Revived activity in the Atlanta chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America and a new membership policy have strengthened student access to professional connections.

"The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is the professional society of our discipline," said Kevin Shankwiler, senior lecturer in the School of Industrial Design. "It serves to both further the discipline of industrial design in practice as well as the education of new generations of industrial designers."

"Historically, it's been a fantastic resource for us as a school, for building community amongst other designers, for subject matter experts, and for networking. In many of my classes guest speakers come in or sponsor projects like that, and it's because of all the connections i've made through IDSA. So, that was a direct benefit."

Over the course of the pandemic, however, much of that association went dormant.

"About three years ago, somebody lost the thread and [the regional chapter] just kind of stopped being active," said Stephen Chininis, professor of practice in the School. "We're not sure exactly what happened, but it just stopped. Everybody kind of said, 'Well, who's in charge?' Nobody could figure it out."

"About a year ago, a group of us got together and said we need to get more active. It's important. So we got IDSA involved and found out that they had lost the chain too. Nobody knew who had the bank accounts and things like that, and so we just restarted."

"Now we have new officers, and my technical role is like liaison between IDSA and the school," Chininis said. "I just found out that I'm also going to be the liaison for student IDSA."

A new membership policy improves student access to IDSA resources, said Chininis. "IDSA came up recently with a new plan for schools. Instead of each student joining, there was a way for them to have the School be a member, like everyone."

"We've done that recently. This is the first year, I think. So all faculty members are IDSA members and all students are student members."

"It's great because it allows us to have an easier access to the industry in the immediate area. We can send to their mailing list, get people in the area to come in and do critiques and all kinds of things like that."

"The connection to big IDSA is very simple: it's jobs," Chininis said. "We're setting up, for the first time ever, a career fair this February. We'll do it with the help of IDSA. Because we have alumni everywhere, but in some situations we don't have the right people in the right places. We'll want to have everybody big in town represented and people that aren't in town as well."

"The other thing is like from a social point of view it's really great for the students. Actually, professionals like it too, rubbing elbows with the students, seeing what's going on, like 'What do you think of AI?' you know? That's what Launchpad Design Showcase is really all about, giving an opportunity for that to happen."

"It helps us out because you get to speak to somebody who might interview you in the future, and in a social environment, not something where you have to be nervous."