The Spotlight Series presents "Innovation Bridge," led by Patrick Whitney, on Thursday, February 15, at 1:00 pm ET via LiveMeeting. Learn about the design methods that work particularly well to help bridge the so-called innovation gap. Visit the link above to register.

Robert's (MDes 2002) "Great Lakes in My World", a grade school science activity planner, was selected for inclusion in the "Social Designers" exhibition marking the 15th anniversary of the International Design Center Nagoya, Japan.

ID Board member Sam Pitroda talks about design solutions for the Base of the Pyramid in a short news story in the Indian press.

BusinessWeek's INside Innovation section writes about ID's and Kent's joint project on designing support systems for self-represented litigants.

The MacArthur Foundation today officially announced a $50 million set of grants to fund exploratory projects in digital learning. ID faculty Dale Fahnstrom, John Grimes, Greg Prygrocki and Patrick Whitney received $250,000 in seed funding for a pair of projects dealing with digital school systems, and informal "thinkering spaces" for children in museums and libraries.

BusinessWeek conducts a special report on the top 'd-schools' worldwide, among them the Institute of Design. See in particular 'The Talent Hunt' and the table of top design and innovation programs.

As part of their d-schools issue, BW.com interviews ID alum Denis Weil, who came to ID mid-career as a product developer and went on to become Senior Director of Innovation at McDonald's.

Chris's article "Innovation All the Time" was the top story in the week's Innovation & Design section, laying out five rules for businesses to become constantly innovative - "more like Pixar and less like McKinsey".

Patrick is interviewed for the syndicated public radio talk show Smart City (hosted by ID student Carol Coletta), about why cities may be the next design frontier.

Chris talks about how greater attention being payed to design in the corporate world is raising the bar for what constitutes great design, at the IDEA awards and elsewhere, in this week's BusinessWeek.com innovation podcast, "Precious Medals."

Chris Conley chaired the jury for the 2006 IDSA/BusinessWeeek IDEA awards. In "A Jury of Different Stripes" he reviews the innovative jury selection and judging process.

In "Design Visionary," an article in BusinessWeek's inaugural INside Innovation print publication supplement, Robert Berner writes about director Patrick Whitney's success at making the Institute of Design "one of the best sources of creative talent for business today."

Robert Berner profiles Kumar and Whitney's User Insight Tool, a way of structuring and sharing global user research data, in "The Ethnography of Marketing."

Patrick Whitney is one of four western thought-leaders on Sina.com's list of the top 25 people advancing international Chinese business.

BusinessWeek's Managing section focuses on the growing use of ethnographic user observation methods by large companies' R&D and design departments. ID is mentioned as one of the schools preparing professionals to use these methods.

BusinessWeek's UpFront innovation section takes a look at corporate recruiting at "the nation's top design schools." ID is one of five schools profiled. Download article (GIF , 40.79KB)

Whitney's article on China's shift from a manufacturer to consumer nation, and the implications for design strategy for global companies, appeared in a special report on cutting-edge designers.

Patrick Whitney's regular column for the BusinessWeek.com innovation channel discusses two major themes emerging related to design of digital entertainment in China: adapting to large-scale rapid economic and demographic change, and gaining deeper understanding of consumers' daily lives.

Professor Conley, who is chairing the 2006 IDSA/BusinessWeek IDEA awards, talks in a podcast with BusinessWeek.com about his vision for the awards this year. (Podcast is an MP3 file)

Patrick Whitney's comments at the 15th China Daily CEO Roundtable are reprinted in the newspaper. See "CEOs view digital entertainment puzzle" and "Highlights of thoughts from delegates".

Patrick Whitney's first regular column for the Innovation & Design section of BusinessWeek.com, "Mind-Reading Skills for Businesses", introduces four ways companies can reliably innovate using design principles: Discovering users' needs, finding patterns in seemingly chaotic research, visualizing innovations early in the development process, and creating interrelated systems of solutions.