High-tech lab serves textile, interior designers

The technology available in a new computer-aided design (CAD) lab used by the Department of Consumer and Textile Sciences makes the old way of designing fashions look, well, old-fashioned.

Without ever picking up a pen and sketchpad, students can draw a skirt and blouse, design the cloth, scan in a picture of a fashion model, dress her in the outfit, and create a pattern for sewing the clothing -- all while sitting in the CAD lab.

"This kind of work has been done by hand," said Nancy A. Rudd, associate professor of consumer and textile sciences. Recently, though, the use of technology in the textile and apparel industry has been growing at a rapid rate, she said, with a corresponding demand for college graduates who possess the computer skills.

By Kevin Fitzsimons

Nancy A. Rudd, associate professor of consumer and textile sciences, helps senior Tina Piccirillo with a design project in a Campbell Hall computer lab.

The lavender-tinted room on the second floor of Campbell Hall opened this fall with 10 computer workstations for students and one workstation for an instructor. The room is christened the Michelle Lynn Dauterman Computer-Aided Design and Instruction Laboratory in honor of a former textiles and clothing student who passed away in 1994. Her parents, Frederick and Alta Dauterman, provided the primary gift to fund the lab.

The room, formerly used as an office for teaching assistants, has three large windows and samples of computer-generated designs hanging from bulletin strips on all four walls. Fashion models dressed in variants of the same outfit, samples of designs for fabric weaves and knits, and views of a room in different stages of decoration are all posted.

The lab has been used as the classroom for two courses in computer-aided design for textiles and clothing and has been used for units in residential interior design courses and other textile and apparel courses.

"There is a lot of creativity to the things that go on in here," Rudd said. "It's not rote by any means. There's a lot of design experimentation. A lot of creativity comes from allowing students to go at their own pace."

The upper-level course Rudd taught in the fall was "Computer Aided Design in Apparel Product Development," in which the students completed a series of fabric and fashion design projects utilizing the 13 software programs installed on the lab's computers.

"There is a steep learning curve for the course. At first students were kind of afraid, but they got over that rapidly," Rudd said.

A survey of the student projects reveals the creativity and flexibility that the software gives designers. Using the software, the students scanned in an item like a bracelet, then repeated, stretched, changed the color of, and otherwise manipulated the image to create a pattern on fabric. The illustrations show how, with a few clicks of a mouse, shirts with round collars were switched to V-necks and cap sleeves became long sleeves. Fabric was draped naturally in a three-dimensional manner over a scanned image of a model with clothes, with the design matching at the seams and shifting slightly on the hips as it would in the real world.

"Their final design project was to design an entire product line using a holiday theme. They had to do a study of their target market and create three designs," Rudd said. "It was a way to put all the software together. As it turns out, most students went beyond the scope of the project."

This quarter, Rudd is teaching five of the students from the fall quarter class in an advanced group-study course and piloting additional software.

Tina Piccirillo is a senior in the advanced group. "This class really allows you to have your creativity expressed," she said. "Most classes are lecture, but this was hands-on." For their independent study project, the five students picked programs to learn and then teach to each other.

Piccirillo said the software makes it so designing doesn't rely so heavily on drawing ability. "With the CAD program, you don't have to draw," she said. "I like that you can scan pictures in to work from."

Rudd believes the computer expertise will help her students gain employment after graduation.

"My hope is for the group to have an extensive portfolio of designs so that when they interview, they should be pretty competitive," Rudd said. "We know the technology is desperately needed in the industry. They call me and ask for people with specific computer experience."

A student who graduated in December was hired as an apparel and textile designer by Abercrombie & Fitch based in part on the experience she gained from the fall course, Rudd said. She said corporations like Lane Bryant, Structure and Victoria's Secret also have need for technologically adept employees.

Susan L. Zavotka, associate professor of consumer and textile sciences, has used the lab for several of her courses on residential interior design. She said the software can be adapted for interior design purposes.

"The students are really excited about it and enjoying it. It's a real positive room," Zavotka said.

The same draping software that can place fabric on a human shape can drape it onto a scanned-in image of a chair. Zavotka's students also are using AutoCAD to prepare two- and three-dimensional space plans.

Zavotka said the technology really can help interior designers in their work with clients. "One of the problems clients have trouble with is visualization. It is always an issue in interior design," Zavotka said. "You can't try it on and say you don't like it."

Although the time-consuming technology isn't used that much by small residential studios, Zavotka thinks that may change as more young designers graduate with these skills. "I think what will happen is as students move out with this capability and are able to show clients the design without it being too expensive, that it will become more accepted," she said.

The CAD lab places Ohio State among only a few colleges and universities with this type of software for students. Rudd has been interested in bringing the technology to her department since 1987, when she attended a training conference for faculty offered by a company developing the software.

Rudd returned and wrote grant proposals, but was unable to obtain the significant funding necessary for the equipment until the Dautermans established an endowment fund in 1994. Rudd said the department hopes to complete the second-phase of the project -- doubling the size to 20 stations -- by the end of this year. Fund raising for the lab is part of a College of Human Ecology initiative to raise $335,000 by 2002.

