14 design goes global in GHANA Design and engineering students used their academic perspectives to devise solutions with Ghanaian leaders in summer 2019. Six Harding students from the interior design and engineering departments traveled to Yendi, Ghana, from July 25 to Aug. 6, 2019, to host a workshop dedicated to solving a social issue by way ofthe design process. The Yendi community leaders proposed the idea of solving a social issue instead of a physical design issue, which the Harding students tackled over the three-day workshop. Political leaders, chiefs and youths of the Yendi community attended the workshop. Senior interior design major Joanna Roberts said the social issue presented was the youth of Ghana joining a group called Sakawa, which required members to commit internet fraud. "We called them the youth instead of Sakawa, just because Sakawa has a negative demeanor to it," Roberts said. "A lot of the times, it's just like saying gangsters." Roberts said the Sakawa were typically between 17 and 20 years old. The youth in Yendi did not have the ability to further their education, so they turned to Sakawa as an easy way to make money. "Our goal was to facilitate a workshop or meeting with a group ofleaders in the community, to help teach them or show them a better way to collaboratively solve problems," Amy Cox, assistant professor of art and design, said. The design process was a creative approach that produced solutions to both tangible and intangible issues. Cox said the Harding students narrowed this multistep process down to three questions for the workshop: "What is the challenge?" "What could we try?" and "What works?" The Harding group left the third question unanswered and opened it to the community to find a solution. Junior mechanical engineering major Tim Partlow described the distinct relationship between engineering and interior design. "Oftentimes in engineering, architecture and interior design, it is used for a very specific physical process, but this was actually a great experience for me because I got to see how the design process works outside of just pure engineering field," Partlow said. The department of engineering hosted workshops for several years, but this was the second collaborative effort between interior design and engineering. Both departments taught students about the design process. The engineering group normally traveled to Haiti, but in 2019, chose Ghana due to increased security concerns in Haiti that year. "We are coming to guide you, to teach you how to move through the process, to help you come up with solutions for . " your own community. "The first thing we say is, 'We're not the experts on this,"' Roberts said. '"We are coming to guide you, to teach you how to move through the process, to help you come up with solutions for your own community, and hopefully later on you can do this yourself with other issues and problems that you have."' story by AudreyJackson
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