Month: June 2022


  • UrbanPlan Workshop

    One of the challenges facing the Department of Urban Planning is explaining what planners do and the many available career paths in the field. This void in understanding is not just with the incoming students but also their parents. With 90 percent of those incoming freshmen predetermining architecture as their intended discipline, the challenge is […]

    Read More
  • Exploring Modern Mobility in City Planning

    For the Fall 2021 semester I was invited by the Department Chair of Urban Planning at Ball State, Scott Truex, to develop and lead a class related to transportation planning. After about a thousand emails and several phone calls, we aligned on Plan 498/598, Exploring Modern Mobility. Students were engaged in a semester long journey […]

    Read More
  • Promoting a Sustainable Future

    What is a brownfield? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is a property that the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. It is estimated that there are more than 450,000 brownfields in the U.S., and Muncie […]

    Read More
  • Virtual Escape Room

    IDIA Lab is working on a virtual multi-user escape room simulation for Ball State University’s College of Health. Escape rooms employ innovative learning strategies such as problem-based, immersive learning, role play, and game principles to improve teamwork, communication and leadership. Nationally, health profession curricula are beginning to explore the use of escape room experiences as […]

    Read More
  • Dean’s Update

    COLLEGE NEWS 50th ANNIVERSARY CAP celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first graduating class in April. Delayed a year by the pandemic, fifteen of the thirty-four 1971 graduates were able to come to Ball State, tour the building and campus, have dinner with President Mearns, give presentations, listen to thesis presentations from current students, and reconnect […]

    Read More