IdeaTree Design

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Vital Stats

Erik K

Needham, MA
  • People Doing It0

The Problem

As students at an engineering college with a passion for making a positive difference, our interests lie at the intersection of engineering design and social responsibility. We view engineering as the art of solving problems, and already a host of problems—from education to appropriate technology—are topics in which we can make change, even as college students. There currently exists a gap in the design services these organizations often require; it lies between what they can do themselves and what they would take to a professional, big name design firm. That’s where we come in. We are making a venture to bridge this gap. Currently and unofficially called IdeaTree Design, we are (but are not limited to) college engineering, business and liberal arts students whose experience with design could provide a valuable service to our customers. With a host of nearby colleges to draw members from (Olin College, Babson College, and Wellesley College), we will also empower our own designers with professional-level design experience. Our location in the suburbs of Boston already puts us close to a large number of potential customer organizations, and our contract with Olin College’s enterprise hatchery, called “The Foundry” provides us office space free of charge.

Plan of Action

First, our customers will be non-profit organizations and small socially conscious businesses and start-ups with a focus in an area such as international development or education. Although only a startup, IdeaTree has already started contacting organizations with which it might be able to do business. For instance, we’ve talked to a Chicago-based home for mentally and physically disabled about building a wheelchair coupler to help them save expenses, a Boston-based non-profit working in Haiti and Guatemala about designing a composting toilet, and a Texas-based non-profit about clean energy methods, among others. But this is just for starters— IdeaTree has hopes of becoming the go-to name when someone thinks “socially conscious design”.

Project Updates

11/5/07-Over the summer, Erik and IdeaTree worked on a project for another research team at their school that wanted to design an automated tuberculosis testing device for use in the US and abroad. As their team furthered research in the product, they asked IdeaTree to do some research on US interface design. This involved the group traveling to a number of local hospitals, checking out in-depth how technicians interacted with their machines. After leaving for the summer to their respective home states, IdeaTree came back in the fall to organize another project with a local NPO called Helping Hands. As seeing-eye dogs work for the blind, Helping Hands trains monkeys to help quadriplegics and paraplegics.

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