Steven Lustig, Adjunct Professor, Golden West College, STEAM Consultant, Sculptor
Design is at the heart of all innovation. Good design comes from mankind’s continuous urge to create new and better tools for itself. Design is omnipresent in our daily lives. But rarely, throughout time has it been more pervasive or important than today. Elegant design draws us all in without most people realizing it. But more and more design is driving innovation and change in every aspect of our lives.
Design is its own art form. It is taught in any number of ways at good schools around the world. Good design, on its own, creates wonderful new toys and technologies for us all. But design as an art form really becomes central to innovation when it is applied directly through Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math, or STEAM.
Design is at the heart of the STEM to STEAM movement. But more importantly, 3D Design and modeling are now giving researchers, designers and artists new ways to create, build and visualize products and solutions in the medical industries.
Today at Golden West College a new program in 3D design and modeling for biotechnology is being developed as a way to break down old barriers between departments and thinking in an attempt to craft forward thinking programs to train students in new, innovative tools for the medical and life sciences industries. Aspects of industrial design, 3D modeling, art and science are being brought together to create this new STEAM program. While this is just a seed of an idea today, the growth potential to take young students and give them the foundation for a variety of futuristic jobs opportunities is beginning to gain momentum.
Students from a variety of educational departments will come together to learn about good design and use the most modern tools to create visual representations of science. Artists will be working with industrial designers, who are working with biology students collaboratively to create a new environment in learning and innovation. It’s in these fertile interdisciplinary learning environments that different specializations and people come together to create new ideas.
With tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, touch sensitive Wacom tablets and 3D printing technology a new lab, a new learning environment is beginning to form with the goal of reach down into local middle and high schools to begin to expose them to these exciting tools and new curriculum opportunities, to bring them to Golden West, give them the foundation training they need to either move up into higher forms of education or out into industry.
For more information about this work please contact Steven Lustig at stevenlustig@icloud.com
Illustrations provided by Steven Lustig and protected by copyright. All rights reserved 2014.
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