Addressing Ebola: A Multidisciplinary Approach | Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan

Addressing Ebola: A Multidisciplinary Approach
Stamps Design Charette, January 16-18, 2015

In response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Stamps School is hosting a multi-disciplinary, university-wide Design charette to generate design solutions specific to the Ebola crisis.

January 16-18th (Friday morning through Sunday afternoon), undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and professionals from the Stamps School of Art & Design, the School of Public Health, the Medical School, African Studies and the School of Nursing will work in teams to generate creative responses to three critical healthcare issues: design of personal protection equipment, health communication across cultural and linguistic barriers, and transportation of infected and diseased bodies.

Interested in Participating? Apply here. We will contact you for accepted participation by January 5th.

Why Design?

The Ebola outbreak continues to spread. The problems are plentiful and, in spite of comprehensive international responses, the human and social tolls remain massive. The media, NGOs and official sources including the CDC, International Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres have repeatedly focused on the problems both patients and aid personnel are facing in dealing with this crisis. Many of these problems in impacted areas can be addressed through design. From how to safely use and move biohazard equipment, to communication across cultural and linguistic divides, to disposal of hazardous materials, design can make a difference.

Why a Charette?

A charette is an intensive, multi-disciplinary design workshop among major stakeholders to address a project under development.

Working across multiple disciplines the group’s skills and knowledge in environmental, systemic and elemental design thinking can be used to generate creative responses to this epidemic. As members of a public university community we have a particular responsibility to lend our time and effort to create open source solutions to aid in this developing crisis. As educators, it is an opportunity to be civically responsible and to imbed these values in an educational context for our students, providing contributions to social problems that build on the unique attributes of a diverse research university.

How will it work?

The Stamps Design charette will focus on three themes:

Health communication challenges/empathy across cultural and linguistic divides amidst misinformation and panic.
Suiting, wearing/operation and un-suiting of protective biohazard gear under extreme sanitary and climatic conditions.
Ambulatory transportation and handling of (potentially) infected patients and diseased bodies.

Participants will work in interdisciplinary teams (3-4 teams per theme, 5-7 participants in each team, max 80 ppl) over a 3 day period (See schedule.)

Outcomes

A more comprehensive, relevant and designed understanding of the systemic and elemental problems.
Open source solutions to functional and cultural obstacles in dealing with the disease.
Submission of design solutions to Red Cross, OpenIdeo.org, and other organizations.
Exhibition of teams’ outcomes, as well as website

Interested in Participating? Apply here. We will contact you for accepted participation by January 5th.

For more information please contact Assoc. Prof. Jan-Henrik Andersen.

Program Outline

Schedule is subject to change.

Prior to the charette, we’ll have info Q/A sessions in early December and January on why, who, when, where and how to contribute and participate in the charette.

Orientations will be hosted at Stamps and at the School of Public Health (dates and rooms to be announced).