Kimberlee Wilkens and Michael Seskauskas, featured article in Innovation

Kimberlee Wilkens, Assistant Professor of Industrial Design, and Michael Seskauskas, Visiting Instructor of Industrial Design, recently collaborated on an article featured in the current issue of Innovation, the quarterly publication of IDSA.

Their article, “Making a Case for a Design-Focused Foundation Year”, details the success of the UIC School of Design First Year Experience, an exploratory approach that delays the declaration of a disciplinary major to provide a robust design-centric series of courses developed to balance the hard and soft skills needed for a firm footing in the field and to adapt to the complex and ever-evolving environment of professional design practice. Their contribution to the issue’s theme—Changing Direction: New Pedagogies Of Design Education—is one of several submissions by a group of pioneering educators who are embracing new models of industrial design education.