Benay Gürsoy Toykoç
Vernelle
Noel
Benay Gürsoy Toykoç is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research and teaching focus on computational making and material computation, craft theory, shape studies, basic design education, and cognitive studies of the design process.
She has lectured and taught workshops in several universities in Turkey. Since 2010, she has been teaching first year design studios, geometry and design computing courses at Istanbul Bilgi University, Faculty of Architecture. There, as part of the Basic Design Studio, each Fall the students design large-scale lanterns to be hung around the campus. Some of the student works on lanterns developed under the guidance of Benay Gürsoy Toykoç (in collaboration with Bulut Cebeci, Elif Ensari, Birgul Colakoglu) in Fall 2015 can be seen in this page, and in here.
Vernelle Noel is a Research Scientist, Computational Designer, and Architect who has worked in the U.S., the Caribbean, India, and Singapore. Currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Design Computing she investigates craft, computational making and technology in cultural design practices. Vernelle was also a presenter at TEDxPortofSpain in 2015, where she gave a talk entitled, "The Power of Making: Craft, Computation, and Carnival." Noel has presented at top academic conferences in the USA and Europe, and has been a primary reviewer for SIGGRAPH, IEEE VIS, and the NSF, to name a few. Vernelle graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2013 from the Design Computation Group. Her research focused on computational approaches to design, digital fabrication, and CAD/CAM technologies such as 3D printing. Her Masters dissertation entitled, Trinidad Carnival: Improving Design through Computation & Digital Technology, examined the dying craft of wire-bending, and ways of improving design in the Trinidad Carnival through computation. After graduating from MIT, Vernelle co-taught courses in Design Computation, Digital Design & Fabrication at the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD).
Julio
Diarte
Julio Diarte is from Asuncion, Paraguay. He obtained his Master Degree in Architectural Design at the Barcelona School of Architecture in 2009. He has worked as a professional architect in Spain, Romania, and Paraguay. Since 2011 he is part of the Research Department at the Architecture, Design and Arts School at the National University of Asuncion where he worked in different research projects, organizing seminars, workshops, exhibitions, and representing the school in international networks. In 2015 was selected as a Fulbright Scholar and he is currently a Ph. D. student in architecture and teaching assistant of the 1st. year Studio Design at the Stuckeman School of Architecture at Penn State. His main research interest is about architectural design, digital fabrication, traditional building methods, and reuse of waste materials in architecture.
