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- Goa Heritage Project Workshop
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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.
- WDHB’s Learning Expedition
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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.
- UX India
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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.
- Under 25 Summit Panel Discussion
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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.
- Channel News Asia’s “Field Guide to Innovation”
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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.
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- Papanek Symposium
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Quicksand was invited to the Papanek Symposium in 2013 to present and talk about the challenges of attempting to provide 'design solutions' for social challenges in the real world. The symposium brought together international experts from China, Europe, India, Singapore, and the US, to examine the social and political imperative of design in emerging economies. Quicksand partner Babitha George touched upon learnings from extensive work in urban sanitation and talked about challenges in working with the government, in large scale solutions that impact lives of the poor as well as the importance of listening to and understanding from users.
- Project Sammaan at Yale University
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The Yale University School of Management Integrated Curriculum teaches management by drawing on the complexities of real business challenges to inform broad-reaching discussion and analysis. Project Sammaan was selected as on of the case studies due to its uniqueness as a design-driven, innovative initiative: in scope, its inherent challenges, the number of stakeholders involved, the scale of the sanitation crisis in India, and more. Quicksand communications lead and senior project manager of Sammaan, Kevin Shane, arranged and filmed interviews with all project stakeholders throughout India, facilitated interactions with various government officials in the pilot cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, and led visits to slums to accommodate interactions with community members who will benefit from the Sammaan facilities.
- Alumnus Lecture at St. Bonaventure University’s School of Business
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The St. Bonaventure University School of Business, in conjunction with the non-profit organization BonaResponds, hosts a lecture series featuring alumni using their degrees in foreign settings and in contexts supporting social development and change. Quicksand communication lead and senior project manager Kevin Shane was invited to speak via video conference to several hundred students about his experience living and working in India, generally, and the sanitation crisis and Project Sammaan's role in addressing it, specifically. Kevin has been asked to deliver another guest lecture in 2014, as well as to participate in a program in 2015 seeking to inspire students to apply their education and skills in new and different contexts.
- FES at Yale University
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Science to Solutions class at the School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, Yale University helps students explore the different approaches to understanding and managing complex environmental problems - starting with problem definition and clarity, moving onto the choice of technical, policy, social and other management tools and processes available to address the challenge. Quicksand co-founder, director, Ayush Chauhan, was invited to deliver a guest lecture using the urban community sanitation project, Project Sammaan, as the backdrop. The integrated, systems oriented approach in the project provided a critical reflection point for students as it pertains to sanitation and its environmental impact.
- Reinvent the Toilet Fair (Seattle)
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation hosted a two-day Reinvent the Toilet Fair at the foundation's headquarters in Seattle, Washington that brought together participants and grantees from 29 countries, including researchers, designers, investors, advocates, and representatives, working on innovative approaches to sanitation. Quicksand presented Project Sammaan, a prototyping-at-scale sanitation initiative seeking to reimagine and improve the community sanitation ecosystem in India's urban slums through various hardware and software design innovations. Project collateral, artefacts from India's slums, and even a video game were developed, curated, and shared with attendees and sanitation practitioners from around the world over the two-day event.
