Dr. Oh's class is titled "Creative Reuse of Useless," and the goal of it is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationships among prototyping smart products, environmentally responsive design, and the circular economy by the end of the semester. The class aligns with several of Sustainability Next's education strategies: (1) connecting SDG concepts to class activities (case studies and projects); (2) facilitating community engagement by partnering with a local recycling organization, Live Thrive, for field trips and material sourcing for students' upcycling projects; and (3) connecting with Georgia Tech's Office of Sustainability program manager, Steve Place, for a campus recycling facility tour with his lecture on Georgia Tech's recycling ecosystem.
When redesigning the course, Dr. Oh decided to move the SDG case study activity to an earlier portion of the semester due to how it enhanced students' comprehensive understanding of sustainability. By doing this, she also emphasized the role of creative individuals contributing to each of the SDGs in their case studies. This approach empowered the students to recognize the critical contributions they can make through their design practices, rather than thinking that all important sustainability-relevant decisions are made by politicians.
When assessing the final outcome, Dr. Oh believes it to be a ~70% success as 8 out of 11 students demonstrated competitive sustainable design projects that connected their personal interests with sustainability themes and applied upcycling design and fabrication methods. In her report, she goes on to discuss one of the strong student projects, titled "Renew" developed by a senior Industrial Design student, Hope Rackers. Renew is a backpack that can be transformed to a bed for the homeless made from upcycled plastic bags. The School of Industrial Design holds an annual design competition called the Richard Martin and Barbara Rose Humanitarian Design Award for all undergraduate Industrial Design majors. Hope submitted Renew, which was developed by bridging SDG themes #11(Sustainable Cities and Communities) and #12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and received third place.
"This has been an encouraging learning experience, not just for students but also for myself as faculty. I wanted to use this program as a professional development opportunity to deepen my knowledge of sustainability and strengthen the connection of my research and teaching with sustainability."