During the transition period from our India project to local partners, the team worked to prepare ourselves for potential new projects. Part of this preparation process was refreshing and adding new knowledge on principles of socially engaged design with two great workshops from CSED. We attended two workshops: Introduction to Socially Engaged Design and Identity, Power, and Privilege in Design. These sessions were extremely useful and relevant to the sustainable co-design focus of BLUElab, our BLUElab Metro mission statement, and the work we would soon begin on our new project with MSSI. The workshops reminded us of constantly considering the greater context of our design solutions, how our own personal identities could influence these designs, and how we can iteratively move through the design process as new information becomes available. The CSED facilitators were incredibly helpful at moving conversations along and stimulating reflective discussions. The workshops were very beneficial as we began to consider how best to address the community's needs in our partnership with MSSI. To learn more about workshops at CSED you can visit their website at: https://csed.engin.umich.edu/workshops/
- bluelabmetro