The School of Industrial Design teamed up with the Atlanta Chapter of Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) and the design team from Kimberly-Clark to tackle some of Georgia Tech’s grimiest locations.

As hosts of the Atlanta Design Outreach program, this super-group of designers coached 60 high school students over the course of a 2-day design charrette.

Kimberly-Clark (maker of Kleenex, Kotex, Cottonelle, Huggies) challenged the students to tackle germ laden “hot spots” within the context of school life and to come up with solutions to address the hygiene crisis within public spaces. 

Teams set off to observe areas on the Georgia Tech campus such as hallways, cafeterias, classrooms, and bathrooms to identify key "Hot Spots" - primary touch points where germs are encountered every day. Armed with a first-hand perspective of the problem and the impact poor cleanliness can have on people, teams blasted through brainstorming, designing, and finally fabricating a prototype to demonstrate their final design solution.  

Final concepts ranged from germ-fighting backpacks with built-in UV lights, cleaning 'bots' that quietly sanitized as they scooted up and down stair railing, mobile phone cases with built-in disinfectant wipes, and self-sanitizing door handles that rotate automatically between each use.

This is the 5th year of the co-sponsorship by the SoID and IDSA in involving high school students within the ADO program (Atlanta Design Outreach).  To date, over 250 high school students have participated in the program.  

See Core77, for a more in-depth article about the event; and, there is a video which captures the enthusiasm of the students.