Featured Projects

Through participatory projects in the community and study of age-friendly principles, age-friendly care, and current standards in aging, this interiors-focused trauma-informed analytical scorecard is under development with actionable next steps for residents to repair and maintain their urban interior spaces and develop creative space.

URBN STEAMlab and GARDEN FRESH HOME were founded by Dr. Shivanthi Anandan and D.S. Nicholas in 2012, with a focus on Urban Sustainable Living and green space in the urban environment. Our work is patent pending with two low-impact growing units for underserved urban families without access to fresh food.

Creative Aging-in-place introducing a co-housing project in Northwest Philadelphia with Drexel Writers Room and Faculty from the School of Education and College of Arts and Sciences. DRDR4HEALTH is a partner in the efforts

Featured News

URBN Steamlab - Team BIO

Shivanthi Anandan PhD, Entrepreneurial Lead

Dr. Anandan has a PhD in Biology from UCLA and has over three decades of experience and expertise as a plant biologist and microbiologist. As a former tenured faculty member at Drexel University, she is successful in achieving her research outcomes and goals, achieving federal funding, staying on budget, and leading, training and mentoring a team of young researchers in her lab. She used her administrative and leadership skills in several academic positions, notably as a previous Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Drexel University, and as the former Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Lasalle University, both in Philadelphia, PA. She has been collaborating with Dr. Diana Nicholas, and they co-founded URBN Steamlab LLC several years ago. URBN Steamlab focuses on sustainable innovation and design for healthy urban living, and has prototyped a device, Garden Fresh Home, for the in-home growth of fresh produce.

Her LinkedIn profile can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivanthi-anandan-772568165/

URBN Steamlab - Team BIO

Michael Oguntuase, co-Entrepreneurial Lead

Michael Oguntuase is a cloud engineer , data analyst, and media strategist by training and received a BS in Engineering from the Bells University of Technology, and a BS in Information Communication Technology from the Ecole Superieure des Sciences, de Commerce et d’Adminsitration des Enterprises du Benin. He has previously worked for several years as a network engineer, systems analyst, and media strategist and analyst. He is currently a graduate student at Drexel University in the Master of Science of Business Information Technology program, and has been the Innovation fellow of the URBN Steamlab team during our program with the NSF ICORPS Northeast regional hub Propelus program and used his skills as a media strategist during our customer review process.

His LinkedIn profile can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeloguntuase/

URBN Steamlab - Team BIO

Diana Nicholas, PhD, Technical Lead

With over 20 years of experience in sustainability, design research, and education, Dr. Nicholas is a tenured associate professor and the founding director of the MS Design Research program at Drexel University's Department of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism. She holds professional credentials in architecture, interior design, and sustainability, and has completed her PhD rom Antioch University's School of Leadership and Change. She leads an interdisciplinary research group, Drexel Design Research for Health (DRDR4Health), that collaborates with health and STEM researchers, community partners, and students to create and sustain health opportunities for urban underserved families and uses design thinking and design research to co-identify and co-solve challenges in the current environment, drawing on her personal and professional background as a socially responsive designer and researcher of Middle Eastern descent. She is also a co-founder and co-owner with Dr. Anandan of URBN Steamlab LLC.

Her LinkedIn profile can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-d-s-diana-nicholas-phd-ncidq-aia-leed-ga-550a783/

URBN Steamlab - Team BIO

Jonathan Deutsch, PhD, Industry Mentor

Dr. Deutsch is a food scientist by training with a PhD in food studies and management from New York University and is a tenured faculty member and founded the Drexel Food Lab at Drexel University; the Drexel Food Lab is  “a "good food" product development and culinary innovation lab and works with students and colleagues to apply the same techniques the food industry uses to projects that make for a more sustainable, health-promoting, or accessible food system”. He serves as President of the board of the Upcycled Food Foundation; this foundation ”exists to prevent food waste by growing the upcycled food economy faster than it otherwise would. UFF accomplishes this through consumer education and partnerships with retailers. UFF aims to double the growth rate of the upcycled industry and prevent 10 billion pounds of food waste by 2030.”

His LinkedIn profile can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-deutsch-ph-d-che-crc-364787/

The students in HDI projects use a combination of design thinking, social determinants of health, and cultural, socio-economical, and Design research to understand the problems they were approaching. Funded through 100k of foundation funding 2016-2021.

PROJECT FUNDING

$ 499,174.00 National Science Foundation; “IGE: CreativeInterdisciplinary Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE)”

PI- Fraser Fleming, Department Head Chemistry; Co-PID.S. Nicholas, AIA; Co-PI Paul Gondek, PhD; Co-PI Jen Katz-Buonincontro, PhD; Co-PI Dan King, PhD. NSF 17-585Innovations in Graduate Education program.

mobile reach

DREXEL AUTISM INSTITUTE

This Project was a collaboration between the Design + Care 4 Health Lab and The Autism Institute. In the summer of 2012 and during the 2012/2013 school year, The Drexel Autism Institute and a multidisciplinary group of students from the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, led by Dee Nicholas, collaborated on a design to create a mobile clinic for the use of the Institute. The first mobile assessment unit in a heavily populated urban area and one of the very few mobile clinics for autism in the U.S., this clinic works to reach underserved populations in this urban area. The design was developed through a six-week studio course, in which four multidisciplinary teams of students developed designs for the project. The program included designing the interior and exterior of the mobile unit.

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OCTOBER 2013

“The newly established A.J. Drexel Autism Institute of Drexel University — the first institute in the country to treat autism as a public health issue — is working on plans to put Philadelphia’s first mobile autism unit on the road. The converted van will be used for testing and diagnosis, with the intention of getting help to currently under-served communities. When it came time to find designers for the van conversion, the institute kept it in the family: They turned to students at the university’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. D.S. Nicholas, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Architecture and Interiors, was tapped to teach an interdisciplinary course tasked with coming up with design proposals”

Philly Metro “Drexel’s Autism Institute goes mobile” / Read similar Article

Consisting of community interface, intensive collaborative design sessions, and element prototyping followed by on-site construction and fabrication; the process included receiving advice from Drexel biomedical engineering students on designing for the elderly. Residents took part in user-driven charrettes to identify working solutions for the space. Project methodology involved engaging with community members, prototyping solutions, and user-centered resolutions. In considering a space for residents to come together, the clients requested gathering, gardening, and relaxation spaces. Considerations for accessibility, such as safe paving and maintenance were also incorporated. The garden paths designed are a“loop” that the residents can repeatedly stroll to increase outdoor time and movement-their “life space”. Post Occupancy was undertaken in collaboration with public health students and faculty. With Kieran Timberlake’s Andrew Cronin.

PRESENTATION AND PAPER

2022    Hurwich, T., Nicholas, D., Fleming, F., Gondek, P., Katz-Buonincontro, J., King, D., &           Perignat, E. (2022). Designing For Creative Research In Graduate    Education. ICERI2022Proceedings, 195–201. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2022.0081     In-person presentation, Sevilla by D.S. Nicholas International Event/Outlet

JOURNAL ARTICLE

2022    Perignat, E., Fleming, F. F., Nicholas, D., King, D., Katz-Buonincontro, J., & Gondek, P. (2022).

Effective Practices for High Performing Interdisciplinary Faculty Teams. College Teaching. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87567555.2022.2086525