CDAE’s Community-Centered Design (CCD) major helps students develop sustainable and responsible design solutions for real-world communities through a uniquely transdisciplinary education. 

This approach is what attracted CCD student Elijah Ghia to the major. Ghia began his college career as an engineering major. After a year in that field, he switched to CCD for its hands-on and interactive learning. 

“The best decision I think I made at college was switching into the CCD major,” Ghia said. “It felt very accessible. I could go to [professors’] offices, stop in, and say hi. It doesn’t have to be anything, but they were willing to chat.” 

One day Ghia walked past CCD Professor Steven Kostell’s office, “and the two of us just got talking, and somehow 3D printing came up, and Steve says, ‘Well, I'm about to start this project. Would you be interested?’ And I was just like, Yeah, sure. What the heck? And I ended up being there for a year, working and studying under Steve.” Ghia and Professor Kostell’s study focused on using hemp to replace plastic in different packaging materials. 

Ghia’s time on the project was spent solving questions with trial and error. “My role was just: what’s possible with this thing? Throw stuff at the wall, see what sticks in an interactive design process,” he explained. “It’s such a cool thing.”

Similar to Ghia, CCD major Sam Keller, also transferred into the program. A current junior, he moved to UVM from Belmont University, where he studied audio engineering. 

“I felt like the Community-Centered Design major combined my interests in aesthetics and art just coming from a music background,” he explained. “I've always had a knack for more quantitative or problem-solving tasks, and to join those was super cool and something that I feel like the CCD major allowed.”

Keller has been working on an independent research project for the past two semesters that reflects CCD’s interdisciplinary and community-focused approach. 

The project, titled “Estimating the Visual Complexity of Streetscapes with AI: Predicting the Spatial Agglomeration of the Creative Class,” explores quantifying the visual complexity of streetscapes in Burlington, VT. 

Keller’s classes in CCD have given him the data collection and problem-solving tools to develop the project. “Applying the trans-disciplinary or even post-disciplinary skill set the from CCD program has allowed me to pursue new ideas and facilitate others to realize those ideas,” Keller explains.

As Ghia and Keller illustrate, the CCD program encourages experimentation and personal connections to give students the tools to design both their education and communities.