Three IT Carlow design graduates returned to their alma mater today and shared the stage in the Haughton Building for the 2022 Design Carlow seminar that made a welcome return after a two-year forced hiatus.
Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan TD, Dr Simon O Rafferty and Deimante Stankeviciute – all design alumni – spoke as design experts at today’s event, entitled Being Part of Sustainable Change as a Designer. The seminar looked at areas of community resilience, the transition to a sustainable economy and the use of co-design and co-creation for place making, with a focus on active travel.
The event was attended by the design students and staff of IT Carlow and visiting design students from Auburn University Alabama.
Deimante Stankeviciute talked about the importance of community and connection to create resilience.
Dr. Simon O Rafferty spoke of the use of design methods to engage communities with place. This was the perfect lead-in to this year’s ‘design sprint’ case study given to the attending students who were asked to examine the design possibilities of closer integration of campus life with Carlow town and how such closer integration could improve sustainability of both town and campus.
The final speaking slot was reserved for Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan TD who spoke about the importance of design in making a just transition to a sustainable economy.
Organiser and lecturer at the School of Design at IT Carlow, Mr Hilary Dempsey, thanked the speakers and spoke about the enormous impact of the design programme at the college. He highlighted IT Carlow graduates who are working, or have worked, on some renowned design projects around the world. These include: Billy Canning (Waterford Crystal Time Square Millennium Ball); Paddy Maloney (Dyson Hair Dryer); Cathal Loughnan (Logitech’s MX Master 3 Mouse); Dr PJ White (Stanley Donard) and Hongbin Luo (Motorola app development).
Mr Dempsey commented, “We are very proud of our design alumni and it is so beneficial to our current students to hear about their experiences. It is interesting to see the variation of career paths they take but, more importantly, how transferrable their design skills are in those careers.”
“It is also great to welcome back the industrial design students of Auburn University for our annual design sprint. Having taken place online for the last two years, it is great to be face-to-face once again and allow the students the experience of working through real life problems in multi-national groups. Over the past 20 years, this collaboration has been very positive and we look forward to it every year”, he added.
Mr Dempsey thanked Green Campus Committee and the Department of Humanities EDI for supporting the event.
Image Caption: Two of the speakers at today's Design Carlow 202 seminar, Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan TD and Deimante Stankeviciute – both IT Carlow design alumni – are pictured with organiser Hilary Dempsey, design lecturer at IT Carlow.