Context
With oil prices well above $100 a barrel, climate
change nearing the point of no return, the rise of massive new energy
consumers like China and India, and alarming food shortages showing
up around the world due to biofuels being made from food stocks,
developing new designs for our global and local energy systems is
of critical importance to the survival and well being of Spaceship
Earth and everyone on board.
The 2008 Design Science Lab will
develop strategies to address these real and present problems, envision
new energy futures, and chart critical paths towards success and
abundance for all humanity.
The Lab is not an academic exercise. Real world
solutions will be developed. Every effort will be made to get the
most viable solutions implemented.
Read more about what Design Science is here.
WHAT/WHERE
The Lab will take place for seven intensive days from
June 16th to June 23rd at beautiful Chestnut Hill College in suburban
Philadelphia and the United Nations in New York City, NY.
Immediately following the Philadelphia/NY-based Lab, there will be
an online extension of the Lab that will run to June 24 - August
29. (See below for more details.)
Medard
Gabel, who worked with Buckminster
Fuller for over twelve years, directs both programs.
LAB FORMAT AND SCHEDULE
Day 1: Registration; orientation; state of the world; introduction
to design science, the UN's Millennium Development Goals, in-depth
briefings by UN staff from UNDP, UNEP, UNICEF, and other UN agencies.
Day 2: Briefings on global and local energy issues, climate change,
design science methodology and its practical applications, the $100,000
Buckminster Fuller Challenge and other contests and sources of funding
that can take your work to the implementation stage.
Day 3–6: Design and development of strategies for transforming
global and local energy systems.
Day 7: Presentations of work at the United Nations; wrap up and closing
event.
OPTIONAL ONLINE LAB EXTENSION
This year the Design Science Lab will run all summer!
The week-long
DSL described above is a stand-alone event, but those who wish to
take the work that emerges from the Lab further are encouraged to
enroll in the Design Science Lab Extension.
This online program allows you to participate from your home or
office. It will extend, deepen, and enrich your understanding and
practical use of design science. The intention of the DSL Extension
is to help you refine the strategy you develop during the Design
Science Lab in June and work towards its implementation.
The additional focused time of the DSL Extension will enable you
(and your team, if that is the case) to add the depth, breath, specifics,
and documentation that will better enable your design science strategy
to enter the $100,000 Buckminster Fuller Challenge— as well
as be better prepared to seek funding from foundation, government,
investor, or business partners. A proposal for funding and/or business
plan that takes your design to the next stage is one of the goals
of this June 24 - August 29 lab extension.
Past Design Science Lab participants and past and future entrants
in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge wishing to improve their strategies
are encouraged to apply. For more information on this program contact
Medard Gabel at
DESIGN SCIENCE LAB EXTENSION
Day 8 – Day 68 (June 24 – Aug. 29)
Extend, deepen, and enrich your understanding and practical use of
design science.
Add the depth, breath, specifics, and documentation that will better
enable your design strategy to be implemented in the real world.
“The formulation of the problem is often more essential
than its solution.”
—Albert Einstein |