Distinction in Our Research
The School of Industrial Design's research is interdisciplinary in nature. By working to create and design for new needs, we actively work with professionals across industries and disciplines to deliver through a user-centered research approach.
Lab Directors
Our labs are run by School of Industrial Design professors and tied to both our undergraduate and graduate programs. Over the course of lab-related studios, students have access to the latest and emerging technologies to enable design discovery. Often they collaborate with peers in mechanical or biomechanical engineering in our labs. Additionally, students are often introduced to industry professionals as they take part in sponsored lab projects or present the results of their research.
CoDe Craft Group
CoDe Craft (Computational Design and Craft) is a research group established in 2019 at Georgia Tech. The lab designs and builds computational design tools and methods that integrate everyday craft materials with computing. Exploration is carried out regarding how computing technologies can extend and transform familiar and accessible materials both as tools and as materials. The lab investigates how these combinations can broaden creative possibilities for designers–those who strive to make the world a better place to live in.
Interactive Product Design Lab
This lab focuses on smart technologies and student collaboration (undergraduates through Ph.D.) between designers, engineers, and computer scientists. Wearable technology is a feature of this lab's work, with emphasis on the importance of product concept and audience. Half of the time in the lab is spent on storytelling and figuring out how to communicate the use, value, and meaning of a product to users of that product. The prototyping facilities of this lab come in handy when researchers incorporate models in their communications.
Algorithmic Craft Lab
The Algorithmic Craft Lab focuses on methods of combining endangered and traditional handcraft with algorithmic modeling in order to produce new modes of production.
GM HMI Lab
The GM Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) Lab is interested in the future of transportation. In this lab, students imagine what that future will look, sound, and feel like. The research figures out how will people interact with their vehicles, and what will they do while being driven around by the virtual chauffeurs of autonomous (self-driving) cars.
REAR Lab
The Rehabilitation Engineering and Applied Research Lab (REAR Lab) takes an applied research approach to studying, developing, and enhancing specialized products that increase the health and user experience value of people with disabilities
Body Scan Lab
The Body Scan Lab studies the body shape variations of individuals and global populations to create better-fitting products that improve the quality of human life. The research focuses on creating design tools for the human body using high resolution 3D scanning, free-form CAD software, and digital manufacturing methods.
Health Design CoLab
The Health Design CoLab focuses on interdisciplinary research initiatives that utilize participatory design methods to co-design assistive technology solutions aimed at enhancing the health and living conditions of individuals with disabilities or health-related needs. As a design-oriented research team, we are committed to empowering non-design communities in their health-related design practices by providing innovative design tools, methods, and approaches that facilitate their creation processes.
MultiSense.Studio
MultiSense.Studio focuses on creating inclusive and accessible design solutions through the integration of industrial design, human-computer/AI interaction, and multimodal communication and innovation in assistive technology development. Our research spans tactile and multimodal/embodied learning/cognition and disability studies, aiming to design healthy experiences for individuals with diverse abilities. We prioritize access, literacy, harm reduction for well-being, and align with contemporary movements in disability-first innovation, inclusivity, and universal design for learning. Our ethical technology development is driven by community and participatory-based methods, ensuring our solutions meet the needs of diverse populations.
Robotic Environment Lab
Robotic Environment Lab" is led by Dr. Yixiao Wang, a faculty member at School of Industrial Design, Georgia Institute of Technology. Robotic Environments are built environments embedded with robotic components. This labs aims to explore and investigate how robotic environments can shape our everyday life, both physically and socially, through its interactivity and adaptivity. One of the research themes in this lab is making robotic environments socially intelligent and interactive. In Dr. Wang's vision, our homes, offices, classrooms, public spaces, and even natural environments, when embedded with robotics, could become socially intelligent “Space Agents” as if our friends, partners, companions, caregivers, etc. Many of the lab projects explore socially interactive robotic environments that seem to have emotions, personalities, and even a set of social roles that can improve and empower our everyday lives.