Today, Next Lab is taking a reimagined approach to creating what’s next for a digitally-enhanced society. With a focus on three areas — exploring emerging technologies, cultivating future-ready skills, and activating interdisciplinary collaboration — Munnerley notes the team focuses on “bridging the gap between imagination and reality.”
Charged with creating what’s next, now
Critical to advancing work is empowering a community of future-focused thinkers and creators to imagine, build and play with technologies to positively shape society. Working with teams across the university, community groups and industry leaders, Next Lab can identify ways in which we can enhance interactions with emerging technology.
“When an idea is introduced to the Next Lab, it goes through a series of steps in a future-focused design process unique to the Lab,” says Munnerley. The process includes:
- Establishing transdisciplinary collaboration to ensure a diversity of thought, experience and values are brought together to surface the ultimate impact – upwards of seven generations into the future.
- Exploring emerging technologies – new, emerging and not yet in existence – with a lens towards positively impacting society.
- Cultivating future-ready skills by bringing together groups of experts and students to form specialist guilds that can design and develop new ideas and proof-of-concepts.
Next Lab continues to work from the creative studio space on the second floor of Creativity Commons on ASU’s Tempe campus.
That’s where you’ll find Franco Yescas most days, working alongside fellow Management Intern Amanda Federico to guide a team of 40 students – known as studio associates – in the design and development efforts.
Organized into seven guilds, these communities of practice form around a future skill, including 3D modeling and animation, game development, digital storytelling, and cloud infrastructure.
When reflecting on past projects, Franco Yescas talks about Huddle, a virtual reality learning environment he worked on to immerse students in new environments. “The instructor puts up prompts and models [into the virtual environment] that the students can interact with and look at while they explain the concept,” Franco Yescas explains.
In fact, ASU students in a HST 130 course explored the terrains on World War I from inside Huddle last year.
“Making these experiences is kind of a dream job to me,” Franco Yescas shares. “So I really do feel lucky having this as my first job.”
Enterprise Technology leaders Timothy Summers, Ph.D. and Warick Pond recently joined Munnerley at Next Lab to expand the diversity of thought and experience required to move forward the team’s bold mission. Summers arrives with a focus on orchestrating technological innovation, introducing practitioner-scholar wisdom, and cultivating a culture of forward-thinking excellence; Pond brings experience in collaborative decision-making, leading complex digital transformations, and exploratory initiatives in emerging technology.
Toby Vaughn Kidd and Bea Rodriguez-Fransen, Ed.D. are also co-founders, key contributors and leaders of the Next Lab.
Keep up with creating what’s next at ASU and beyond at nextlab.asu.edu and follow along on LinkedIn.