Faculty
Karl Daubmann is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. He has also taught at the Boston Architectural Center, Roger Williams University, and the University of Cincinnati. He teaches seminars in digital media, fabrication, and interactive design. Daubmann received his bachelor of architecture from Roger Williams and a master of science in architectural studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A registered architect in Michigan, Karl is also a principal of
PLY Architecture. PLY was established with the intention of putting ideas into action through built form. The work of PLY has been published nationally and internationally and received awards for both built and speculative projects. He was a recipient of the 2006 Architectural League of New York, Young Architects Award; the AIA 2010 Small Project Practitioners Award; and the 2010 Architect Magazine's R+D Award for architectural research.
His work in both practice and research investigates the role of digital technology on design, originally through simulation of real world phenomena and more recently through techniques of digital fabrication and methods for the description of complex form. His writings have been included in Future Wood – Innovation in Building Design + Manufacturing, Fabrications, and Smart Graphics – American Association for Artificial Intelligence.
John Marshall’s practice and research focuses on a discipline-agnostic approach to designing and making that recognizes the boundaries of the problem being addressed, not the artificial boundaries of traditionally-defined disciplinary practice. In 1998, he co-founded
rootoftwo - a hybrid art and design studio that makes experimental objects and spaces that seek to challenge perceptions, expectations and established behavior. Marshall’s current scholarly research seeks a better understanding of what makes cross-disciplinary collaborations successful. He has presented and published his research in Brazil, China, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Macedonia, UK and US.
John is an Assistant Professor in the School of Art & Design and an Assistant Professor of Architecture in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and is a participating faculty member on the Design Science PhD Program at the University of Michigan. From 1999-2003 he worked as a model maker and designer as part of a collaborative product development team at consumer baby products manufacturer Evenflo Company, Inc.
Max Shtein's research is focused on organic semiconductors, organic-inorganic hybrid materials and nanocomposites geared toward efficient energy conversion. His research group studies the physical properties of these materials and applies this knowledge to solid state device design and fabrication. In particular, devices of interest include transistors, LEDs, solar cells,
memories, near-field optical microscopy probes, and others. Shtein has made key contributions in developing commercially-viable techniques for manufacturing organic light-emitting diodes, transistors and solar cells, which hold tremendous promise for efficient and cost-effective energy and lighting, among other applications. The techniques he helped to develop include organic vapor phase deposition and organic vapor jet printing.
Max received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy. It is the highest honor the federal government gives to early-career scientists and engineers.
Max is an Associate Professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering; Macromolecular Science and Engineering; and Chemical Engineering. He is also an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design.
Guests
Sabrina Raaf, a Chicago-based artist, works in experimental sculptural media and also designs responsive environments and social spaces. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at the ZERO1 Biennial (2011, San Jose), Brandts Art Center (Denmark), Transitio_MX (Mexico City), Sala Parpalló (Spain), MejanLabs (Stockholm), Lawimore Projects (Seattle), the Edith-Russ-Site for Media Art (Germany), Stefan Stux Gallery (NYC), Ars Electronica (Linz), Museum Tinguely (Basel), Espace Landowski (Paris), Kunsthaus Graz (Austria), and ISEA 2004
(Helsinki). She was the recipient of a Creative Capital Grant in Emerging Fields (2002) and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship (2005 &2001). Reviews of her work have appeared in Art in America,
Contemporary, Chicago Tribune Sunday Magazine, Leonardo, The Washington Post, and New Art Examiner. She received an MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1999) and is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
David Bruemmer is Vice President of R&D at 5D Robotics, Inc. (5D) is a software products and services company that works with many different vehicle and sensor providers to provide increased safety, efficiency and simplified control. 5D has developed software modules for navigation, mapping and localization and mobile manipulation to provide an interchangeable suite of tasking functionality for many different mobile vehicles. Ultimately, the 5D software is geared towards the productivity acceleration that occurs when humans and robots are enabled to work together in the easiest and most productive way possible. 5D has intellectual property including 11 patents on applications of their behaviors to provide safe motion, obstacle avoidance, shared control, motion trajectory detection, dynamic follow and many others. The performance benefits of these behaviors have been analyzed and rigorously assessed by the Army and Navy for use on explosive ordinance disposal, landmine, and chemical detection robots. The 5D behaviors lower workload, time to task completion and operator error by more than half.
