Quicksand's Communications Lead and Business Head (U.S. Operations) Kevin Shane led a videoconference with students at his alma mater St. Bonaventure University on global citizenship, specifically the importance of understanding the impact a global economy has on all participants. Through the use of specific case studies and his experiences living and working in different international contexts, the focus was to explore the notion of ethical production (and consumption) in real-world settings.
During the course of a five-day workshop and crash course held at NID with students from the NID Exhibition Design program, Salil and Hugo, two Quicksand design researchers explored new possibilities in storytelling through the creation of unique virtual spaces in Unity using a mix of digital content and items 3D scanned using photogrammetry.
Quicksand hosted an executive team from Schneider Electric as part of a Learning Expedition program organized by WDHB. The team had the chance to meet local energy and micro-grid experts through a facilitated discussion format on novel best practices in emerging markets:
- Deploying microgrids in rural communities through regional Energy Service Companies (ESCO) with Sidhartha Vermani.
- Providing roof top solar energy services to commercial & industrial entities throughlong term power purchase agreements with Nalin Agarwal.
- Providing lighting solutions to the real estate sector with Sidharth Kumar.
- Providing custom built switchboards and turnkey energy solutions to real estate sector with Meera Kumar Chauhan.
Quicksand Co-Founder and Partner Ayush Chauhan and Principal & Communications Lead Kevin Shane led a daylong workshop at UX India, India’s largest international user experience conference. The theme of the workshop was Design for Social Impact, and Ayush and Kevin led the participants through several design activities and games using case studies from Quicksand’s decade-long experience in the sector.
Principal & Communications Lead Kevin Shane was part of a panel discussion on “Design for Social Impact” at the Under 25 Summit, India’s largest youth festival. Leaning on his experiences working in the development and humanitarian sectors, Kevin highlighted the key role of the design thinking process in driving both innovation and impact in the work Quicksand does.
Senior Design Researcher Rikta Krishnaswamy was featured in Channel News Asia’s premiere episode of the series “Field Guide to Innovation”. Along with our partners on the project, Rikta discussed our recent work in Cambodia to reduce the use of plastic bags in the country, whilst also advocating for a human-centered approach to designing new, innovative solutions to longstanding problems and challenges.
The Yale World Fellows program was invited by Qatar Foundation to conduct a week long workshop on global leadership and communication for young change makers selected as part of its fellowship program - WISE Learner's Voice. As a Yale World Fellow from 2012, Ayush joined a team of five other colleagues from Yale to facilitate an intense, hands-on workshop for around 30 aspiring social entrepreneurs in Doha, Qatar. The workshop focused on issues around leadership, team-work, inter cultural communications, ideation, brainstorming and collaboration. Part experiential, part theory, the Yale World Fellows became a sounding board for the young fellows to bounce of their ideas, anxieties and aspirations.
Quicksand's Kevin Shane was invited to participate in a state-level ideation session to help Housing & Urban Development Department in India's Odisha develop a septage strategy for small and medium size cities and towns. The session was chaired by the H&UD Commissioner and featured sanitation practitioners from organizations such as the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Programme, Sulabh International, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Practical Action, as well as senior-level government officials from the state's Water Supply & Sewerage Board and Public Health Department. The group developed a list of practical, yet innovative approaches that will be piloted in several cities across Odisha.
The Design x Design roundtable is an ongoing, open forum hosted by Alliance Francaise, New Delhi for sharing of ideas, experiences and opinions about topical design issues. The fifth roundtable of Design X Design explored the linkages between design and governance. Quicksand co-founder, director Ayush Chauhan was invited to the panel titled 'Designer Sarkar' - Design of governance and the governance of design, alongside Jagan Shah (National Institute for Urban Affairs), Paromita Roy (Unified Traffic and Transport Infrastructure Center), Yamini Aiyer (Center for Policy Research) and Madhav Raman (Anagram Architects).
In collaboration with fuelfor, a Singapore based design and innovation consultancy, Quicksand anchored a 5-day workshop on design thinking for professionals from the healthcare industry in Singapore. This workshop was part of Design Singapore's flagship initiative called DTIA (Design Thinking and Innovation Academy) - a program to develop design-driven innovation capabilities in private and public sectors for productivity, competitiveness and sustainable growth. Quicksand led a team from Welch Allyn, a global medical equipment company, to apply these skills in envisioning a new pre-screening eye care service for the elderly in Singapore.
As part of Social Design Talks hosted by Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art, London, Quicksand along with our partners STBY, London and client Nesta, was invited to share the experience of researching and designing Development Impact and You - a toolkit to help people working in development to invent, adopt or adapt ideas that can deliver better results. The talk focused on a collaborative approach to research, development and design – which included co-design and international user testing across four continents.