Within a structured academic framework, students tackle real-world challenges through research, creative problem-solving, prototyping, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, producing ideas and outcomes with tangible impact beyond the classroom.
Faculty: Karl Williamson
Format: Introductory studio with special applied project
While PRD 201 is a foundational 200-level studio introducing students to core product design principles, last semester included a special applied project in collaboration with the elephant care team at the Smithsonian National Zoo.
Students visited the zoo, met with animal behaviorists, and researched the physical, cognitive, and environmental needs of elephants in human care. Using those insights, they developed toy concepts designed for stimulation, safety, and durability.
Over the semester, students iterated on designs, presented for staff feedback, and produced partial working prototypes with fabrication plans. The project is now moving beyond the classroom, with continued development toward a fully elephant-proof prototype.
Faculty: Karl Williamson
Format: Semester-long, partner-embedded studio
Partner Examples: Good Neighbor, SewLab, LukeWorks
Students in PRD 302 design, prototype, and produce small runs of objects with guidance and feedback from local maker and craft community partners. Projects are designed to scale and sold through the MICA Store on consignment, giving students hands-on experience in product development, production, and market engagement.
Collaborators have included Good Neighbor (product ideation for gifts) and SewLab (softgoods production). Currently, the studio is working with Mark Melonas at LukeWorks, focusing on material exploration using concrete.
Students from multiple disciplines—including Product Design, Fiber, Interdisciplinary Sculpture, and Ceramics—gain practical experience creating market-ready objects while learning collaborative design processes.
Faculty: Karl Williamson
Format: Semester-long, industry-partnered studio
Partner Model: Rotating industry collaboration (changes annually)
PRD 401 is an advanced, industry-embedded studio that partners each year with a different company, giving students exposure to multiple professional contexts across their junior and senior years. Partnerships include site visits to design studios and manufacturing facilities, along with direct feedback from company stakeholders——giving students first-hand experience navigating real-world constraints, production systems, and client expectations.
Recent collaborators include Cambium Carbon, Emeco, and KeyTech. Fall 2026, the studio will likely partner again with Emeco, the renowned aluminum furniture manufacturer known for its sustainability and collaborations with leading designers. Students design within real brand and production constraints, receiving critique from company leadership and presenting work to professional industry standards.
Faculty: Christina Jenkins
Format: Semester-long, partner-embedded studio
Partner: MICA Center for Creative Impact + Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Highway Safety Office
Students in SD 5350.01 engage directly with community and civic partners to address real-world social and environmental challenges through human-centered design. This semester, students collaborated with MDOT and the Center for Creative Impact on the Falls Road Safety Project, a neighborhood-engaged initiative focused on increasing safety for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists along historic Falls Road in Baltimore.
Students worked alongside project partners to research, prototype, and test creative safety interventions while documenting short- and long-term traffic safety issues.
Faculty: Stephen Reuff
Format: Five-week intensive research sprint (embedded within the semester)
Partner: MICA Center for Creative Impact
Students in ENTR 350 partnered with MICA’s Center for Creative Impact to support the transformation of MICA Park — a 1,800-square-foot, MICA-owned parcel along Falls Road between the North Avenue and Howard Street bridges in Baltimore.
Long neglected and overgrown, the triangular site is being reimagined as part of the broader Jones Falls Gateway vision: an open-air public green space for teaching, research, recreation, ecological restoration, and environmental education.
Working alongside the Center — and in alignment with community partners including Blue Water Baltimore — students completed a five-week qualitative research sprint to inform the park’s future design and use.
Faculty: Rebecca Bradley & Sandra Maxa
Format: Semester-long, partner-embedded studio
Partners: 826DC, Baltimore Votes, Maryland Department of the Environment
Students in GD5037.01 explore the life-cycle of a project from research and ideation to making, refining and producing visuals, to meeting with clients and presenting ideas and finished projects. Additionally, the class learns from visiting designers, illustrators and entrepreneurs about their studio practice in guest lectures and workshops.
Past community collaborators include Baltimore Streetcar Museum (product ideation for gift shop), Co-Grid19 (collaborative Riso poster) and Kitchen Table Magazine (zine for sponsors). This year, the studio is collaborating with 826 DC on greetings card designs for their storefront, Baltimore Votes on a zine encouraging high school student involvement as voters and election judges and Maryland Department of the Environment on an informational animation promoting lead safety.
Students from multiple disciplines in past courses have included: Design Leadership (MA/MBA), Graphic Design (BFA)(MA) (MFA), Illustration (MA), Curatorial Practice (MFA), Illustration Practice (MFA), Photography + Media & Society, Social Design (MA).
Faculty: Carissa Aoki, Kelli Williams
Format: Year-long, partner-embedded seminar and studio sequence
Partners: Baltimore-based community organizations (environmental and social justice sectors)
The ESJ Junior Sequence introduces students to community-engaged, applied practice in environmental and social justice. Over the three-course sequence, students build creative problem-solving skills and execute real-world projects in partnership with Baltimore-based nonprofits, government agencies, and civic organizations.
Faculty: Laurence Arcadias
Format: Upper-level studio with applied scientific collaboration
In this five-week applied project, students collaborated with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center to translate complex astrophysics research into animated short films.
After meeting with NASA scientists and reviewing current research, students developed storyboards and animatics interpreting topics including dark matter, binary stars, Fermi bubbles, cosmic rays, and space debris. Students presented concepts on-site at Goddard and received ongoing mentorship and feedback from scientists throughout production.
The result: five short films designed to support NASA’s public education efforts around the Fermi mission. The animations were presented at SIGGRAPH’s Faculty Submitted Student Work Exhibit and at Columbia University. The collaboration also led to the creation of a NASA internship pathway for MICA animation students.
