The 2007 Design Science Lab culminated on Friday, June 29th with a series of presentations by the Lab participants to representatives from the United Nations. This year's group addressed Millennium Development Goal #1 - to halve poverty by 2015 - from a variety of angles, devising innovative and readily-implementable solutions to one of the world's most pressing problems.

The strategies produced by this year's teams ranged from a comprehensive plan for holding nations accountable for their pledge of .7% of their GDP for Millennium Development funding to the United Nations to a strategy for restructuring the NGO community in the developing world to better meet individual and community needs. Check back soon for much more detail about the work of this year's Lab participants, including the full 2007 Design Science Lab Report.

The Buckminster Fuller Institute would like to thank all of our amazing participants, donors, and network members who contributed to this year's program. Thank you!

Photos from the DSL roof-top 'wrap' party - Friday June 29th, 2007
Razi Shawahdeh from Palestine, and DSL program manager, Matt Barron	Andy Cavatorta of Boston and Lucas McConnell of Erie, PA discuss the feedback they received from the UN.
Indy-band Lover's Brent Jones from Athens, GA continues to evolve his strategy. Listening closely is Wong Pui Lun Pollen, an interior designer from Hong Kong.	Geodesic tree-house inventor and industrial designer, Dustin Feider from Milwalkie.
Brett Boye (NJ) and Anne Loyer of Boston, plan for the future with Veronica Pena from Caracas, Venezuela.	Samah Hanaysha, from Ramallah and Mael Jaffres from France synergize...

The 2007 Design Science Lab began on Friday, June 22nd at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. This year we are honored to host more than 40 participants from the United States and around the world, representing Armenia, Canada, France, India, Kenya, Palestine, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela.


The participants were welcomed on Friday by Ramu Damodaran of the United Nations Department of Public Information and got to work immediately, devising solutions to poverty around the world. Saturday morning was the group's first day at the United Nations International School where they began instruction in the Design Science methodology and its usefulnes for addressing complex global problems. Saturday evening we were treated to a talk by Dr. Michael Ben-Eli on Buckminster Fuller's work and enduring legacy. On Sunday, the participants divided into teams based on their areas of interest and began their research on current indicators and statistics about the state of the world. Monday had the group back at the United Nations entering into dialogue with officials from the United Nations on topics such as sustainable local agriculture, water and sanitiation, and food. On Monday evening Bashir Jama spoke to the participants about the wonderful work of the Millennium Village Project. Tuesday morning began with a presentation by Cynthia E. Smith, curator of the Design for the Other 90% exhibit showing now at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City.

The group is hard at work on their solutions to one of the world's most pressing problems and will no doubt have some exciting results to present to the United Nations and the public on Friday afternoon. We would like to invite anyone in the New York area or beyond to attend the final presentations on Friday, June 29th beginning at 1:30 pm at the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium. If you would like to attend please meet us in the United Nations main lobby (entrance on 46th Street and 1st Avenue through the white visitor's tent) by 1:00 pm. Unfortunately the U.N. will not let any visitors through security after 1:00 pm.

Check back soon for more updates about the program and to view the 2007 Design Science Lab Report!

Visit DesignScienceLab.org to find out more about this program.

The 2007 Design Science Lab will be held in New York City at the United Nations and United Nations International School from Friday, June 22nd to Friday, June 29th. The application deadline is May 1st.

The Design Science Lab is a rigorous, hands-on training in the problem solving, planning and design methodology called Design Science, pioneered by Buckminster Fuller and other visionaries. Participants engage in a whole systems and anticipatory approach to develop strategies to solve global and local problems that is based on innovation and thrives on transparency. » Click to find out more !