On November 10, 2010, Portland’s Union Bank opened its expansive lobby space to showcase seven University of Oregon innovation-related projects. The event was designed to celebrate the University of Oregon’s achievements in research, innovation, and entrepreneurship and also to increase awareness of the University Venture Development Fund (UVDF) tax credit. Securing gifts for the UVDF is key to keeping these achievements moving forward. Many of the invited attendees included thought leaders, wealth managers, tax advisors, and those affiliated with business and the university.
Each project was provided space in a trade-show type format. The following University of Oregon researcher/innovator/entrepreneur(s) set up booths to display their unique business and innovation:
Green Product Design Network/Product Design Program, University of Oregon
Cascade Prodrug, Inc.
Floragenex, Inc.
Insignia Health, LLC
Mitosciences, Inc.
Nemametrics, LLC
Perpetua Power Source Technologies, Inc.
The Green Product Design Network, a collaboration of several university departments including green chemistry, product design, journalism, and the Center for Sustainable Business Practices, had been invited to participate as a featured booth. University of Oregon’s Professor Jim Hutchison staffed the GPDN table and fielded comments, questions and discussion. By being a part of this event, GPDN and the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts’ Product Design program gained an opportunity for exposure of the University of Oregon’s GPDN and the Product Design program as well as, more specifically, the Workshop on Experimental Materials (a summer 2010 workshop introduced to the UO Product Design program by the GPDN). The evening’s participants were provided a chance to observe a portion of GPDN’s work and community collaboration through its innovative alliance with Arcimoto on the design of sustainable car interiors (see “Designing the Future,” Oregon Daily Emerald, July 26, 2010).
The University of Oregon Product Design students who had participated with the GPDN to create sustainable car interiors were able to experience a cooperative effort between the University’s Product Design program, the GPDN, and two regionally-located businesses, Arcimoto, a Eugene electric car manufacturer, and a Beaverton-based material design company, Uliko Studio.
At the Union Bank event, Professor Hutchison brought and displayed the student-designed front seat that had been thoughtfully fabricated to provide comfort, be sustainable and accessible in an Arcimoto automobile. Joe Morgan, vice president of Arcimoto had expressed approval about his company’s collaboration with the GPDN and commented that the car seat represents a joint effort between the University of Oregon’s GPDN | Product Design program and successful businesses, illuminating sustainability issues and fostering a fresh perspective on creative design applied to the automotive industry.
Able to bring a synthesis of engaging and sustainability-based projects to the Product Design program, the synergetic workshops that the GPDN offers to the UO students in the Product Design program successfully integrate numerous facets: connections to the business community, explorations of the possibilities of sustainable design and development, and an opportunity to create a final product that is unique and inventive.
Currently, the students in the University of Oregon’s Product Design Portland program are engaged in a green office products competition that also came to the program through GPDN.
Story and Photos: Sabina Samiee