Andrew Davidson

The Boys in the Boat: Reimagining the ASUW Shell House (image by Kristine Matthews)

In Spring 2022, UW students from the Division of Design and Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) explored concepts for interactive exhibits about the history of the ASUW Shell House, home of the UW’s 1936 rowing team.

This team, whose story is told in Daniel James Brown’s book The Boys in the Boat, won a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, defeating the world’s best crew teams in a stunning victory in front of Adolf Hitler.

The UW student teams developed prototypes of exhibit designs in a course led by UW faculty. They were advised by ASUW Shell House Capital Campaign Manager Nicole Klein. The teams presented their project concepts at a showcase event on Tuesday, June 7th, 2022, in the Shell House.

More about the course and the projects can be found below.

Faculty:

• Andrew Davidson, Associate Teaching Professor, HCDE
• Kristine Matthews, Associate Professor, Visual Communication Design
• Plamena Milusheva, Physical Experience Designer

More information about this project, and presentations of the prototypes, may be found here: The Boys in the Boat, DRG 2022.

We have launched the 2018 HCDE Alternative Spring Break project. This year, we will be taking two teams back to Neah Bay to focus on digital storytelling with their students at both Neah Bay HS and Markishtum MS.

I am proud to be working with a talented and dedicated team of UW students making an enormous positive contribution in our state. They are volunteering their time and expertise for engineering outreach, and will be inspiring and mentoring K-12 students during their spring break this year.

The HCDE Alternative Spring Break 2018 Team

Standing, L to R: Melissa Birchfield, Noelle Merclich, Yeh-Eun Lee, Pooja Ghelani, Jojo Le, Nate Young, Sam Gil-Vargas, Elena Agapie, Melody Xu, Andy Davidson
Seated, L to R: Bonnie Tran, Aylee Neff, Linda Nguyen, Jon Cole

Our HCDE team spent spring break giving a week-long workshop in Design Thinking for the 6th—8th grade students of Markishtum Middle School in the Makah Tribe town of Neah Bay, Washington.

This workshop, designed and led by HCDE students, was part of the UW Pipeline Project’s Alternative Spring Break program.

UW-TV produced a short video that beautifully captures the experience.

hcde.uw.edu/videos/asb

The team:

• Catie Baker, Outreach Coordinator (CSE PhD ’17)
• Andrew Davidson, Faculty Director
• Lydia Davison, BS ’17
• Michael Fernandes, BS ’17
• Samantha Gil-Vargas, BS ’18
• Leyla Ibrahim BS ’17
• Valerie Najera, BS ’17
• Karin Vaughan, BS ’17

Thanks to Christine Stickler, UW Pipeline Project Director; Leah Pistorius, HCDE Communications Manager; Stacy Sakamoto, UW-TV Producer (and her whole team); David McDonald, HCDE Department Chair (and all of our HCDE colleagues); and, of course, everyone in Neah Bay!