Last fall, Adriana Perez-Leyva, junior interior design student, was in studio working on a project when her professors, Nichole Campbell, IND Assistant Professor, and Jason Meneely, IND Associate Professor, selected her to submit an abstract of her project to EDRA, the Environmental Design Research Association. The abstract would be submitted for a competition at the EDRA46LosAngeles Conference – a weekend of events that focuses on research and design presentations and where students, researchers and practitioners have the opportunity to participate in a collaborative discourse. Conference attendees include architects, urban planners, designers, social ecologists, urban anthropologists, researchers, consultants, academics and students from around the world.
During the Fall semester, with the support of the Department of Interior Design, Perez-Leyva submitted her research-based design poster to be considered as one of the national conference poster presentations. In January, she found out that her abstract was accepted by EDRA.
“It was a big surprise that my abstract was chosen,” says Perez-Leyva. “Most graduate students are selected for the competition, not undergraduate.”
The student abstracts are all made up of research-based design. They will be part of the Graduate Student Workshop which is designed to provide a forum for graduate students to present and discuss their ongoing research with senior mentors in environment-behavior design research. The purpose of the workshop is to stengthen and further thesis/dissertation work, as well as to support the development of networks for young researchers in this area, both with senior researchers and other graduate students.
The conference is usually only open exclusively to faculty and graduate students. Since Perez-Leyva is not a graduate student, this accomplishment is highly notable.
“I an honored to have been accepted for the competition,” she says. “As an undergrad, I still have skills to develop and this will give me another opportunity for this.”
The EDRA46LosAngeles Conference is May 27-30 in Los Angeles, CA.