Previously, David was a Principal Research Scientist at the Idaho National Laboratory where he served as Technical Director for Unmanned Ground Vehicle Systems. He was the recipient of the 2002 AAAI Technology Innovation Award and was awarded 1st place in the 2003 International Robot Rescue Competition in Acapulco Mexico. He has been guest editor of the IEEE Intelligent Systems Magazine and was Program Chair for the SIG-CHI 2005 Conference on Human Robot Interaction. His interests include swarm robotics, humanoid robotics and teaming between unmanned air and ground vehicles. In particular, he is interested in studying the fundamental challenges of getting humans and robots to interact as peers.
David C. Michener is Associate Curator of The University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.
David is the author of numerous technical reports and papers, many for agencies. He is a long-serving member and past chair of the Editorial Committee for The Public Garden. For popular audiences, David is the co-author of Taylor’s Guide to Groundcovers, and he has coauthored articles in Horticulture magazine. His own garden has appeared in several publications, and he is a popular public speaker. David has led garden-study tours in Asia, Europe, New Zealand, and North America.
David holds a B.A with Highest Honors in Botany from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Botany from Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California.
Eugene
Shteyn holds twenty-five US patents and is a named inventor on more than forty patents pending (in software architecture, digital entertainment, Internet services, nanotechnology, and other areas). Shteyn develops inventions and identifies potential markets for technology transfer and intellectual property licensing in the clean energy industry. Previously he was Director of IP Licensing at Hewlett-Packard, a principal scientist at Philips Research Silicon Valley, an innovation consultant for Roche, and an inventor for Intellectual Ventures.
Much of his work is represented in high tech products and industry standards. Shteyn has received degrees in mechanical engineering and computer science.
Eugene is Director of Invention Development at Ambature (a company founded in 2007 for the purpose of developing technologies that can significantly improve the efficiency of electrical energy generation, distribution and usage). He also teaches courses in Invention and Innovation at Stanford University.
Thorsten Klooster is an architect in Berlin and the editor of the book '
Smart Surfaces: and their Application in Architecture and Design'. He has worked on the planning, detailing and construction administration of several projects, including residential, commercial and public buildings. He has been part of the team of the DFG Research Group for Technical Sciences at Fraunhofer-Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK in Berlin. In 2007 he established TASK Architekten, based in Berlin. His current work is on display at the Architecture Forum Aedes Berlin. From 2002 to 2007, he taught design at the Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus and has been guest critic, public lecturer and expert at several schools and institutions in Germany and abroad, including at the IBA Hamburg 2013, Academy Solitude Palace Stuttgart and IUAV Venice. One of his research areas is New Materials, with an emphasis on functional surfaces. Since 2009, together with the artist Heike Klussmann, he has headed the working group “BlingCrete” at the University of Kassel, which is devoted to the development of new materials concepts. One emphasis is on the functional design of concrete surfaces. Along with architecture and art, “
BlingCrete” unites expertise from the areas of product design, materials technology, and nanotechnology. It is promoted by the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations AiF e.V. (funding agency).
Geoffrey Mann is a Scottish artist, designer and lecturer whose fascination with transposing the ephemeral nature of time and motion has created a studio practice that challenges the existing divides between art, craft and design. He has exhibited in National and International venues including MoMA New York; International Bombay Sapphire Awards, London and Milan, Jerwood Contemporary Makers exhibition, MAD New York and the European Glass Context in Denmark. In 2008, Mann was awarded the World Craft Council Prize for Glass and in 2009 won the Jerwood Contemporary Makers Prize. Mann has work included in MoMA New York, Design and Architecture collection and MAD New York, Design and Applied permanent collections.
