By Shelby Lohr, April 3, 2023

The Council on Science and Technology’s “Transformations in Engineering and the Arts” course explores how technology and engineering can support creative work.  Through small, interdisciplinary groups, students use their imagination—and an array of theater, recording, and VR materials—to bring their ideas to life.   

Naomi Leonard, Faculty Director of the Council on Science and Technology and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, founded the course in 2016. Other professors joined the series to teach specific units: Maria Garlock and Sigrid Adriaenssens of Civil and Environmental Engineering teach on structure; Adam Finkelstein, Professor in the Computer Science department, instructs students on visuals; and Jeff Snyder, Associate Research Scholar in the Music department, lectures on sound. 

Jonathan Zong described how the course “encouraged a mentality” that if an “idea is fun, interesting, and possible, we should assume that we can figure out the technical part.” This latitude in brainstorming allowed students to pursue threads of inspiration rather than cater projects to suit preexisting skillsets. Students were then able to train in new programs as part of their coursework. 
 

“If an idea is fun, interesting, and possible, we should assume that we can figure out the technical part.’”

Jonathan Zong

One team from the 2022 cohort created a work of biofashion. Students constructed a floor-length skirt equipped with programmed circuits, including robotic artificial leaves which swayed and resembled the sound of rustling leaves. The project complicated the relationship between ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural,’ and invited participants to ask themselves: “When an inanimate object becomes animate, how does our relationship to it change?”  

Payton Crosky worked on the “Breathing Skirt” project and enjoyed the exploration process. Preparation inlvolved reading articles, watching TikToks, and simply “letting our imaginations run wild as we considered where this creative intersection could take us.”

Students learned the skills required to complete the project along the way. While Crosky had some experience in computer science, she learned how to program through a new system for the project. She also obtained experience in building and testing circuits. Another collaborator, Madelyn Dietz, expressed how “it was a big stretch for all of us to learn more coding and learn about soldering for the project.” At the same time, the project allowed her to “learn about a completely new side of art” which she “hadn’t been able to explore before, and probably wouldn’t have been able to explore if not for this project.”  

Dietz described the satisfaction in being able “to see the progress you’re making in real time,” especially in the process of soldering, “which was a complete delight.” 

By attracting students in STEM fields alongside students from more traditionally-creative backgrounds, participants in the course could apply their strengths while expanding their outlook. Student projects maintain aesthetic value, real-world application, and purpose.

In order to encourage this multidisciplinary approach, the Council on Science and Technology partnered with a wide range of STEM and arts programs, including the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Department of Music, and the Lewis Center for the Arts.  

Student participants from creative backgrounds expressed their increased confidence when working within STEM environments. Dietz, for instance, believed the training felt accessible, with the course creating “a segue point in for artistic students” and a “segue point in for [students in] STEM.” For Dietz, this collaboration meant that she now imagines STEM “as another tool” for bringing her ideas to life.  
 

Madelyn Dietz now imagines STEM “as another tool” for bringing her ideas to life

In order to provide students with a workspace for creative experimentation, the Council on Science and Technology developed the StudioLab. Originally designed specifically for the Engineering and the Arts course, the lab’s large studio includes 3D printers, virtual reality equipment, a sprung dance floor, a motion capture system, embroidery machines, and a laser cutter—among sundry additional tools—which students can adapt to suit their vision. StudioLab now houses other courses at the intersection of various disciplines, though the lab remains a communal, creative technology space. The Lab opens to students every weeknight, and attracts some student organizations on weekends. The workspace now doubles as a hub for students outside the course to explore intersections between STEM and art. 

In 2021, another team created a virtual make-your-own-adventure personality quiz. The team’s interactive “Living Comic Strip” combined drawing, videography, and coding to engage in an interactive storytelling exercise.  

Team members started the project with some experience, including through backgrounds in animation and videography. However, the group harnessed the capabilities of StudioLab’s motion capture technology, which involved learning about the program’s capabilities.  

Tyler Ashman, one of the teammates in the comic strip project, worked on “real-time 3D digital scanning” and “creat[ed] models in all sorts of digital programs.” As someone rooted in the arts, Ashman “had never really done engineering… so everything on the engineering side was new.” 

Some of the innovations of the project “Living Comic Strip” project spawned from creative tinkers. Ashman, for instance, “discovered a sort of glitch to the motion capture data,” where if a participant got too close to the camera “it started turning into this sort of kaleidoscope effect.” Pleased with the result, Ashman included these distortion clips between some scene changes to create the impression of moving from a two-dimensional world into three-dimensional one. 

For Ashman, working on the project through COVID proved a welcome respite, a place where he and other students could safely “be together creating something, trying things, [and] being silly.” The collaborative and creative nature of the project allowed for “real joy in the midst of what was otherwise a pretty dark year.” 
 

Some of the innovations of the project “Living Comic Strip” project spawned from creative tinkers. Ashman, for instance, “discovered a sort of glitch to the motion capture data,” where if a participant got too close to the camera “it started turning into this sort of kaleidoscope effect.“

The course makes STEM more accessible to humanities students. Ashman, who came from a more creative background, believes the experience “opened up a world of possibilities.” He had not considered how STEM could apply to his interests because STEM can feel like “such an insular world.” The “Engineering and the Arts” course helps bridge that gap. 

For STEM concentrators, such as Jonathan Zong, the course “lowered a lot of barriers in terms of acquiring materials [and receiving] technical help.” Further, Zong believed that instructors and classmates “modeled a lot of good curiosity and humility” and expressed an interest in “learning from other people’s expertise.”