Product Design Students Win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place at the World Traffic Safety Symposium

The 2023 World Traffic Safety Symposium examined disparities in traffic Fatalities by race, ethnicity, income, and gender. The program featured remarks from the nation’s top safety officials, including Acting NHTSA administrator Ann Carlson, NTSB member Thomas Chapman and included discussions on overrepresented populations in crashes, best practices from here in the U.S. and across the globe for buying and designing safer cars, roads and for implementing programs and laws that make roads safer for all highway users.

Part of the Symposium was the Student Design Competition on traffic safety. This is an invitational design competition involving students of Product Design programs, asking them to submit design solutions for circumstances that cause accidents or make the roads unsafe.

• Grand prize winner is Angela Ebron, with the “Vision Shield” design concept
• 2nd Devin Boone, with “The Flag Light System” design concept
• 3rd Ricky Garella, with “The Baby Bubble” design concept
• There were 10 Product Design students who submitted entries.

The competition has scholarships and cash prizes are awarded through the generosity of industry supporters: AAA Foundation for Safety, Nissan, National Road Safety Foundation, Volvo, and Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.

To support the prize winners, 20 product design students attended the World Traffic Safety Symposium. This was a great opportunity for them to learn about the industry and to see the designs of other students.

After the Symposium, students with their professors Dr. Denis Feigler and Michael Lyden visited the Auto Show. We used the visit as an educational opportunity to teach our design students about car design, from development considering safety, to technical and regulatory concerns during the design development phase. The Product Design program also offers two Transportation Design courses as part of its degree requirement. The course is not limited to designing car exteriors but also includes interior design and design of other transportation means.

This was a great win for the program and its students and we look forward to participating again next year.