IDSA SDDC 2026: Sessions
Friday, April 10
Saturday, April 11
Friday, April 10, 2026 | |
| What | Where |
| Friday Concurrent Sessions 1 12:15 PM- 1:30 PM | |
| Student Portfolio Review: Group A | Caddell Building Room 101 |
| "Expectations of an Industrial Designer" - Alison Benz | Architecture East Auditorium |
| Since graduating with a degree in ID from the University of Kansas in 2020 Alison, she’s developed a diverse collection of experiences with innovation consultancies and global brands like Garmin and Coca-Cola. She’ll share the story of her journey and how her role has changed at different companies, showcase a few projects, include tips, and answer your questions. | |
| Sketching Demo - Jeff Smith | 2nd Floor Atrium of Architecture West |
| Jeff is an Industrial Designer, Thinker, Collaborator, and Sketcher. He’ll take you through a useful (and entertaining) sketching demo—using a Sharpie! You’ll be sketching right along with him and getting tips and guidance to improve your sketching skills. Come play with Jeff and get better! | |
| Live Portfolio Reviews and Tips - Wes Hare | 107 Architecture East (1st Floor) |
| Wes is a multidisciplinary designer with over 10 years of experience at design agencies. As part of his most recent role at a design firm in Portland, OR, he helped create their internship program and reviewed hundreds of student portfolios. Wes will review portfolios live in front of you to show you what professionals see and think about your portfolio when they have just minutes to review them. Hint: If you’re feeling brave, bring your portfolio on a thumb drive and es might view your portfolio live in front of the group. | |
| Visual IP: An Industrial Designer’s Value Proposition - Tim Fletcher | 155 Architecture West (1st Floor) |
| Tim will discuss Design Patents, Trade Dress, and Copyright and how they are created, how they are litigated, and to prepare for and explain the value proposition that they bring, by an industrial designer, to the bottom line of business. | |
| Body Scanning (get a 3D model of yourself) and Body Scan Projects | Body Scan Lab (150 Architecture East) |
| The Body Scan Lab focuses on creating design tools for the human body using high-resolution 3D scanning, free-form CAD software, and digital manufacturing methods. Students use their scanning facilities and equipment to develop their own body fitting and creative design projects. Come see what they do, the projects that have been developed, and get your body scanned. You can get a 3D file to use in your own projects. | |
| Georgia Tech ID Studio Tour | Registration Table, 1st Floor Atrium of Architecture West |
| Get a guided tour of the Georgia Tech ID studios led by a student or faculty member. | |
| Friday Concurrent Sessions 2 1:45 PM- 3:00 pm | |
| Student Portfolio Review: Group B | Caddell Building Room 101 |
| KeyShot Lighting Demo - Nick Abbott | Architecture East Auditorium |
| A practical look at what makes a render stand out. This session explores lighting strategies, common rendering mistakes, and subtle details that elevate product visualizations, followed by a live KeyShot demo building a dramatic lighting setup using KeyShot’s physical lighting tools. | |
| Entrepreneurial Design - Stephen Chininis | 2nd Floor Atrium of Architecture West |
| Have you always been Interested in doing your own side hustle? Are you dreaming of creating a startup?Do you wonder if you should try to sell your idea or licensing it? Worried about the best way to protect that amazing idea? We’ll cover this and more as we discuss what it takes to design with an entrepreneurial mindset! | |
| Live Portfolio Reviews and Tips - Wes Hare | 207 Architecture East (2nd Floor) |
| Wes is a multidisciplinary designer with over 10 years of experience at design agencies. As part of his most recent role at a design firm in Portland, OR, he helped create their internship program and reviewed hundreds of student portfolios. Wes will review portfolios live in front of you to show you what professionals see and think about your portfolio when they have just minutes to review them. Hint: If you’re feeling brave, bring your portfolio on a thumb drive and es might view your portfolio live in front of the group. | |
| "Expectations of an Industrial Designer" - Alison Benz | 155 Architecture West (1st Floor) |
| Since graduating with a degree in ID from the University of Kansas in 2020 Alison, she’s developed a diverse collection of experiences with innovation consultancies and global brands like Garmin and Coca-Cola. She’ll share the story of her journey and how her role has changed at different companies, showcase a few projects, include tips, and answer your questions. | |
| Body Scanning (get a 3D model of yourself) and Body Scan Projects | Body Scan Lab (150 Architecture East) |
| The Body Scan Lab focuses on creating design tools for the human body using high-resolution 3D scanning, free-form CAD software, and digital manufacturing methods. Students use their scanning facilities and equipment to develop their own body fitting and creative design projects. Come see what they do, the projects that have been developed, and get your body scanned. You can get a 3D file to use in your own projects. | |
| Georgia Tech ID Studio Tour | Registration Table, 1st Floor Atrium of Architecture West |
| Get a guided tour of the Georgia Tech ID studios led by a student or faculty member. | |
| Friday Concurrent Sessions 3 3:30 PM- 4:45 pm | |
| Student Portfolio Review: Group C | Caddell Building Room 101 |
| "Building Bridges" discussion - Va Tech Students | Architecture East Auditorium |