Julian Bleecker is a designer, technologist and researcher at the Design Strategic Projects studio at Nokia Design in Los Angeles and co-founder with Nicolas Nova of the
Near Future Laboratory, their design-to-think studio. He lectures and leads workshops on the intersections of art, design, technology and the near-future possibilities for new social-technical interaction rituals. He has taught interactive media at Parson’s School of Design and the University of Southern California. Julian has given talks and exhibited many of his emerging technology projects, designs and concepts in venues such as SIGGRAPH, LIFT, Xerox PARC, O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference and Where 2.0 Conference on Location-Based Technology, Ubicomp, Ars Electronica, ACM SIGCHI, ACM Advances in Computer Entertainment, Banff New Media Institute, American Museum of the Moving Image, Art Interactive, Boston Cyberarts Festival, SHiFT, Reboot, Eyebeam Atelier, and SK Telecom’s Art Center Nabi.
He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, a Master’s Degree from the University of Washington, Seattle, in Computer-Human Interaction, and a Ph.D. from the University of
California, Santa Cruz where his dissertation is on technology, culture and entertainment. He was formally a Professor of Interactive Media at the University of Southern California. He serves as an adviser to the US Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 World Expo, and is on the board of advisors the Lift Conference and can often be found jurying international art-technology conferences. He is presently conducting a
research study on the relationships between art, technology and innovation practices under a grant from the University of Southern California’s Provost’s Office and completing a book on “New Interaction
Rituals” and a pamphlet for the Architectural League on urban networks. His current interests include: Design, Science Fiction, Film, Urban Space, Future Things and strategies for thinking about and creating conversations that lead to more habitable near future worlds.
Prior to teaching at Yale, Ms. Addington taught at Harvard University for ten years and before that at Temple University and Philadelphia University. Her background includes work at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, where she developed structural data for composite materials and designed components for unmanned spacecraft. Ms. Addington then spent a decade as a process design and power plant engineer as well as a manufacturing supervisor at DuPont, and after studying architecture, she was an architectural associate at a firm based in Philadelphia. She researches discrete systems and technology transfer, and she serves as an adviser on energy and sustainability for many organizations, including the Department of Energy and the AIA. Her chapters and articles on energy, environmental systems, lighting, and materials have appeared in many books and journals and she recently co-authored Smart Materials and Technologies for the Architecture and Design Professions. She received a B.S.M.E. from Tulane University, a B.Arch. from Temple University, a M.Des.S. and a D.Des. from Harvard University.
Students
Dylan Box is a Senior in the Art & Design program studying Industrial and Graphic Design. Focusing on social entrepreneurship and social design, he is currently working on architectural design of community water centers with
WaterHealth India. In addition to not sleeping throughout most of the year, he organizes the Design team for
TEDxUofM, and is the layout editor of the campus humor magazine, The Gargoyle.
Lindsey Fox is currently a junior in the school of art and design with a minor in environmental science and geology at the University of Michigan. She focuses primarily in the area of fibers with sculptural and printmaking endeavors as well. Through this fibers exploration she has found a niche in the area of surface design, not only as a purely visual creation, but exploring into the realms of smart and responsive surfaces. Lindsey uses her strong interest in plants, sustainability, geology, and other more environmentally centered disciplines to guide her designs and way of thinking. She plans to study abroad in the UK to further pursue this interest in surface design during Winter 2012.
Micaela McCabe is a junior in the dual-degree program, studying International Development and Social Change as well as Art and Design with a minor in Multidisciplinary Design. She is taking Smart Surfaces for the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from students from other disciplines as well as expand her own skill set in the field of design. She is especially excited to be working with Power House this semester as it fits beautifully with her interest in product design to support development. Micaela is involved in AIESEC, Alternative Spring Break, and the Pantanal Partnership, and is an avid participant in IM Sports.
