UCDA : connecting, inspiring, and supporting a creative community in education

UCDA 2025 Design Education Summit: Call for Abstracts


UCDA 2025 Design Education Summit
Call For Abstracts - Opening Soon

Call For Abstracts Submission Form

Abstracts Due: February 14, 2025

The UCDA Design Education Summit is an annual national academic summit designed for design educators and graduate students who are seeking to engage in presenting academic research, pedagogy, and creative projects through peer review, discourse, and presentation.

The summit provides an exciting and enriching experience for all attendees to gather as a national academic community. Participants have the opportunity to showcase their research and projects through peer-reviewed presentations and posters, workshops, panels, and keynote presentations. Design educators and graduate student who choose not to submit for presentation yet would like the opportunity to benefit and learn from academic work presented by their peers are encouraged to attend.

Mindful Design

As human beings, we are constantly learning and unlearning how the world works as it changes and evolves. We try to anticipate what changes might come, and how our roles and responses as designers and educators may need to shift and evolve in response to these changes. One approach to managing and navigating our world's fast-paced changes in technology and society is by applying the principles of mindfulness in our pedagogical and design research practices. The practice of mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment with active attention, openness, curiosity, flexibility, focus, and acceptance. This can manifest in approaching our work as designers and educators in various ways—including through deeper explorations and asking questions, how we approach the creative process, inviting empathy and other design thinking processes, and approaching problems from different angles.

We invite you to explore and share how mindfulness plays a part in your own pedagogical and design research practices. We will engage in an exchange of ideas, experiences, and academic discourse through presentations, panels, workshops, and posters that explore the topic of Mindful Design at the 20th Annual UCDA Design Education Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina May 19-21.

Join us by presenting your work, learning from the work of others, and benefiting from networking and the exchange of ideas with like-minded design educators. We look forward to seeing you there.

Call For Abstracts Submission Form
Opening Soon. Deadline: February 14.

Notifications will be made via email by March 13, 2024

There are four (4) formats: Presentation, Panel, Poster, and Workshop.

TYPE DURATION DESCRIPTION
Presentation 30-minute 20-minute session with 10-minute Q&A
Panel  60-minute 40-minute discussion with 20-minute Q&A
Workshop 60-minute 60-minute hands-on type workshop
Poster on-going 90-minute reception, displayed during summit

Note: All presenters will be required to register and pay the registration fee for the UCDA Design Education Summit, and attend this live and in-person event on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, May 19-21, 2025

Call for 2025 Design Education Abstracts Submission Form

Proceedings from past UCDA Design Education Summits

CALL FOR ABSTACTS: PRESENTATIONS

Topics should address issues in design education and research and will be for 20-minute breakout session presentations to be held during the summit. Papers for the accepted presentations will also be included in the online proceedings.

Presentation Abstract Submission Procedure

  • Paper/Presentation abstracts (a maximum of 500 words) must be submitted in PDF format only.
  • Your name and name of the institution (if any) should NOT appear on the abstract as we wish for the judging to be blind.
  • Include your status (grad student, tenure track faculty, tenured faculty, visiting faculty, practicing designer, other) on the PDF file.
  • Indicate this is for a PRESENTATION.
  • Title your PDF file as an abbreviation of your paper title and use the file extension .pdf (example: titlename.pdf).
  • Include in your email your name, institution, institution type (2-year, 4-year, public, private, art school, etc.).
  • If selected, the complete paper will be requested for inclusion in the conference proceedings.
  • If selected, you will be asked to register and attend the UCDA Design Education Summit, and present onsite during the time assigned.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: POSTERS


Posters provide an excellent forum for authors to present their work in an informal and interactive setting. Posters are ideal for presenting speculative, late-breaking results or for giving an introduction to interesting, innovative work. Posters are intended to provide authors and participants with the ability to connect with each other and to engage in discussions about the work.
The posters will provide information that addresses issues in design education. Posters that present work in progress and draw important conclusions from practical experience are also welcome. 



What is a poster? 

A poster is an opportunity to publish a short article and discuss it with your peers. It may be an overview of research-in-progress of a technical topic, problem, question, product, or case study.
 The typical poster is not just a shortened version of a conference talk (although those are acceptable); posters are less formal, more interactive, and may provoke an argument.

Why posters?

  • Increase the variety of points of view aired at the conference
  • Encourage two-way communication
  • Allow detailed and esoteric presentations
  • Provide a forum for small presentations

Poster Submission Procedure

  • Poster abstracts (a maximum of 500 words) must be submitted in PDF format only.
  • Your name and name of the institution (if any) should NOT appear on the abstract as we wish for the judging to be blind.
  • Indicate this is for a POSTER.
  • Title your PDF file as an abbreviation of your poster title and use the file extension .pdf (example: postertitlename.pdf).
  • Include your status (grad student, tenure track faculty, tenured faculty, visiting faculty, practicing designer, other) on the PDF file.
  • Include in your email your name, institution, institution type (2-year, 4-year, public, private, art school, etc.).
  • If selected, the complete poster will be requested for inclusion in the conference proceedings.
  • If selected, you will be asked to register and attend the UCDA Design Education Summit, and present onsite during the time assigned.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: WORKSHOPS


This format is designed to provide a hands-on experience for those in attendance. Workshops could include a software tutorial, project-based, or creative outlet (e.g. typography project; printmaking; etc.). Sessions will last one hour. Please include what supplies or materials would be needed.

Workshop Submission Procedure


  • Workshop abstracts (a maximum of 500 words) must be submitted in PDF format only.

Please include the following on your submission:

  • Workshop leader (1), required; the organizer and leader of the workshop.

  • Description of the workshop, and what it will address.

  • Criteria on what materials will be needed or provided, or what the participant would need to bring (e.g. laptop with particular software, drawings, markers or other supplies, apron, etc.).
  • Indicate this is for a WORKSHOP.
  • Title your PDF file as an abbreviation of your workshop title and use the file extension .pdf (example: titlename.pdf).
  • Include in your email your name, institution, institution type (2-year, 4-year, public, private, art school, etc.).
  • If selected, the complete paper will be requested for inclusion in the conference proceedings.
  • If selected, you will be asked to register and attend the UCDA Design Education Summit, and present onsite during the time assigned.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: PANEL DISCUSSIONS


This format is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas, methods, and/or experiences among an intellectually diverse group of scholars around significant questions related to a central topic. The purpose is to encourage contact among individuals or groups who may benefit from shared experiences, or to air different views on a controversial topic.
The panel chair will introduce the topic and panelists will respond to questions chosen by the chair. The audience should be allowed to respond and to introduce additional questions and comments for the panel. Sessions will last one hour, with 40-minutes of panel discussion and at least 20-minutes for audience questions and comments.



Panel Discussion Submission Procedure


  • Panel discussion abstracts (a maximum of 500 words) must be submitted in PDF format only.

Please include the following on your submission:

  • Chair (1), required; the organizer and moderator of the panel discussion.
  • Panelists (2-4). These are presenters.
  • The total number of participants must not exceed five.
  • Please include the names and institutional affiliations of the chair and panelists, a description of the topic, and a brief list of questions the panel will address.
  • The names of the chair and panelists should appear on the abstract.
  • Title your PDF file as an abbreviation of your discussion title and use the file extension .pdf (example: titlename.pdf).
  • Include in your email your name, institution, institution type (2-year, 4-year, public, private, art school, etc.).
  • If selected, the complete paper will be requested for inclusion in the conference proceedings.
  • If selected, you will be asked to register and attend the UCDA Design Education Summit, and present onsite during the time assigned.