDelete

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