Rachel Meyers is a Junior in the Art & Design program. She is a mostly self-taught computer freak who enjoys technology and computer languages. Rachel loves the outdoors and biological sciences, and has worked on Horticulture staff at Frederik Meijer Gardens. Because of this interest in biological science, Rachel is obsessed with biomimicry and patterning. Which, in addition to getting to learn more about computers and technology, is what made Rachel apply to the smart surfaces course.
Brian is currently studying at the School of Art & Design, previously studied at the Taubman College of Architecture. Through his studies, he has found many overlaps between the two and has experienced how each can inform the other. He is interested in a popular concept of rapid prototyping where the initial mold can be multi-faceted with exponential outcomes.
I am a junior in the School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. My second year at the university I spent a lot of time focusing on graphic design. This year my interests have expanded to product design, industrial design and more hands-on skills. I am also very interested in green technology and sustainable energy solutions. I am eager to work with other students outside my department and collaborate on real-world projects.
Stephanie Schutter is a Junior in the School of Art & Design with a focus on Industrial and Product Design. Her primary goal through her work is to meet needs by creating more than just a product. The ultimate object is create an heirloom object that will be in use and loved for generations to come. Driven by curiosity, she entered Smart Surfaces for the opportunity to be challenged to breaking point, to learn new tools for future endeavors, and to start working alongside people of differing viewpoints...because she might be doing that for the rest of her life and had to start sometime!
Natalie Smith is a junior in the BFA program at University of Michigan's School of Art and Design, focusing in Animation and Visual Effects. Her interests continue to broaden throughout college as different opportunities have risen. Natalie is super stoked to be working with the Power House in Detroit, and to be able to create something for them. While committed SmartSurfaces, she plans to take advantage of the adventures and new experiences that the course has to offer. She is most looking forward to learning new skills, and working in groups of people from different disciplines. When Natalie's time isn't consumed by SmartSurfaces, she loves swimming, running, hiking, traveling, knitting, and crocheting. After graduating she hopes to work in a major animation studio or creating visual effects within the film industry.
Steven Griffiths is a senior in Materials Science and Engineering. His primary research experience has been in photovoltaic applications in both academia (with Professor Akram Boukai) and in industry (with Dow Corning). Steven’s interest in alternative energy spills over into his passion for environmental conservatism and resource responsibility. This fuels his excitement to work with the Power House in Detroit this semester. He is thrilled to be a part of this collaborative effort, comprised of architecture, art & design, and fellow engineering students to conceive and create smart surfaces. Steven hopes to both work and play hard in Design Laboratory 1, and he can’t wait to see what the class comes up with.
Garret Huff is a senior majoring in Materials Science & Engineering and minoring in German. Since arriving at Michigan in 2008 and through last year, he was heavily involved in the MRacing Formula SAE team, which designs, builds and races a formula-style racecar every year. In addition to being a racecar driver and engineer, Garret's resumé includes research experience and internships, which have focused on metals and advanced ceramics. Over the summer, he worked in a team at Bosch in Stuttgart, Germany, which focuses on developing materials for energy applications. For Garret, the opportunity to work with students from other majors and attempt to solve today's problems is a fantastic one, and he looks forward to seeing how we may mold the future of energy efficient housing.
Justin Moyer is a senior studying Materials Science and Engineering. He is a member of the Engineering Global Leadership Honors Program and will receive a BSE in 2012 and an MSE in 2013. He is also a peer advisor for the University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship where he helps students interested in starting businesses or developing the entrepreneurial mindset. He is involved in a number of alternative energy / sustainability projects and would one day like to start a company in the CleanTech space.
Kevin is a senior in the Materials Science and Engineering program. He has performed researched in the fields of photovoltaics, thermoelectric devices, and several other renewable type projects. The draw of the SmartSurfaces course is the ability to take the project all the way to its conclusion and build it, something that is rare in the MSE department. Outside of class, Kevin is the vice-president of the Michigan Materials Society.
