Students Complete Design Challenge With Salomon and NASA

Students from the Outdoor Product Design & Development program participated in a unique design challenge in Dr. Julie Lamarra's Design Thinking class, working on teams to identify opportunities to develop new products for Salomon utilizing NASA materials and technologies.

Scott Betty, VP of Footwear and Gear at Salomon, worked with students to brief them on Salomon's brand and product line. Students split up into teams, each working in a unique role, either as a designer, developer, or product line manager, and collaborated to identify opportunities for innovation within the current Salomon lineup. 

NASA Technology Transfer, an office within the larger agency, that seeks to commercialize NASA materials and technologies, supplied a portfolio of materials for students to explore and identify as potential solutions to be incorporated into each team project.

Over the course of eight weeks, students conducted research, explored solutions, ideated, and eventually created a final presentation for Salomon and NASA Technology Transfer. On presentation day, students shared their concepts and received feedback and critique from NASA and Salomon.

Upon completion of the project, students shared their excitement and anxiety at presenting to industry leaders and Scott Betty shared how impressed he was at the quality of the work, in particular, the presentations, which he described as being on par with work he'd see from an internal team at Salomon.

Scott Betty and Dr. Julie Lamarra, share their thoughts on the project in the full conversation on YouTube and on the Highlander Podcast.