Student Research
UIC Design is committed to supporting our students as they develop, circulate, and apply their ideas.
Through exposure to design practice, exhibition-making, and critical observation, students at UIC experience Chicago as a global design center. In many instances, ideas that begin in UIC Design classrooms find direct application in addressing real problems.
Our students have regular opportunities to publish and present research at conferences and through award programs. Students regularly develop prototypes funded through venues like Kickstarter. For a list of past recognition, visit the Student Honors page; our News section regularly features student achievements.
Our foundational design disciplines, traditionally by physical dimension—2D (Graphic Design) and 3D (Industrial Design)—now exist in a transforming professional landscape. Creative professionals with expertise in design research methods, proficiency in creative coding and dynamic media design, interest in improved interactions between people, environments, and digital interfaces, and the ability to critique material and social conditions are in great demand.
Research at the graduate level has two aims: to develop professional practice at formal and experimental levels, and to stimulate intellectual inquiry into the values and responsibilities of a professional designer. MDes students undertake self-initiated studio-driven research projects and engage in critical discourse through research, theory, and history.
Both undergraduate and graduate thesis projects are often departure points as much as they are capstones. More than forty years of master’s thesis projects are collected in the Open Archive and accessible as a resource for current students—a repository of research topics and approaches.