Interior Design Students Shine at IDEC

Two students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) College of Architecture have been honored with Best Poster Presentation from IDEC’s 2020 Conference. Interior design students Ashlynn Engelhard and Annie Mimick were honored for their poster titled “New Evidence Educates Future Informal Learning Environments”.

Their project focused on post-occupancy evaluation of the newest buildings on the UNL campus and their informal learning spaces, including the College of Business, College of Nursing, Union, Love Library South and Adele Learning Commons. Through surveys, focus groups, unobtrusive observations and literature reviews, the team made conclusions on the success of the informal learning spaces within these buildings. They focused on furniture arrangements, environmental ambiance, workspace features and frequency of use among other factors.

According to the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) administrators, their Best Poster Presentation Award annually acknowledges quality scholarship and presentation at their conference. The IDEC director of regions collaborates with the conference abstract review coordinator to determine the top five abstracts accepted for presentation at the conference. The five abstract presentations are then scored by selected IDEC members at the conference.

“I find the caliber of work that our students are doing at their level to be inspiring. Understanding the science of our built environment and how people respond to it is at the core of what we do,” said Lindsey Bahe director of the Interior Design Program. “I couldn’t be prouder of Ashlynn and Annie’s work.”

This UCARE research project was developed in partnership with Dr. Miyoung Hong, now a faculty member at Indiana University in Bloomington.