Payton Spaller is currently a senior in Materials Science and Engineering. He is interested in this class because of the opportunity to design and build with people outside his own major. Creating an installation in Detroit, The Motor City, centered on renewable energy is another impetus in his joining the class. Having a class which blends his personal interests in fabrication, photography, and Arduino were all the more reason to take advantage of the opportunity and join.
Branden is a dual degree Master of Architecture and Master of Construction Engineering student at the University of Michigan. His academic endeavors focus on the application of construction knowledge to the design process. He believes that a closer integration of these two fields will create improved Architecture, greater environmental benefits, and reduced costs to architects, contractors, and owners. Furthermore, he is also interested in global markets and entrepreneurship, and is always thinking of ways to leverage the building industry's creative and constructive talents.
Maria Galarza is a 3rd year graduate student completing a Masters in Architecture and Urban Planning. Her interest are social,economic and political conditions in large urbanized areas and their relationship to the built environment.
My mother always said I was handy...
"Computers are useful. They always give you answers."
restless wanderer. scavenger. innovator. maker.
experimental filmmaker + photographer. currently studying architecture to explore the intersections between film, space + time. inquisitive about signs of life in strange places. fascinated by human interaction with constructed environment. seeks solace within collective anonymity. finds refuge in great bodies of water.
I'm a 2nd year graduate at TCAUP. My hobbies are skiing, surfing, photography. I own a photography gallery that operates in the summer in Northern Michigan called
Leelanau Lab. As it pertains to architecture, I've spent most of my professional life at
LMN in Seattle where I worked as a designer on large scale mixed use developments. I currently work with Powerleap in Ann Arbor as a designer of energy harvesting and data gathering floor systems. Earlier this year I bought an Arduino, in coordination with Responsive Surfaces, and have since been using it for applications in energy reduction via lighting automation in my gallery. I'm excited and honored to work with Karl, John, and Max and hope to design and build respected projects.
I am a 2G graduate architecture student. I graduated in 2009 from the University of Waterloo in Canada with a 5 year bachelor degree in Architectural Studies. During undergrad I traveled, worked and studied abroad extensively. I started a rendering business in Canada in 2007 and is constantly looking for new opportunities to apply my skills and knowledge. I am currently focused on gaining and improving my fabrication/digital prototyping skill set, as well as learning parametric modeling and scripting. I would like to pursue my future careers in China and is excited at the possibilities for design innovations and challenges.
Lauren Vasey is an architectural Masters candidate at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at University of Michigan. Prior to coming to Michigan, she received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Tufts University in 2008 where she studied civil engineering and architectural studies and had an interest in art history and computer science.
Lauren is interested in the redefining architecture's disciplinary boundaries through the importation and application of technology into the process and production of architecture. As a maker, she is interested in
material and structural behavior becoming active inputs in the design architectural form.
At Michigan, she is active in ongoing research initiatives in the FABlab, where she a contributing member of the Fabrication Robotics Network, an open source collaboration for the advancement of robotic fabrication methods in architecture.
Ning Wang is an architecture student in University of Michigan. She finished her undergraduate education in China's first interdisciplinary prgoram - Yuanpei College in Peking University and concentrated on mathematics. After that, she decided to pursue her longtime dream of architecture in the graduate program. She is a geek in parametric design and scripting, but also a big fan of handcraft. She took most of the digital fabrication courses in Taubman College and is working as TA in the FabLab there now.
She is always interested in interdisciplinary study and design, since she thinks architecture is a perfect example of interdisciplinary discipline. She wants to design smart buildings which would respond to environmental inputs and contextual condition. And SmartSurfaces is a perfect threshold platform for this goal.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
Jingyao Wu is a Master of Architecture student at the University of Michigan. Before starting her graduate education in the UM, she received bachelor of architecture from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in China. She is interested in exploring what architecture could be like with parametric implements and how design can be incorporated with technologies to bring social and environment benefits to our future life.
