Tom
Weis

Assistant Professor, Rhode Island School of Design

Tom Weis teaches in the industrial design department at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he works with a faculty team to guide graduate students through their year-long thesis projects. His undergrad courses include advanced prototyping, aquaponics, and global security. Drawing upon a background in sculpture, cabinetry, and wooden boatbuilding, Tom pursued industrial design to further develop a creative process. This process has led his work to such places as the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2010, and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Russell MD Museum of History and Innovation. Weis is cofounder of the design firms Steel House and Hello. We Are _____. Since 2015, Weis has explored how design and creativity can work to reduce nuclear threats. He has presented at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Disruptive Futures Nuclear Weapons Summit.

I’m most excited to work on projects that… inspire others to get involved and understand that they can make a difference in reducing nuclear risks.

I’m looking for partners that can help me… understand the most effective audiences to reach and explain the issues in ways that engage non-experts.

A moment when I felt most inspired in my work was… working with others with different approaches and perspectives to accomplish things I couldn’t have done alone.

Innovations in my field I’m most excited to work on… involve inspiring the next generations of designers to think carefully about the concepts, artifacts, and products they create to reduce the amount of “stuff” in the world.

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