"I'm so grateful to the Dautermans, and I think this is a wonderful tribute to their talented daughter," Rudd said. "It's pretty special that we have this lab. To that extent, as long as I'm on the faculty and I can help grow it to the fullest, I will do that. They're delightful people and their daughter has a special place in my heart. We are committed to preserving her memory."

Citino to lend poetic touch to winter commencement

Poet, professor and distinguished alumnus David Citino will add a literary flair to Ohio State's winter commencement as the keynote speaker on March 17. Citino will address 1,400 graduates, who will receive degrees during the ceremony in St. John Arena. Commencement begins at 9:30 a.m.

Citino received his bachelor of arts from Ohio University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Ohio State. He taught at Ohio State's Marion campus for 11 years before coming to the Columbus campus in 1985, where he teaches English and creative writing.

David Citino

Citino is the author of 10 books of poetry, including the Book of Appassionata: Collected Poems, Broken Symmetry and The Weight of the Heart. He also has received a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the first annual poetry award from the Ohioana Library Association, a major fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council, the Dasher Award from the College English Association of Ohio, the Exemplary Faculty Award from the Ohio State College of Humanities, and the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching from Ohio State.

From 1986 to 1993, Citino was director of creative writing at Ohio State. He currently is a member of the board of trustees of the Greater Columbus Arts Council, poetry editor and member of the editorial board of Ohio State University Press, facilitator of the literature panel of the Ohio Arts Council, and member and past president of the board of trustees of Thurber House.

Four to receive honors at commencement

Four individuals will be honored at Ohio State's winter commencement March 17. Honorary doctorates will be presented to Robert D. Putnam and Sir Brian Urquhart, and the Distinguished Service Award will go to G. Edwin Johnson and Isabel Miller.

Robert D. Putnam, Doctor of Political Science

Robert Putnam is Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the government department and director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. He is former dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a former member of the U.S. Security Council.

Putnam is an academic leader and scholar in the study of foreign policy, political culture and historical analysis of governments and democracy. He is the author of eight books, including The Beliefs of Politicians: Ideology, Conflict and Democracy in Britain and Italy, which established him as a major figure in his discipline. His most recent work on the erosion of social life in America, first published in the article "Bowling Alone," has captured attention from the White House to scholarly meetings in several different disciplines.

Putnam received his bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College. After a year at Oxford University, he earned his master's and doctorate from Yale University. He joined the University of Michigan faculty, and in 1979, he joined Harvard, serving as department chair from 1984 to 1988. He assumed his current academic post in 1993.

Brian E. Urquhart, Doctor of International Policy

Sir Brian E. Urquhart served as one of the United Nations' chief diplomats for four decades before becoming a scholar-in-residence in the Ford Foundation's international affairs program from 1986 to 1995.

Urquhart was educated at London's Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford University. Following World War II, he became personal assistant to the executive secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations in London. When the United Nations moved to New York, he became assistant to its first secretary-general.

He served as secretary of the new Collective Measures Committee, and later played a leading role in the development and deployment of the U.N.'s Emergency Force, a 10-nation military force. In 1974, he was appointed undersecretary-general for special political affairs, charged with the direction of peacekeeping forces in the Middle East and Cyprus, as well as negotiations relating to Namibia.

A noted scholar, he has written biographies on Dag Hammarskjold and Ralph Bunche, and is a co-author of books on the United Nations.

G. Edwin Johnson, Distinguished Service Award

A longtime ambassador for agriculture in Ohio, Ed Johnson is president and farm director of ABN in Columbus, which includes ABN Radio, ABN-TV and ABN Publications.

Johnson received a bachelor of science degree from Ohio State. He taught vocational agriculture for a year, and he continues to guest lecture at Ohio State on a variety of subjects. In 1974, he founded the ABN Radio Network, serving affiliates in Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia. He produces "Agri Country," a weekly syndicated television program, and Ohio's Country Journal, a monthly farm magazine.

He has served as a member of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Vice President's Advisory Council and Academic Affairs Advisory Council, the Presidents Club Advisory Committee, the Alumni Association board of directors, and the OSU Extension Development Committee. He established the G. Edwin Johnson Scholarship Endowment Fund and sponsors the annual 4-H awards.

Isabel Miller, Distinguished Service Award

Isabel Miller is associate professor emeritus on the faculty of early and middle childhood education. Though she retired more than 20 years ago, she remains active in her discipline, her college and her University.

Miller joined the OSU faculty in 1950 after receiving her bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Ohio State. She taught courses in early childhood education and children's literature, and directed a field-based program in early childhood education. From 1971 to 1979, she served as associate chair of the faculty. She also played an integral role in the initiation of Ohio State's Head Start Program.

She has served as chair of the College of Education Campaign Steering Committee since 1995 and as a member of the college's Alumni Advisory Board. In 1997, she established the Isabel Miller Scholarship in Early Childhood Education. She also was the first woman president of The Faculty Club.