Hampshire College

Applied Design at Hampshire encompasses commercial design, industrial design, assistive technology, and universal design. The Lemelson Assistive Technology Development Center (LATDC) achieves its mission through a combination of courses, activities, internships, collaborations with business and non-profit organizations, and through teams of students who design, develop, and make equipment available for people with disabilities.

Courses cover areas such as applied design, prototype creation, problem solving, consumer research, intellectual property protection, and universal design.

Courses are experiential and include student participation in actual prototype construction, with some of this student-created equipment placed into the hands of the public for real-world use.

Sample First-Year Course
Look Ma, No Hands
In this project-based class we will consider how designed objects can enhance the independence and function of individuals who do not have full use of their hands. We will also address the concept of “Universal Design:” designing in a way that gracefully accommodates the range of human experience. Students will develop problem solving and creative thinking abilities, and work with techniques to research, analyze, and prioritize the needs of a user in a given situation. We will work with the full range of fabrication techniques available in the Lemelson shop. The curriculum will include weekly design assignments, guest speakers, readings, film viewings, discussions about the design process itself, as well as a major project. Projects may be for children or adults with temporary injuries/conditions or ongoing physical disabilities. We will also consider the political and social issues affecting people with disabilities.

Facilities and Resources
The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for Design facility offers a unique laboratory for the exploration of design and fabrication. It is open to all Hampshire College students, and includes a shop equipped for work with metals and plastics and a design lab for manual and computer-aided design. Students may use the facility for both academic and personal projects. There are no prerequisites to use the facility and all skill levels are welcome.

In addition to academic courses, the Lemelson Center off ers workshops, called Trainings, in a wide variety of design and fabrication skills. The Trainings, which include both introductory and advanced sessions, are intended to give students the skills necessary to design and fabricate assistive technology and universal design prototypes as well as other innovative applied design projects.

Smith College’s Picker Engineering Program, the first and only engineering program at a U.S. women’s college, takes a unique interdisciplinary approach to the rigors of design by emphasizing the designer’s social relevance and social responsibility. By placing the program firmly within the context of a liberal arts education, the engineering classes at Smith bridge the traditional boundaries between the sciences and the humanities (in a very Hampshire-esque fashion!).