Bush Foundation Ecosystem Grant
Team: Director: Thomas Fisher; Design and Research Fellow: Joseph Hang; Graduate Research Assistants: Ebtehal Bahnasy, Rutuja Malpure, Jakob Mahla, Javkhlan “Java” Nyamjav, Nardos Tamirat Shitta, Jingyuan “Jeff” Yao; Undergraduate Research Assistants: Long Au, Mia Miao, Jason Xiong, Yuechen “Stella” Zhang, Yaqi “Julie” Zhu"
Program: Minnesota Design Center
Bush Foundation Ecosystem grants "support organizations helping people solve problems across a number of issues," and this three-year research effort did so in various ways.
The MDC has used the three-year Bush Ecosystem Grant program to:
- fund BIPOC undergraduate and graduate research assistants,
- seed a co-design project that addresses the childcare crisis in Minnesota
- contribute to research on community bias against people experiencing homelessness
- provide design assistance to the diverse community in Minneapolis’s Root District
- support the creation of a solar commons in Bois Forte tribal community
- show how the West Bank Business Association can create a new community facility
- launch a non-profit that creates tech hubs for youth who lack access to technology
- continue to support two non-profits, that we helped launch, dealing with homelessness
- enable an MDC affiliate to pursue further funding for his design-focused youth initiative
- explore strategies for mobility hubs in Grand Rapids related to its autonomous shuttle
- convene city, county, and park board planners to coordinate their public works projects
- develop a human-centered, non-credit design certificate for adult learners
- conduct workshops related to the impact of the pandemic on diverse communities
- look at how the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals affect development here
- complete work on an NSF-funded study of autonomous-vehicle-ready streets
study what a regenerative future for a rural community – Warren – might look like
Funder: Bush Foundation
