Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the MDes Program, the MDes Research & Development Award supports research and development of projects in the multiple formats and media of the MDes Program vision, offering an opportunity unique to MDes students for experimentation, immersion, and discovery. The Award supports travel to archives, fieldwork, project development, material experiments, and occasionally supports conference presentations.

Proposals are reviewed once each year, on an annual basis in the spring semester. Proposals are evaluated for the quality, clarity and originality of the proposed research, project activity, and projected outcomes. The jury is composed of MDes Domain Heads and Program Directors.

Recent recipients include:

2026
Keaton Bruce, MDes Ecologies
Catherine Cai, MDes Ecologies
Mariam Fitaihi, MDes Ecologies
Shannon Lee, MDes Ecologies
Marc Dunand, MDes Mediums
Hannah Lin, MDes Mediums
Min Kim, MDes Mediums
Hannah Zhang, MDes Narratives
Emily Yan, MDes Narratives
Jessica Ruetter, MDes Narratives
Kate Schreiber, MDes Narratives
Julia Mattis, MDes Publics
Ceci Portillo, MDes Publics
Eden Olayiwole, MDes Publics

2025
Maya Shamir, MDes Ecologies
Grant Stokes, MDes Ecologies
Wyatt Roy, MDes Mediums
Eric Rannestad, MDes Mediums
Ieva Lygnugaryte, MDes Narratives
Renzo Marsino Moreno, MDes Narratives
Tyler White, MDes Narratives
Ami Mehta, MDes Publics
Ignacio Lira, MDes Publics
Arundhati Prasad, MDes Publics

2024
Angelina Zhang, MDes Ecologies
Keunwook Kim, MDes Mediums
Kim Vo, MDes Narratives
Shiman Xu, MDes Narratives
Tristan Whalen, MDes Narratives
Chuchu Qi, MDes Publics