This page provides information on past events at the Jacobs Institute. For upcoming events from the Jacobs Institute and our broader design innovation community, visit our news and events page.
May 2-3, 2018
Over the course of two days, students in 17 courses, along with members of campus design clubs and grant recipients, shared their work.
Spring 2018 Design Field Notes speakers included Sara Cinnamon (1/23), Alexander Reben (1/30), Margaret Hagan (2/6), Jennifer Jacobs (2/13), Paul Te and Josh Horowitz (2/27), Ethan Eismann (3/20), Tiffany Tseng (4/3), Melissa Cefkin (4/10), and Robert Kett (4/17).
April 6, 2018
Alan Eustace, former senior vice president of knowledge at Google and a skydiving record holder, gave a talk on “StratEx: A Scuba-like System for Stratospheric Exploration.”
March 2, 2018
Allison Arieff, editorial director at SPUR and contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, spoke on “Solving all the Wrong Problems.”
February 23, 2018
Saul Griffith, a MacArthur fellow and founder of Otherlab, Instructables, Makani Power, and others, discussed “Design for Climate Change.”
December 6-7, 2017
Students from over 20 courses shared their innovative projects.
Fall 2017 Design Field Notes speakers included Tom Maiorana (9/18), Jazmyn Latimer (9/25), Liat Berdugo (10/2), Jess Hobbs (10/16), Andreas Bastian (10/23), Hisham Ibrahim (10/30), M. Paz Gutierrez (11/6), Andre Yousefi (11/13), Katarina Ilic (11/20), and Tim Evatt (11/27).
December 1, 2017
Foundation Capital general partner Steve Vassallo discussed “How to Design a Company that Matters.”
November 3, 2017
University of Michigan assistant professor Silvia Lindtner spoke on “The Promise of Making: Desiring Alternatives, Hacking Capitalism and Prototyping Inequality.”
September 22, 2017
Stamen founder, CEO, and creative director Eric Rodenbeck discussed “Telling Stories with Data.”
August 20, 2018
In a mini-showcase, summer courses held at Jacobs Hall shared their work.
May 3-4, 2017
Students shared projects in fields from health to art practice.
Speakers in the spring Design Field Notes series included Neil Goldberg (1/24), Danielle Applestone (1/31), Per Selvaag (2/7), Aaron Marcus (2/14), Avery Trufelman (2/28), Majeed Kazemitabaar (3/7), Justin Porcano and Kim Do (3/21), Tyler Mincey and Jorge Fino (4/11), and Dara Douraghi (4/18).
April 7, 2017
Elisa Giaccardi, professor of interactive media design at TU Delft, spoke on “Designing in the Connected Everyday.”
March 3, 2017
Barry Katz, author of Make It New: The History of Silicon Valley Design, gave a talk called, “The Missing Link: Design as the Key to the Silicon Valley Ecosystem of Innovation.”
February 10, 2017
Kate Sofis, CEO of SFMade, spoke on “Designing for Local Manufacturability.”
January 27, 2017
Alan Cooper, founder of Cooper, discussed “Working Backwards.”
December 7-8, 2016
Students presented prototypes and projects at our 2016 winter design showcase.
Speakers in the fall Design Field Notes series included Euiyoung Kim (September 2), Charles Huang (September 9), Misha Cornes (September 23), Amy Wibowo (September 30), Alexei Vranich (October 7), Alec Rivers (October 14), Mark Hatch (11/18), and Michael Allen (12/2). Read about fall talks here.
November 17, 2016
Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla Motors and NuvoMedia, gave a talk called, “Don’t Be Afraid to Do Something Big — And Why Electric Cars Are in Your Future.”
October 13, 2016
Elizabeth Gerber, associate professor at Northwestern University and faculty founder of Design for America, spoke on “Understanding and Designing for Collective Innovation.” View a featured excerpt and watch the Q&A section of the talk.
September 15, 2016
James Tichenor and Joshua Walton of Microsoft HoloLens spoke on “Blurring the Physical and the Digital.”
May 4-5, 2016
Students from 16 courses held in Jacobs Hall showcased their projects. Read about the showcase and Jacobs Hall’s ecosystem of design for real-world impact.
April 1, 2016
Greg Petroff, Chief Experience Officer at GE Software and General Manager of the User Experience Center of Excellence for GE, spoke on “Design and the Internet of Important Things.” Watch a video of the talk.
March 11, 2016
Yoon Lee, Vice President of Insight Concept and Portfolio at Samsung Electronics, spoke on “Designing with Context.” Watch a video of the talk.
March 4, 2016
Steve Johnson, Vice President of User Experience at LinkedIn, spoke on “Beyond Pixels: The Hidden Traits of Great Designers.” Watch a video of the talk.
January 29, 2016
Designer, author, and educator Carla Diana spoke on “Robotics in our Everyday Lives: A Product Designer’s Perspective.”
December 9-10, 2015
Students from the first-ever courses held in Jacobs Hall showcased design work spanning disciplines. Read about the showcase and students’ projects.
November 20, 2015
Ellen Lupton, Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and director of the Graphic Design MFA Program at MICA, spoke on “Design and Storytelling.” Read a recap of fall 2015 Jacobs Design Conversations.
November 13, 2015
Benjamin Joffe, general partner at HAX — the world’s first and largest hardware accelerator — discussed “building a global hardware startup in 2015.” Read a recap of fall 2015 Jacobs Design Conversations.
October 16, 2015
Bernie Roth, Rodney H. Adams Professor of Engineering at Stanford University and Academic Director of Stanford’s d.school, led a session on “Using Design Thinking at Home and at Work.” Read a recap of fall 2015 Jacobs Design Conversations.