Sharon Anderson-Gold Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences
Sharon Anderson-Gold is chair of the STS Department and chair of the steering committee for the Interdisciplinary Programs on Design and Innovation (PDI).
Audrey Bennett Language Literature and Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences
Audrey Bennett is interested in the design of visual treatments and strategies that facilitate user input in the design process. Her teaching includes advanced visual design as well as collaboration with Design Studio 3.
Linnda Caporael Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5407 x8519 caporl@rpi.edu
Linnda Caporael's interests are at the intersection of psychology, culture, and design. Human-built artifacts and systems succeed or fail (or something in between) to support cognition, sociality, and culture. This means that designers have an awesome responsibility. They design minds, human relationships, possibilities, and much more when they design artifacts. She is interested in ways that designers can learn more about people and their experiences of the built world through design research and participatory design. She also facilitates designers becoming more mindful of their own sensory, cognitive, and social experiences. Caporael is currently applying these ideas to a project on humanoid robots.
Jeff Durgee, associate dean of management, is a specialist in marketing.
Ron Eglash Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5114 x2048 mailto:eglash@rpi.edu
Ron Eglash works on culturally-situated design tools, a "two-way bridge across the digital divide": Culturally situated design tools use information technology to "translate" from local knowledge and low-tech practice, to high-tech domains such as math, computer graphics, architecture, etc . His teaching includes Design Studio 5.
Ron Eglash Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5114 x2048 mailto:eglash@rpi.edu
Ron Eglash works on culturally-situated design tools, a "two-way bridge across the digital divide": Culturally situated design tools use information technology to "translate" from local knowledge and low-tech practice, to high-tech domains such as math, computer graphics, architecture, etc . His teaching includes Design Studio 5.
David Hess Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5602 x8509 mailto:hessd@rpi.edu
David Hess teaches undergraduate courses on law and policy aspects of alternative technology design such as renewable energy, car-free transportation, biomedical technologies, and organic food production. He also has a research project on social movements and their role in health, environmental, and technology policy. His teaching includes Design, Innovation, and Society (the first-semester STS course); Social Entrepreneurs and Sustainable Communities (an upper-level elective); and (during 2009) Studio 6.
David Hess teaches undergraduate courses on law and policy aspects of alternative technology design such as renewable energy, car-free transportation, biomedical technologies, and organic food production. He also has a research project on social movements and their role in health, environmental, and technology policy. His teaching includes Design, Innovation, and Society (the first-semester STS course); Social Entrepreneurs and Sustainable Communities (an upper-level elective); and (during 2009) Studio 6.
Abby Kinchy, Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5114 x2048 mailto:kincha@rpi.edu
Abby Kinchy is a sociologist who studies the environment, social movements, and scientific knowledge. She teaches in Studio 2.
Abby Kinchy is a sociologist who studies the environment, social movements, and scientific knowledge. She teaches in Studio 2.
Linda Layne Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5518 x6615 laynel@rpi.edu is interested in the design of feminist technologies. In a book she is co-editing with two other professors from the STS Department, Sharra Vostral and Kate Boyer, she explores whether there is such a thing as a ‘feminist technology’: if there is, what makes it so? Is the feminism in the design process, in the thing itself, in the way it is marketed, or in the way it is used by women and/or by men? What are the consequences if one begins, explicitly, with a feminist agenda for product design and innovation? Layne is also interested in “universal design” and has taught in Design Studio 1.
Dean Nieusma Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5405, x6381 mailto:nieusma@rpi.edu
Dean Nieusma's research areas include interdisciplinary design teaching and practice, appropriate technology design in developing countries, renewable energy technologies, and the relationship between expertise and democratic decision making. His background includes studies in interdisciplinary social sciences as well as mechanical and industrial engineering, and he has worked as a manufacturing engineer in the automotive industry. His teaching includes Design Studios 3 and 6, as well as other courses on design in society.
Barry Stein Business Development Manager, O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory, and adjunct professor of mechanical engineering. Barry Stein brings years of experience in industrial design to the program and teaches in studios 1 and 3.
Mark W. Steiner Director, O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory, and associate dean of engineering. JEC 3222 x2613 mailto:steinm2@rpi.edu Mark Steiner is responsible for overseeing the operation of the Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory and optimizing the experience for students working on "real-world" design problems. He has taught advanced design methods to hundreds of new and experienced engineers. His research interests include: multidisciplinary design pedagogy, product architecture, mechanical reliability, design for manufacture, and quality. His teaching includes Design Studio 2 and advanced design options.
Burt Swersey Mechanical, Aerospace, & Nuclear Engineering, JEC 2049 x6983 mailto:swersb@rpi.edu
Burt Swersey's major interest is to better understand how to create innovative solutions to problems. The first step is to "see what others do not see" and find opportunities and problems that are not apparent to everyone. For example, humans have always wanted to fly like the birds, but the need for overnight delivery or cheap photocopies (xerography) were not appreciated by most people before their dissemination. Chester Carlson developed and patented a photocopy machine but it took him 10 years to convince a small company that there was a need and market for his invention. And Frederic Smith proposed the idea for what became Federal Express in a class at Yale and was told that it would not work, and received a grade of "C". His teaching includes Design Studio 1 and an advanced design option, "Inventor's Studio," which focuses on patenting and where students actually write their own patent applications.
Daniel Walczyk Mechanical, Aerospace, & Nuclear Engineering, JEC 4026 x2397 mailto:walczd@rpi.edu
Daniel Walczyk is interested in rapid manufacturing methods and is affiliated with the Center for Automation Technologies and Systems. He teaches in collaboration with Design Studio 2.
Langdon Winner Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Sage 5118 x6615 winner@rpi.edu
Langdon Winner has been a leader in the development of the analysis of the politics of technology design. His essay "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" in his book The Whale and the Reactor is widely cited in the STS field. He is currently working on a book on the politics of design and doing research on sustainable technologies. He is also co-director of the newly formed Center for Cultural Design. His teaching includes "The Politics of Design" and Design Studio 2.
Ned Woodhouse Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences
Langdon Winner has been a leader in the development of the analysis of the politics of technology design. His essay "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" in his book The Whale and the Reactor is widely cited in the STS field. He is currently working on a book on the politics of design and doing research on sustainable technologies. He is also co-director of the newly formed Center for Cultural Design. His teaching includes "The Politics of Design" and Design Studio 2.
Ned Woodhouse Science and Technology Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences
Ned Woodhouse is interested in decision making, science and technology policy, energy/environment/risk, science as a political phenomenon, and knowledge utilization in politics. He has taught in Design Studio 1 and teaches STS advanced option courses of interest to DIS students.