Scholarly works by Interior Design graduate students published at Spring 2020 Conferences

Marymount University’s Department of Interior Design is pleased to recognize the hard work of its graduate students. From the Class of 2020, Julia McBride and Tianette Simpson, who have completed M.A. degrees in Interior Design, had their works accepted to research conferences. From the post-professional degree track, five other students virtually presented work at the Marymount University Spring 2020 Student Research Conference.

Included in that conference was McBride’s evidence-based design thesis, “Creating a Unified School Community through Shared Spaces: A Local Case Study to Propose Design Recommendations for the Arlington Career Center.”

Also featured in the conference were research projects by graduate students Wafa Alassaf, Erika Beard, Laura Adriazola Diaz, Alzahraa Fatani and Cynthia McClure. These students addressed a societal problem of their choosing that they then solved using design. The projects presented at this conference reflected a broad range of disciplines, including interior design, psychology, information technology, physical therapy and more. Their work can be viewed on the conference website here.

Of the five awards that were presented, McClure won the Best Graduate Poster Presentation Award, with a cash prize of $200. Her research project, “How to Create a Sense of Community: A Local Case Study to Explore the Role of Place-Making in a Residential Neighborhood,” was conducted under the direction of Jihyun Song, Associate Professor of Interior Design. Judging was based on a scoring rubric considering clarity of both written and oral components of the presentation, importance of topic and/or findings, research methodology employed and the ability to engage the audience. Her awarded presentation can be viewed below.

Meanwhile, Simpson – along with co-author Song – was accepted to present the evidence-based design thesis, “Designing Healthy Interiors for Employee Wellness in Retail Environments,” at the 2021 Health in Buildings Roundtable (HiBR) conference. HiBR is a forum funded by the National Institutes of Health to share ideas and best practices for designing, construction, operation and maintaining buildings and facilities.