MIAD Industrial Design students dominated the student awards at the annual Society of Plastics Engineer Rotational Molding Division 2013-2014 Product Design Competition. This marks the first year that MIAD students participated in the competition, and the outcome was impressive.
Kyle Anderson ’15 (Industrial Design) won first place with his iCoustics design, an iPhone speaker amplifier. iCoustics looks like a sleek, non-electronic iPhone docking station, but works by amplifying the phone’s existing speaker using a bullhorn effect.
“I originally saw a life-hack online where someone cut up a Solo cup and used that as an amplifier.” Anderson combined the idea with his knowledge of rotational molding, and camp up with the simple form of the iCoustics design.
Jacqueline Edwards ’15 (Industrial Design) won second place with her Children’s Hospital Wagon. The wagon is a redesign of the standard Radio Flyer Wagon, but the innovation caters to children who do not have full range of motion in their legs.
Edwards’ inspiration for the wagon came from her family. “Growing up, I had a sister with mobility issues, and she was unable to straighten her legs. I remember sitting on the floor and just staring at her legs, watching how she moved them…. When the class was given the competition brief, this memory kept coming to my mind, and I knew it was a sign I needed to pursue this idea.”
MIAD Industrial Design students also swept all 10 Honorable Mentions. Honorable Mentions include: Laetitia Diouet ’15, Nicole Rybacek ’15, Anthony Graykowski ’14, Caitlin Washburn ’14, Sahana Parvath Mahadevan ’15, Celia Carroll ’15, Dan Mai ’15, Gaol Naopao ’15, Zeke Johnson ’15 and Joshua Govek ’15.
Click here for more information on MIAD’s Industrial Design program.
First image: Anderson’s iCoustics
Second image: Edwards’ Children’s Hospital Wagon
