Climate change is an existential threat. The U.S. will face more frequent and extreme disasters in the coming years due to climate change. How can we harness the power of technology and indigenous knowledge to reduce risks to save lives and property, especially for the most vulnerable communities? This Design@Large session will discuss wildfires, one of California’s biggest climate threats, how to optimize the state for a transition to clean energy, and how we can be good stewards of our natural resources.

Join us on the 2 nd floor of the Design and Innovation Building from 4-5pm on April 20 for a discussion with Laurie Johnson, Chief Catastrophe Response and Resilience Officer at the California Earthquake Authority, Professor Ikay Altinatas De Callafon, Chief Data Science Officer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, Danny Kennedy, Chief Energy Officer at New Energy Nexus, and Geneva Wiki, Senior Program Manager at The California Endowment. Stay afterwards to view designs from student teams that were challenged with educating the public about wildfires through our design-a-thon on “Mindsets on Megafires” from 5-6pm.

For the first time in the nearly 10-year history of the Design@Large speaker series the UC San Diego Design Lab is partnering with a state-wide organization, California 100, to present an expanded hybrid experience to not only expand the audience of our series, but to deepen the means of engagement. California 100 is an initiative focused on identifying and uplifting transformative ideas, people, and projects through research and engagement that accelerate progress toward a shared vision of California’s future over the next century, the Design Lab will host six hybrid experiences between April 13 - May 25, 2022.

Taking place in the Design Lab’s state of the art new home, the Design and Innovation Building, a series of panels, talks and participatory design sessions will be led by an extraordinary group of California thought leaders who reflect diversity by region and industry, and the perspectives of communities who have been historically marginalized or excluded. Attendees can plan to learn more about, and actively co-create, around the following topics:

Alternative Transportation Futures - April 13, 4pm

Climate Risk Reduction and Technology - April 20, 4pm

Housing Justice and Design - April 27, 4pm

Transborder Regions and Immigrant Integration - May 11, 4pm

Future Prospects in Health Equity and Tech Innovation, May 18, 4pm

The Future of Work and Higher Education, May 25, 4pm

This series is sponsored by the Burnham Center for Community Advancement, San Diego Supercomputer Center, and Qualcomm Institute. Sessions are open and free to the public.

**If you are needing ASL services for the event, please contact ops@dlab.ucsd.edu.