Design and Environmental Analysis

Faculty
Student Policies
DEA Honors Program
Academic Advising

Design and Environmental Analysis (DEA) combines innovative design thinking with insightful design research to understand how the built environment impacts our daily lives. Through multi-disciplinary training in human-centered design (interior, product, architecture), environmental psychology, ergonomics, and facility strategy and management, we tackle problems from a systems view - people, process and place - to create strategic, sustainable healthy futures by design.

DEA offers an integrative, flexible curriculum that is student-centric. Undergraduate students complete a common core of foundation courses then choose to build expertise within a focus area utilizing electives from the broad course offerings within Human Ecology and at Cornell to support their individual goals. Students can also elect to complete a minor, honor’s thesis, or pursue an off-campus study experience. The undergraduate curriculum is organized around the following three primary research themes: Design Strategy, Sustainable Futures, and Health and Well-Being.

Students will develop expertise in their chosen area but will also interface with students and faculty who have expertise in the other two areas through collaborative studios and interdisciplinary project teams. Working with faculty from a broad range of disciplines, they combine academic course work, field experience and applied research to solve problems.

Diverse faculty backgrounds and teaching approaches help students to develop multidisciplinary problem-solving and creative abilities, aesthetic judgment, and analytical thinking. Students explore innovative concepts for the design and management of interior environments through laboratory, shop, studio, and computer facilities. The relationship between people and their physical surroundings is explored through a combination of academic courses, field experience, and applied research. Examples of student class projects and faculty work are frequently on display in the MVR gallery. The dLibrary includes books, journals, newsletters, and material samples for student use.

Faculty

M. Shepley, Chair (1411 MVR, (607) 255-2144); Y. Hua, Director of Undergraduate Studies; N. Wells, Director of Graduate Studies; S. Danko, J. Elliott, G. Evans, K. Gibson, R. Gilmore, K. Green, A. Hedge, L. Maxwell, D. Ramzy, S. Yoon, R. Zadeh

Student Policies

The DEA student policies apply specifically to undergraduate students enrolled in the Design and Environmental Analysis (DEA) major. DEA majors must also adhere to all College of Human Ecology (CHE) policies and requirements.

DEA Honors Program:

The honors program, which leads to a B.S. degree with honors in Design and Environmental Analysis, gives official recognition to undergraduate students who have demonstrated excellence in their academic work and their capacity for independent research. In addition to fulfilling the requirements for their major, students in the honors program prepare and orally defend an honors thesis. Honors students work with a research mentor in preparing for their thesis. Interested students should obtain a DEA Honors Program application form online. For more information, students should visit the DEA website: www.human.cornell.edu/DEA/Academics/Undergraduate/ or contact the DEA Honors Representative, Nancy Wells.

Academic Advising:

During their first semester, all DEA majors are matched with a faculty advisor by the director of undergraduate studies.

Consultation with faculty advisors about future goals, graduation requirements, sequences of courses, and electives inside or outside the college helps students develop their academic programs. Faculty advisors can make recommendations on what to include. Students are free to change advisors. Although advisors should be consulted about students’ schedules during course enrollment each semester, it is the student’s responsibility to keep track of his or her courses and to make sure that they meet graduation requirements for their major and college.