Workshop - Fall 2024

Learn the basics of User Experience Design (UX) and Testing, including a brief look at the history and context of the practice. Attendees will get to meet other polymaths and receive a comprehensive demonstration with key lessons on UX practices, including how to structure professional user testing sessions.

User Experience Design is an all-encompassing methodology where research, data gathering, and test results guide decisions, instead of guesses and opinions. Particularly useful for students who will create user-facing products, this workshop will introduce essential ideas and demonstrate universal practices for UX design as it is used in the software development, video game, and product design industries.

Join us at the Ahmanson Lab for a lesson on User Experience Design and Testing that will welcome students of all backgrounds.

Learn the basics of simulation/game development with Unity, including a brief look at the history and context of the practice. Attendees will get to meet other polymaths and receive a comprehensive demonstration with key lessons about how to create your own interactive projects.

As more fields, including film/television, archaeology, architecture, and education, begin to use game development technologies, tools like the Unity Engine are quickly becoming interdisciplinary powerhouses. As a free-to-use program that supports desktop, mobile, and XR platforms, Unity is a particularly popular option for students and beginners.

Join us at the Ahmanson Lab for a lesson on simulation development that will welcome students of all backgrounds.

Learn the basics of 3D Printing with Ultimaker, including a brief look at the history and context of the practice. Attendees will get to meet other polymaths and receive a comprehensive demonstration with key lessons about how to use and troubleshoot 3D printers.

A powerful prototyping and manufacturing technology, 3D printing only became meaningfully accessible to consumers within the last few years. In that time, a vibrant community of artists and engineers have made 3D printing easier and more engaging than ever before. Ultimaker is a premier brand of printers, whose users span automotive, architecture, healthcare, and education industries.

Join us at the Ahmanson Lab for an In-depth lesson on 3D printing that will welcome students of all backgrounds.

Learn the basics of 3D Modeling with Blender, including a brief look at the history and context of the practice. Attendees will get to meet other polymaths, receive a short demonstration, and start practicing their modeling skills with a guided challenge.

Used everywhere from engineering, graphic design, game development, heritage conservation, and film, 3D modeling is a powerful and versatile tool in the digital landscape. Blender is a free and open source tool that has gained significant support and traction in recent years, now even competing with industry-standard tools like Maya and 3ds Max.

Join us at the Ahmanson Lab for a hands-on workshop that will welcome students of all backgrounds.

Learn the basics of vector graphic design with Illustrator, including a brief look at the history and context of the practice. Attendees will get to meet other polymaths, receive a short demonstration, and start practicing their design skills with a guided challenge.

Graphic Design is an interdisciplinary field where art meets technology, and vector graphics are a clear example of that. Vector graphics are infinitely scalable, geometric computer graphics that are often preferred in engineering, architecture, logo design, branding, and typography. For this, Adobe Illustrator is an industry standard tool.

Join us at the Ahmanson Lab for a hands-on workshop that will welcome students of all backgrounds.

Learn the basics of photo editing with Photoshop, including a brief look at the history and context of the practice. Attendees will get to meet other polymaths, receive a short demonstration, and start practicing their photoshop skills with a guided challenge.

A key skill in the modern digital age, image editing is used everywhere, from advertising, digital art, meme-making, resume-making, and much more. Both in and out of industry, Adobe’s Photoshop has become the premier tool for image editing, while new features continue to put it at the forefront of the discipline.

Join us at the Ahmanson Lab for a hands-on workshop that will welcome students of all backgrounds.