Engineering Design for Art and Artifact Conservation

In a collaboration between the George R. Brown School of Engineering, the School of Humanities, the Center for Civic Engagement, Rice Center for Engineering Leadership, Rice Alliance, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston,  four students—Ting Cai, Hector (Quique) Munoz, Emily Salomon, and Hannah Thalenberg—have been selected to participate as CCE Fellows in the program’s second year. Under the direction Dr. Matthew Wettergreen of Caroline Collective and Dr. Maria Oden, Professor of Engineering Education, these students will work closely with the Museum of Fine Arts to develop custom archival storage solutions for pieces in the museum’s permanent collection, utilizing digital workflow to enhance the exchange of ideas and to document the design process. The summer fellowship will include class instruction, collaborative and individual design work. The students will also gain a better understanding of business and entrepreneurship practices and investigate real-world applications of this multidisciplinary approach through the Innovation Norway course offered through Rice Alliance. Over the course of the summer, the fellows will write and present a business plan and a research poster describing the work.