Computational Design Laboratory

Dr. Vernelle Noel joins the Computational Design

School of Architecture is delighted to welcome Computational Design Scholar, Architect, and Artist, Vernelle A. A. Noel, Ph.D. as the Director of the Situated Computation + Design Lab within the CodeLab community.

Vernelle A. A. Noel, Ph.D.

Vernelle A. A. Noel, Assistant Professor of Computational Design, and the Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture and Urban Design, brings a wealth of experience in interdisciplinary explorations to her role as the Director of the Situated Computation + Design Lab. Her remarkable journey includes holding positions at several prestigious institutions, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Stuttgart, the University of Florida, Penn State University, MIT, and the Singapore University of Technology & Design. 

Noel investigates traditional and digital practices, and their intersections with society. Using interdisciplinary approaches, she builds new frameworks, methodologies, and tools to explore social, cultural, and political aspects of computation for new reconfigurations of practice, pedagogy, and publics. Her work has been supported by the Graham Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, and ideas2innovation (i2i), and she is a recipient of the DigitalFUTURES Young Award for exceptional research and scholarship in the field of critical computational design. Among her many achievements, Noel gave a captivating TEDx Talk titled, “The Power of Making: Craft, Computation, and Carnival” about her research in wire-bending in the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, a traditional craft from the 1930s used to construct costumes s. Dr. Noel curated and showcased her work at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts funded exhibition titled, “Design and Making in the Trinidad Carnival: Histories, Re-imaginations, and Speculations of Computational Design Futures,” at the Price Gilbert Memorial Library at Georgia Tech. 

Noel’s research sits at the crossroads of computation, ethnographic inquiry, and critical practice, where she examines socio-cultural and socio-technical issues in computation and computational technologies, especially within design and making. Her scholarly work combines methods and concepts from various fields, including craft, Human-computer interaction(HCI), media studies, and science and technology studies(STS).

“The Power of Making: Craft, Computation, and Carnival”

Sept. 14. 2023

Author: Sohyun Jin
Category: News