Wearable technology is increasingly prevalent. The Apple Watch lets you monitor your daily fitness, read emails, summon Siri, and make and receive phone calls from your wrist. Clothes and bags made of flexible solar panels, such as Voltaic System’s Solar Backpack, power up your electronics and charge them as you go. Too many harmful invisible particles in the air? No problem, Baubles, and Bangles is a futuristic personal air purifier worn on the wrist that will cleanse the air. Wearable technology even includes gaming techniques to promote better health, such as the Valedo Back Therapy product designed to help people with lower back pain. In the healthcare industry, wearable technology is being used to overcome big problems, and all around the world, designers are creating smart and responsive apparel, accessories, fitness wear, and assistive devices to enhance people’s everyday life. Are you ready to make the next breakthrough product in health-focused wearable tech?

In this Studio, students will design and develop health-related wearable technology products focusing on physical, mental, or environmental wearable health interventions. Using innovative approaches, materials, and technologies, students will learn how to design wearable tech products that will augment and improve the capabilities of themselves or someone they know. After exploring myriad medical and/or environmental challenges, students will design, build and potentially program wearable tech products from the ground up, test them, and see how their products perform. Through this process, students will learn sketching techniques and prototyping processes, all while being exposed to the iterative design process. Students will learn how to harness simple 'mechanical' systems to add interactivity to their projects. In the end, students will learn the design and engineering skills needed to bring their vision to reality!