The John & Fonda Elliot DI Faculty Fellows Event Series
Each year, faculty members in the John & Fonda Elliot Design Innovation Faculty Fellows program bring bold ideas to life—transforming their summer experiences into dynamic events for the entire campus community and beyond. From hands-on tech workshops and immersive exhibits to powerful storytelling and innovation challenges, the 2025–2026 John & Fonda Elliot DI Faculty Fellows Event Series showcases their work in action.
Explore this year’s programming below and discover how Elliot DI Faculty Fellows are shaping the future of innovation.
The Quiet Holds Us
with Kayon Hall, Ph.D.
October 22 from 6- 8 PM, DI Theatre/Auditorium
What does it mean to feel at home—in your body, your quiet, your joy? Join us for the first installment of The Quiet Holds US, a story series exploring interiority through the voices of Black immigrants. In this opening session, CHIMI reflects on memory, migration, and the rituals that ground her. Through sound, story, and stillness, we are invited into her world: a quiet archive of feeling, care, and imagination.
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AI in the Mirror
with Deepshikha Bhati & Christian Auman
October 29 from 6-8 PM, Reactor Makerspace
Discover how AI turns words into images in this interactive two-hour workshop! PromptStudio invites you to experiment with structured prompts, adjusting mood, lighting, or setting, and see exactly how each word influences the images that appear. You’ll design and compare prompts side by side, with visual overlays showing how language steers visual outcomes. Blending hands-on practice with reflection, the session equips you with both creative tools and critical insight into building transparency in generative AI.
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Digitizing Reality
with David Silva, Ph.D.
November 12 from 6-8 PM, DI Theatre/Auditorium
Efforts to provide hands-on training for technical skills have found some success in using virtual reality. However, digitizing or designing high-fidelity experiences to use in simulated educational environments requires an array of advanced skills. Using volumetric video and the XR_Collaboratory in the DI Hub, this workshop will introduce using volumetric video and demonstrate how to use the XR_Collaboratory to more efficiently create digital twins of real-world objects.
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Embodied Shadows and Light
with Michelle Bebber, Ph.D.
February 20 from 6-7 PM, DI Theatre/Auditorium
Join Dr. Michelle Bebber for a special lecture that will dive deeper into the archaeology and cultural significance of Paleolithic cave art, and the evolution of human aesthetic experience. Her exhibit fuses archaeology, digital media, art, and design thinking to transport visitors beyond static displays into a living, sensory-rich environment. Using cutting-edge projection, you’ll feel the scale, atmosphere, and creative energy of early human life as never before, blurring the line between past and present, science and art.
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Designing eHMI for AV-Pedestrian Interactions
with Raiful Hasan & Hadi Rahmati
April 3, 2026 from 6-8 PM, Reactor Makerspace
This event will showcase the challenges of AV–pedestrian trust and introduce an adaptable, bidirectional external Human Machine Interface (eHMI) framework featuring a windshield-centered design. Early findings and dissemination outcomes will be presented, followed by a live prototype demonstration. Attendees will observe participants interacting with the AV system via VR headset, with the experience simultaneously projected for the audience.
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