Synap
A preventative neurological system — at-home MRI monitoring during sleep, targeted neural stimulation, ambient health data — addressing cognitive decline in an AI-saturated future.
3D print · Figma prototype · AI-generated video
About DIAD · Our approach
Proven ground,
cutting edge
DIAD is the institutional home for design work that has been growing at Dartmouth for years — through the Human-Centered Design minor, a cross-departmental faculty community, and generations of students turning curiosity into things that matter.
Why now, here, us
Design practice is moving in weeks now, not years. A year ago, human-centered designers integrated feasibility, desirability, and viability over months. Today the timelines have compressed — and the materials have multiplied. Designers need to mix engineering, ethnography, AI, ecology, and craft without losing the judgment that makes the work worth doing.
Dartmouth has the structure for this moment. The Human-Centered Design minor is the most popular on campus. Faculty with deep HCD expertise already work across engineering, computer science, studio art, environmental studies, geography, psychology, and entrepreneurship. Small classes enable rapid cross-disciplinary iteration. The liberal arts core provides the critical thinking and ethical reasoning the work requires.
Dartmouth coined "artificial intelligence" in 1956. It should develop the pedagogy for the age AI created.
DIAD is led by Beth Altringer Eagle, who previously built leading interdisciplinary programs at Harvard, Brown, and the Rhode Island School of Design and is on the Thinkers50 Radar list of emerging global thought leaders. She joined Dartmouth to build the initiative from this foundation.
The longer view
The Design Ivy.
Design expertise is at its most powerful when combined with domain expertise. A Government major who can run a design sprint. A Biology student who can prototype a diagnostic tool. An Environmental Studies researcher who can translate data into something a community can act on. The combination is the point.
Dartmouth's academic structure — where students major in one field modified by another — makes this native. A student doesn't leave their discipline to learn design; design becomes part of how they practice their discipline. No other Ivy League school has this structure at the minor level. DIAD's ambition is to make Dartmouth the place where that combination is built deliberately — through the HCD minor, CoLab, cross-departmental grants, and the connective tissue between them.
The SEMINAL framework.
Seven designable systems every project touches. We teach students to notice all seven, design for several, and never pretend the others aren't there. It's a shared vocabulary across courses, studios, and the faculty grants program.
S
Service
Experience journeys, touchpoints, delivery — how organizations relate to people.
E
Energy
Environmental flows, carbon, power, climate — the metabolism of every design.
M
Material
Physical matter, form, manufacturing, supply chains — and where it all ends up.
I
Interaction
Color, sound, touch, taste, motion — how designs are perceived and used.
N
Natural
Living systems, ecology, organisms — growth, decay, and care cycles.
A
Artificial
Computation and AI as research partners and design accelerators.
L
Longevity
Durability, repair, emotional attachment — craft that earns care over time.
Three constant threads.
Across every course and every project, three principles run through DIAD's teaching — the things we want every student to leave the program believing.
01
Aesthetic integrity
as function
Design decisions rooted in craft and beauty earn attention and sustained care. If it doesn't last — physically, emotionally, culturally — you haven't finished the design.
02
Systems awareness
over silos
Designers must see and shape interconnected systems — supply chains, carbon costs, repair pathways, service models — rather than perfecting a single domain in isolation.
03
AI as native
collaborator
Computation extends designer perception and processing without replacing aesthetic judgment or intuitive integration. CoLab is where we practice this most directly.
Six impact trajectories.
Based on over a decade of teaching design students, we identified distinct impact trajectories they pursue and are building pathways to natively support these trajectories where systems meet real problems. Every DIAD project lands in one or more of these directions and we help creators aim for the right impact path for their team and project goals.
01
Commercial
Products
Market-viable, user-centered design that reaches people sustainably and earns a place in their lives.
02
Arts &
Expression
Cultural contribution that shifts perception, opens new ways of seeing, and enters public life.
03
Science &
Technology
Research-driven invention that advances what's possible — often by designing the tools researchers use.
04
Human
Flourishing
Physical and mental health, community, belonging, resilience — designs that help people live fuller lives.
05
Environment
& Renewal
Planetary health, sustainability, ecological restoration — designing for the systems that keep us alive.
06
Educational
Advancement
Pedagogical innovation and capacity building — teaching the next generation of designers to do all of the above.
Collaborators across Dartmouth.
DIAD works closely with partners across the university — design research, making spaces, museums, medicine, energy, entrepreneurship, and the schools themselves. The breadth of collaboration is part of how design at Dartmouth stays connected to the liberal arts.
Cook Engineering Design Center
DALI Lab
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Hood Museum of Art
Hopkins Center for the Arts
Irving Institute for Energy & Society
Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship
Tuck School of Business
Geisel School of Medicine
Design thinking woke me up. It's as simple as that.
DeWayne Terry Jr. · Dartmouth '21
Where we live · Book the space
The Design Loft.
A hyper-flexible multipurpose room in the Class of 1982 Engineering and Computer Science Center where everything is on wheels — even the couches. Any member of the Dartmouth community can reserve it for design-related events: workshops, design sprints, working sessions, club meetings, presentations, exhibitions, special class meetings, and more.
Furniture: Bar-height and standard-height tables, dozens of chairs and stools, four moveable couches, stationary and mobile whiteboards.
A/V: Projector, room speakers, lecture capture, and built-in Zoom Room.
Drop by, book the space, or write to us at design@dartmouth.edu.
Visit, book & contact
Design Loft
ECSC 007
ECSC 007
Address
15 Thayer Drive · Hanover, NH 03755
Email
design@dartmouth.edu
Hours
Mon–Fri · by arrangement
Book