Students impress "ideas man"
By Lisa Gilby
April 2009
Innovator ... Prof Carlo Ratti
Design students at the Queensland Academy for Creative Industries (QACI) at Kelvin Grove were privileged to spend a morning discussing their projects and ideas with Queensland's inaugural Innovator in Residence Professor Carlo Ratti.
An architect and engineer from Turin in Italy's north, Prof Ratti teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States where he is director of its SENSEable City Laboratory.
Prof Ratti, a world leader in urban planning and design, will spend the year as Innovator in Residence applying his unique approach to issues affecting Queensland in 2009.
QACI acting deputy principal partnerships and student development Kathy Mackey said Prof Ratti spoke to the Academy's design students about their project The next big idea, which was about designing the learning environment of the future.
'He talked about turning the building inside out, using screens and projecting work on to the outside of other buildings in the Kelvin Grove Urban Village,' Ms Mackey said.
'I think he enjoyed talking to our students and their ideas really resonated with him.
'He also seemed impressed with the potential for their ideas to transfer from the classroom to real world issues and applications.'
The Innovator in Residence program was developed by the State Government, in partnership with the Year of Creativity, to invite internationally renowned thinkers to bring their unique perspective to state matters.
Prof Ratti, who arrived in Brisbane on March 26, had a busy time during his week-long visit.
As well as visiting QACI, he met university and business partners to develop ideas and get a feel for state issues and presented a public lecture on Future Cities at the Ideas Festival.
'The goal of this week is to develop some projects and ideas we can develop further later in the year,' he said.
'I think there will be a lot of opportunities for the universities to do research together and one of the things we have been discussing is how to involve MIT and the universities here.'
Prof Ratti will return to Queensland for six weeks in July and August to continue developing his projects and ideas.
For more information about Prof Ratti and the SENSEable City Laboratory visit MIT's website 
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