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October 13, 2006 Vol. 77,
no. 9F
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SPACE: EECS professor John Canny is the director of
the Berkeley Institute of Design. RACHEL
SHAFER PHOTO
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Collaboratory of design
Graduate research flourishes at the Berkeley Institute of Design
In a very simplistic description of his research, EECS
Ph.D. student Jingtao Wang designs technology systems for the average
user. If he wants feedback, he has plenty of EECS colleagues who can
provide it. But the average user in the world of an EECS Ph.D. student
is, well, not so average. That’s a big reason why Wang appreciates
his office in the Berkeley Institute of Design (BID). Situated on the
third floor of Hearst Memorial Mining Building with a view toward the
Berkeley Hills, the institute houses the workspaces of 20 graduate
students in ME, BioE, Art Theory and Art Practice as well as EECS. “I
have access to students without a background in computer science, and
it helps me a lot,” Wang says. “We have daily discussions,
and if I have an idea, I can get their immediate feedback.”
Collaboration is what BID is all about. The institute, conceived in
the late 90s and formalized in 2004, is an interdisciplinary research
group primarily for graduate students with a focus on human-centered
design of technology. “It’s getting harder and harder to
draw clear boundaries between technologies for the home, car, and in
medicine, for example,” explains EECS professor and BID director
John Canny. “Increasingly, the design of consumer technologies
involves different disciplines. At BID, we bring people together from
different disciplines so they can benefit from that knowledge sharing.”
Having a shared space is key. The BID lab in Hearst is less lab and
more design studio, with open work areas, lots of light and space,
a large conference table, white boards and a couch in the corner, all
easily accessible.
It is here that Jingtao Wang envisions a cell phone that an average
person can program. Entitled “End-User Program-ming for Location-Based
Services,” his project is essentially a series of software tools
to help users of cell phones with GPS capabilities find the nearest
gas station, restaurant or potential carpool partner in the neighborhood,
all examples of location-based services. Wang’s interface and
back-end system will lead a user through a series of steps that “program” the
phone to deliver this kind of information.
Wang is propelled by a fierce belief that tech design needs to put
the average consumer front and center. “Most of our technologies
should not be designed for engineering Ph.Ds.,” he says. “Techno-logy
will become powerful only when it is useable by average people.”
BID features graduate research projects, but it has other ambitions,
too. Since the institute’s beginning, Canny, ME professor Alice
Agogino and other founding faculty have wanted a BID degree program
that offers a master’s of design. For now, that is on the back
burner. “We need additional faculty to make that happen,” Canny
explains. Meanwhile, talking in this design classroom is encouraged.
For more information, go to http://bid.berkeley.edu.
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