Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Design

🎉 Congratulations to three BSSD student recipients of this year’s Fiddler Innovation Fellowship for their work with Design for America (DFA)!! 🎉



The National Center for Supercomputing Applications awarded Fiddler Innovation Fellowships to 38 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and NCSA graduate students in a ceremony on October 31 honoring their outstanding achievements and interdisciplinary contributions to NCSA programs, including Students Pushing Innovation (SPIN), NCSA’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program titled “The Future of Discovery: Training Students to Build and Apply Open Source Machine Learning Models and Tools” (REU FoDoMMaT), Design for America (DFA) and those who worked with NCSA-affiliated faculty during the 2024-25 academic year and summer of 2025.



The 38 awardees represent students whose outstanding interdisciplinary contributions to their projects showcased a wide range of research interests and domains, including environmental sustainability, music, personalized nutrition, agriculture and astronomy.



🚌 Dale Sink, one of the BSSD student awardees shared more about her winning project:

“I was on the Transportation team for two semesters. In the first semester, my team focused on safety and comfort for MTD riders through improving bus stops in and around UIUC’s campus. At the turn of the semester, we identified a lack of bus etiquette standardization causing much of student dissatisfaction, most pertinently delaying buses and creating on-bus discomfort for other riders. We then focused on: ‘How can we increase MTD student rider satisfaction in Champaign-Urbana while improving system efficiency through education?’ We discerned that users prioritize convenience and clear communication while our primary stakeholders, MTD and F&S, focus on efficiency and passenger education. This project sets the foundation for a bus etiquette education program through visual posters and catchy tag lines to encourage riders to be more mindful and respectful as they ride the bus.” ...

☀️ Jeremiah Pope, an alum of BSSD, visited Casa Pueblo as part of the Community-Based Sustainable Design in Puerto Rico study abroad program in 2024. Jeremiah’s photos and video are currently on view in BSSD’s first exhibition in our new gallery space. Stop by the 2nd floor of the Architecture Building to take a look!



☀️ Q. BSSD: Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience with Casa Pueblo.

☀️A. JP: “I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2024 where I studied Sustainable Design and minored in Media. Through my experience I was able to visit Casa Pueblo in 2024 as a study abroad trip in Adjuntas to bring a physical space for Casa Pueblo to express their purpose in moving forward in sustainability. In this way, I was able to combine skills learned in Sustainable Design and Media to bring their mission to life.



During my time with Casa Pueblo, I helped create Sol-idaridad, a solar-powered community space in Adjuntas where people can connect, recharge, and thrive during difficult times. I helped to design the cultural space and documented the process through photo and video to capture how we shaped a symbol of resilience, unity, and light.”

☀️ Want to know more about what’s on view?: This exhibition features documentation, reflections, and design interventions conceived by students from the B.S. Sustainable Design Program who participated in a study abroad course to Puerto Rico in spring 2024 and 2025. While there, students met with local academics, artists, activists, and communities working with Casa Pueblo in the Altos de Cuba neighborhood of Adjuntas. They were then tasked with documenting and sharing Casa Pueblo’s achievements as well as actively contributing to the improvement of Altos de Cuba through sustainable design interventions. We invite you to visit the Sustainable Design Corridor on the second floor of the Architecture building to learn about their experiences engaging with Casa Pueblo’s energy independence and economic development work, as well as the designs students conceived for a meaningful, sustainable, community gathering space. ...

We love seeing what our students have been learning during the semester! Did you catch the great work from ARTD 225 Design Drawing and ARTD 326 Sustainability & Manufacturing classes? Both were taught by Savio Mukachirayil, Assistant Professor in the School of Art & Design. Swipe to check out student sketches from ARTD 225 and examples of mycelium projects by students in ARTD 326. Many students in these classes are BSSD majors ...

Have you seen the most recent issue of Dimension, FAA’s Magazine? Check out page 4 for a great feature on BSSD’s accelerated grad programs and how these degrees have helped two students build the advanced skills they need to succeed in a competitive, impact-driven career!

Link in bio or visit https://issuu.com/artsatillinois/docs/dimension_2025 to read more ...