Senior Spotlight: Maddie Burroughs

Undergraduates from any school or college across CMU can enroll in one of the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) network’s 10 minors. To celebrate her upcoming graduation, we asked College of Engineering senior Maddie Burroughs, who is minoring in soft technologies, to reflect on her experiences with IDeATe.

Q: How did you become involved with IDeATe during your time at CMU? Why did you gravitate toward soft technologies?

A: I took my first IDeATe class my first semester on campus, and it was the only creative class on my schedule that semester. Even though I originally took it for gen-ed credit, the class ended up being an important outlet that I’ve continued building into my schedule every semester. At that point, I didn’t even know about the different minors offered by IDeATe. After that I kept taking more and more classes, and gradually became aware of the full extent of what IDeATe actually offers.

Originally, I was interested in the Design for Learning minor, but eventually gravitated toward soft technologies because I thought it provided the most interesting opportunities to apply my background in software and hardware in a creative way. It’s an outlet that can incorporate these other skills, but in a less stressful and more open-ended manner than many of my other classes and assignments.

Q: How did IDeATe classes and projects complement your work in other areas at CMU? What was unique and valuable about the experience?

A: In the class Learning in Museums, we’re working in small groups to create an exhibit as part of a larger Kindness Gallery for the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. My group is focusing on responsible decision making, and our exhibit is designed to reinforce examples of actions that kids can take and how they make other people feel.

I brought my technical skills to the team, adding electronics to the project which allow us to use lights and color to reinforce socio-emotional learning objectives. I’ve also helped with fabrication using the IDeATe laser cutters. But one of my partners studies art in the College of Fine Arts, and she’s worked on a lot of the drawings and graphics for the project. Her focus has been making sure the visuals are inclusive and clear for the kids.

I also got the chance to share technical knowledge with a Ph.D. student from Dietrich College in Creative Soft Robotics with Garth Zeglin. This student had never used CAD software before, so I got to teach him a lot of the technical aspects of the project. What was great was that his lack of experience in that area didn’t hold him back — IDeATe classes are very much designed to be welcoming to anyone. Personally, I went into Inflatables having never really even sewn anything before, and by the end I was designing patterns and building these elaborate fabric creations with complex internal structures.

Q: Can you share about how the interdisciplinary environment of IDeATe impacted your journey? Did you encounter new disciplines or processes that changed how you approached problems or imagined solutions?

A: I love every instructor I’ve worked with through IDeATe — they all come from different backgrounds, and many of them work in various creative fields in addition to their teaching. For example, Adjunct Assistant Professor Nina Barbuto founded Assemble, a community space for arts and technology, and co-founded the I Made It! Market. Robert Zacharias teaches and manages the Physical Computing Lab, and has worked with the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Any one of them is more than willing to help you with anything you're working on, and so invested in your success with both assignments for class and personal projects.

They also want to position themselves as co-learners alongside you, and are excited to encourage curiosity. They’re open to curating assignments and projects based on what you’re interested in. In Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), with the technical material and the established, cut-and-dry program, I definitely feel like I’m just being taught. So this flexibility is something I’m always excited to take advantage of.

Q: What’s next for you after graduation? Are there any lessons from IDeATe that you’ll take with you throughout the next steps in your career?

A: I think the biggest thing that IDeATe has taught me is to reshape the way I think about learning. Through taking Design for Learning classes and just experiencing firsthand the way IDeATe approaches education, I’ve rethought how I go about experiencing and learning new things. I’ve become much more excited by education, especially in informal learning spaces. This in turn has reshaped what I wanted to do with my life — I’m now really interested in pursuing educational design. IDeATe gave me the direction I needed by opening my eyes to my passion about this topic and industry.

Interacting with real adults who have jobs in creative spaces — who are unapologetically makers, creators, and artists — has also made such a big impression on me. When I came into college, I had experience with the technical side of theater, but I didn’t necessarily view that as an opportunity to express creativity. Now, IDeATe has altered how I notice creativity happening around me — it’s everywhere, and it’s important to embrace it.

I already have a software engineering job lined up, but I’m still filling out applications for other opportunities. I’ve been looking at places like museums, planetariums — somewhere I can merge my technical training and my more interdisciplinary, creative experience.