Crash course into the life of designers

This week was one of my favorite of the lot. We were brought into a little known building on campus that many of us had never even considered before. But I was instantly intrigued as soon as Muireann introduced the Black Box team and what they did. Their presentation on their responsible approach to design is something that has stuck in my head for a long while. The incredibly simplistic and revolutionary lighting system that they implemented in Africa is something that is incredibly interesting to me.

During this class, we were given about 4 hours to come up with and present an idea that would help achieve the UN's sustainable development goals. In groups of four, we worked together, following the incredibly beneficial plan that the team at Black Box gave to us. Although our version was much shorter as we only had a 4 hour class. Our group came up the idea of using gym equipment such as as rowing machines and bikes, to create electricity which could be stored or used to power different aspects in the gym. We had to create a PowerPoint and present our idea to the Black Box team. This was an extremely beneficial task in my opinion, particularly because of the speed of it. It was very interesting to see the wide variety of ideas that everyone came up with. Ordinarily a similar project might take a few weeks but, I think because of the formula they showed us, the entire process was sped up and still was very effective.

Usually during a 4 hour lab at the end of a day, it is easy to lose interest, but when you're thrown into an actual environment where you could be working in the future, it is not hard to be attentive. The facilities they had were incredible to see and the feedback they gave about how our ideas could really be turned into products was amazing to hear. The fact that everyone came up with their own great idea was an extremely uplifting thing to see. I thoroughly enjoyed this class, I think it was one of the most beneficial yet and hope it is not my last interaction with the Black Box team.