Studio Culture
At Georgia Tech, there's a difference between studio classes and other classes that consist of lectures and exams. You can cram for an exam, but studio classes are based on projects that require continual development, focus, and review, and involve an onslaught of real-world problems.
Studio classes are the foundation of the industrial design curriculum. Studios are available 24 hours a day, as are the workshop and the adjacent Interactive Product Design Laboratory. Our studios are equipped with sufficient power sources, technology, and reconfigurable furniture to allow for long, productive hours of collaboration and rapid prototyping.
A signature feature of our studio classes is an interdisciplinary culture: Our industrial design program is outward looking, developing critical ties to other programs on campus. We invite other groups at Georgia Tech into our studios to participate in the design process. That's why industry values our program so much: Most professional-level work is executed in a team environment, where problem-solving depends on collaboration.
Metalworking
Sparks and flames aren't the only products of the metalworking machines in the shop. Students use plasma cutters to create parts for their prototypes that later get welded together, and there are also machines that form and manipulate sheet metal, bend piping, and punch holes.
Woodworking
From chairs and lamps to parking kiosks and soda machines, industrial design students use wood to create models of the projects they're working on. Traditional cutting tools like table saws and band saws are complemented by a host of industry-used machining and cutting tools, like 5-axis routers and other computer numerical controlled machines.
Plastic Fabrication
Plastics are a fast and functional aspect of prototyping for industrial design students. They can replace the need for large 3D-printed parts and can easily be manipulated by hand. The College of Design Shop offers vacuforming, casting, and thermoforming capabilities.
Rapid Prototyping
The College of Design Shop offers a print lab that is essentially a well-equipped Maker space. Multiple desktop 3D printers and an industrial sewing machine are augmented by much larger, high-end 3D printers and laser cutters.
Digital Fabrication Lab
The Design Shop at the College serves the needs of most student projects, but for exceptionally large projects or specific graduate research, the Digital Fabrication Laboratory works with students on a case-by-case basis. Located on the far side of campus on Marietta Street, the 13,000-square-foot Digital Fabrication Laboratory focuses on manufacturing, fabrication, prototyping, and construction – and the subsequent testing and analysis of fabricated assemblies and materials.