Tristan Al-Haddad has been accepted to the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program to the Federico Santa Maria Technical University in Valparaiso, Chile for the fall 2009 semester. Al-Haddad, a celebrated local artist and visiting professor in architecture will teach concepts of digital design and manufacturing in architecture and construction.

�The project objectives will be to design a variable system of construction that can be expressed as a parametrically defined design representation and can be fabricated using CNC [Computer Numerical Control] technology,� said Al-Haddad. �This system will be generated bottom-up by interrogating materials, configurations, and constructability in order to digitally parameterize the material world.�

The work will result in an exhibition and a publication on each of the design systems generated by the students.

�I will also run a series of intensive workshops on generative design, parametric modeling, design simulation, and digital manufacturing for both the general faculty and for the student body at large,� he continued. �These workshops represent an opportunity to expose the entire school to these new techniques and technologies and will broaden the impact of the exchange.�

Since 1946, the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program has helped nearly 23,000 teachers and administrators contribute to mutual understanding between the United States and countries around the world. Learn more at http://www.fulbrightexchanges.org/.