| Students seek a launch to their careers through meaningful opportunities at school. Whether it be internships, study abroad, or undergraduate research, students need experiences outside of classroom. In this session, Virginia Tech students will host a panel to discuss their successes and failures in building their own bridge to the design profession. For students and professionals, hear first hand experiences and advice from students who have established best practices for applying, completing, and growing from internships, study abroad programs, and undergraduate research. | |
| Sketching Demo - Jeff Smith | 2nd Floor Atrium of Architecture West |
| Jeff is an Industrial Designer, Thinker, Collaborator, and Sketcher. He’ll take you through a useful (and entertaining) sketching demo—using a Sharpie! You’ll be sketching right along with him and getting tips and guidance to improve your sketching skills. Come play with Jeff and get better! | |
| Sustainable/Circular Design Designing for Positive Impact - Aly Khalifa and Lew Epstein | 207 Architecture East (2nd Floor) |
| Turn theory into practice in this hands-on session for industrial designers. We start by exploring two key sustainability frameworks: Circular Design (9Rs) and Cradle to Cradle, then apply them directly to your portfolio. You’ll revisit a past or current project, using these tools to uncover hidden opportunities and identify specific design changes that boost environmental performance. The session wraps up with a collective debrief to ensure every participant is better prepared to design for positive impact moving forward. | |
| Visual IP: An Industrial Designer’s Value Proposition - Tim Fletcher | 155 Architecture West (1st Floor) |
| Tim will discuss Design Patents, Trade Dress, and Copyright and how they are created, how they are litigated, and to prepare for and explain the value proposition that they bring, by an industrial designer, to the bottom line of business. | |
| Body Scanning (get a 3D model of yourself) and Body Scan Projects | Body Scan Lab (150 Architecture East) |
| The Body Scan Lab focuses on creating design tools for the human body using high-resolution 3D scanning, free-form CAD software, and digital manufacturing methods. Students use their scanning facilities and equipment to develop their own body fitting and creative design projects. Come see what they do, the projects that have been developed, and get your body scanned. You can get a 3D file to use in your own projects. | |
| Georgia Tech ID Studio Tour | Registration Table, 1st Floor Atrium of Architecture West |
| Get a guided tour of the Georgia Tech ID studios led by a student or faculty member. | |
| Georgia Tech Graduate ID Program - Tim Purdy, Graduate Program Coordinator | Registration Table, 1st Floor Atrium of Architecture West |
| Thinking about getting your graduate degree? Get a guided tour and talk with time about the Georgia Tech Graduate ID program. | |
Saturday, April 11, 2026 | |
| What | Where |
| Saturday Concurrent Sessions 1 9:15 AM- 11:00 AM | |
| Speakers and Discussion: | College of Computing Room 16 |
| AI Design Tools in Professional Practice | |
| What are the practical, ethical, legal Implications of AI technology and tools in product design? What works, what doesn't, how do you address this with clients, corporate policies, etc. They will also be taking questions from the audience. Panelists: Brian Leonard, Lenovo Damian Mycroft, Newell Brands Corey Vaughn, Kickr Design Per Magnus Skold, TriMech Design Solutions Moderated by Jeff Smith, Autodesk | |
| Speakers and Discussion: | Caddell Building Room 101 |
| Sustainable and Circular Design and Innovation - Aly Khalifa and Lew Epstein | |
| Designing for Positive Impact: Turn theory into practice in this hands-on session for industrial designers. Aly and Lew will start by exploring two key sustainability frameworks: Circular Design (9Rs) and Cradle to Cradle, then apply them directly to your portfolio. You’ll revisit a past or current project, using these tools to uncover hidden opportunities and identify specific design changes that boost environmental performance. The session wraps up with a collective debrief to ensure every participant is better prepared to design for positive impact moving forward. This discussion will be a catalyst for questions to probe and elaborate on. | |
| Saturday Concurrent Sessions 2 4:15 PM- 6:00 PM | |
| Speakers and Discussion: | College of Computing Room 16 |
| Talking About Design Education - Moderated by Kevin Shankwiler | |
| Kevin will be leading a discussion/session on the connection between academia and practice of ID. We’ll explore such topics as: 1. What new/emerging skills do graduates need to have? 2. What is the practice looking for in a portfolio? 3. How is design education moving the profession forward? 4. What do our students need to know regarding AI? 5. What does success look like for first-year employees? 6. And others…. | |
| Speakers and Discussion: | Caddell Building Room 101 |
| Designing Your Career - Angela Yeh and Michelle Berryman | |
| Angela and Michelle will talk about what they do, their career paths, and what they've learned about building a design career and how they advise others (students, professionals) about their careers. Their goal is to help you better understand the strengths you have built over time and how those capabilities can continue to evolve into greater opportunities for influence, leadership, and impact. This will be an open discussion with participation from the audience. | |