Global Innovation & Design Lab

Winter 2026 IDEATE is out! Read about the achievements of our Global Honors and NextGen students, the GID Lab's new meaningful projects, this year's Shared Futures event! See here: tacoma.uw.edu/iige/ideate-ii… #InnovationandDesign #IIGE #GIDLab #DesignThinking #IDEATE

New Sign-in System Brings Efficiency to GID Lab If you study in the GID Lab, checking in just got easier, thanks to a "swipe ad go system." Student users will simply swipe their student ID to check in. Curious about our study space? Come check us out in Milgard 203!

The GID Lab has wrapped up the "Community is the Recovery Plan" Project with Amara and HopeSparks Family Services. Invited community participants worked with insights from families and youth impacted by the child welfare system to bring forward three asset-mapping prototypes.

Here's to another year of amazing workshops! Incredibly grateful to all our wonderful clients of 2025, and wishing our beloved GID Lab Community every success as we step forward into 2026!

The Fall 2025 Issue of IDEATE is out! Join us celebrating students' global and national learning experiences, community engaged classrooms, and a full roster of clients in the GID Lab! See here: bit.ly/IDEATEfall2025 #InnovationandDesign #IIGE #GIDLab #DesignThinking #IDEATE

Thrilled to welcome Alyce McNeil as the new Managing Director of IIGE!🎉 As a Data, Metrics, Assessment & Communications guru, her work helped further define and articulate the impact of Student Affairs on retention, graduation & student success. Excited to have her on the team!

A moment of pride as we say goodbye to Program Coordinator Maria Babko! 🌟 From intern to staff, Maria brought creativity, energy & a smile to the GID Lab. She grew our online presence, supported workshops, mentored interns & improved systems. Thank you, Maria, you’ll be missed!

Capstone students from @uwtset brought incredible energy to two design thinking workshops in the GID Lab! Led by Divya McMillin, they brainstormed, prototyped, and explored team roles & values to strengthen their capstone process. #DesignThinking #gidlab #uwtacoma @uwtacoma

We’re thrilled to welcome Jacqueline Cheung (Jack) as our new Program Assistant! Jack is an artist and aspiring UI/UX designer, a recent UW Tacoma grad in IT with an Innovation & Design minor. They’ve interned with the GID Lab and worked as a Design Assistant, excited for more!

Meet our 2025-26 GlD Lab Interns! 🌟 ✨ Jessica Sellers – Information Technology major with a minor in Innovation & Design ✨ Mahmadkaif Ghanchi – Information Technology major ✨ Simrat Chhokar – Information Technology major with a minor in Business Administration

🎉 Welcome Alyce McNeil as our new Interim Managing Director of the Institute for Innovation & Global Engagement! With 17+ years in PR & community leadership, Alyce brings deep expertise in data, student success & engagement. Thrilled to have her on the team!

We are excited to announce our Spring 2025 edition of IDEATE is published! Read about the IIGE's annual Global Engagement Conference, the GID Lab record of workshops, a student winning a Student Civic Leader Award, and more! Check out more here: bit.ly/IDEATE_Spring2…

Celebrating our wonderful Winter and Spring GID Lab clients First 5 FUNdamentals, UW CoLab for Community & Behavioral Health Policy, and Institute of Black Justice and the learning opportunities provided for our interns. We are excited for projects already lining up in Summer!

Meet our Spring 2025 interns! 🌟 We're thrilled to welcome four amazing students to the team this term at the Global Innovation and Design Lab: ✨ Káren Bedoya Álvarez ✨ Primitivo Bambao ✨ Jack Cheung ✨ Hanifah Sen Stay tuned to see what they'll do this Spring!

The Winter 2025 edition of IDEATE is here! Discover GID Lab workshops creating design & career opportunities for UW Tacoma students, Huskies on the Hill with NextGen Civic Leaders, and welcoming Dr. Jaleesa Trapp to the faculty! Explore here: bit.ly/Winter2025_IDE… #IIGE #IDEATE

What an incredible Shared Futures event! 🎉 The energy was electric as students and South Sound professionals came together to perfect elevator pitches, and build valuable connections. Students are walking away with invaluable career insights to fuel their futures! 🚀

This week in Design Studio, we had the pleasure of hosting Sasha Costanza-Chock for a talk + Q&A on networked social movements, transformative media organizing, and design justice. An insightful discussion on UX vs. business goals, accessibility, community partnerships & impact!

We were thrilled to to host Dr. Alexis Hope in our Design Studio class with Dr. Jaleesa Trapp! She shared invaluable insights on design values and her work behind the "Make the Breast Pump Not Suck" project at the MIT Media Lab. Truly an inspiring session!

We’re delighted to welcome Saralyn Smith (she/they) as Managing Director of the Institute for Innovation and Global Engagement at UW Tacoma! 🎉 With 15+ years in higher ed, Saralyn excels in program design, fostering partnerships, and creating inclusive, engaging content.

Always inspiring to wrap up design thinking sessions with collaborative, community centered solutions! Greater Tacoma Community Foundation and Local Advisory Team members built visionary and practical prototypes to disburse Washington State Community Reinvestment Project funds.