The adaptation + ability group is a technical and social laboratory for creative research on technology + the body at Olin College.
We're interested in the encounters between humans and the built environment—especially when there's a mismatch between standardized design and the atypical body or mind. But we're also interested in critical questions about the future of the body: What counts as normal?
Read on to meet our group, or take a look at the guidelines that drive our work.
Lab Director Sara Hendren is a design researcher, artist, and writer, and she teaches human-centered design for engineers as assistant professor at Olin College.
Toni Saylor is a mechanical engineering major in her final year at Olin. She became interested in the a +a field her freshman year as she worked with an older adult community partner in a design course called Engineering for Humanity. Since then she has worked on many projects in and out of class related to aging and ability and focused around prosthetics. She just wrapped a year doing prosthetics and design research for Sara as a Clare Boothe Luce scholar.
Adit Dhanushkodi is a ‘16 alum working for Emulate as a Product Designer. His work with the lab is primarily around using visual design, film, and other media to tell stories and communicate ideas. He is interested in how people interact with the world around them, and how technologies can detract from or enhance those experiences. Some of his work with the lab includes the helping set up the Media City Seoul biennial exhibition of Slope : Intercept and making Cardboard Carpentry How-To’s.
Annabel Consilvio is a junior studying software product design at Olin College of Engineering. She focuses on projects in the realm of accessibility and is specifically interested in how access is approached in upcoming technologies. She has worked as a front-end developer on a design team at IBM Design, on web development for an after school program in Mississippi, and on collaborative design for the future of local, organic farming in Massachusetts. In her free time, she likes to bake and play board games.
Lauren Froschauer, Olin ‘16 lab alum, works for Northrop Grumman as a Mechanical Engineer. In the summer of 2015, she trained at the Adaptive Design Association in New York, learning how to use affordable, ubiquitous, materials to make adaptive devices. During her senior year at Olin, she designed and conducted an independent study in Adaptive and Assistive Design, volunteering at Perkins School for the Blind in their Assistive Devices Center. She also built a new partnership for the lab with Newman Elementary in Needham, Mass. See more in our Reports section.
William Lu Olin ‘18, bio coming soon!