DALI Lab Gives Opportunities for Innovation, Experience in Web Design
Before last week, I had never heard of the Neukom Digital Arts, Leadership and Innovation Lab in Computer Science at Dartmouth. However, after interviewing the creators of HousingCake and experiencing the PR campaign for the Digital Musics and Arts Exposition (DMAX), I became curious. According to the lab’s website, the DALI research and development lab, directed by professor Lorie Loeb, combines “the latest design and technology practices to help non-profits, faculty, centers across campus and businesses communicate effectively.”
The mission is lofty, especially for a small school in the backwoods of New Hampshire, so I sat down with undergraduates Matthew Ritter ’15 and Emily Holt ’16 to learn about their experiences working in the DALI lab. I came out of our conversations with a wistful regret that I did not decide to major in computer science at Dartmouth, which, believe me, had never before crossed my mind. Those late nights spent attacking surprise virtual bugs never inspired envy in me, but Holt loves the unique atmosphere at the DALI Lab created by the camaraderie in those classic college computer science experiences. The people who work at the DALI Lab, Holt explains, “understand the inside jokes, the problems of working in computer science, the struggles of staying up all night to make a code work.”
The DALI Lab, Holt said, is “essentially designers and developers paired to work on web pages.” The projects originate primarily from individuals and groups associated with Dartmouth, but there are some outside parties who can commission projects to be built for them by the DALI Lab.
There is also the opportunity for students to pitch ideas and build the projects themselves — the ’14s behind HousingCake took this path. Both Holt and Ritter started working in the lab at the beginning of spring term. Holt is the project manager for a Haiti interactive crime map website and Ritter is building a website for the Arctic Institute that aims to “promote awareness about the Arctic, spread information and hopefully group together scholars who are interested in discussing the Arctic.”
As a project manager for the Haiti crime reporting project, commissioned by a professor in the anthropology department in conjunction with a Brazilian non-profit, Holt enjoys working on a team with another developer and designer and coordinating meetings with the client to ensure the project is completed to expectations.
In comparison to her problem sets for class, Holt says that the DALI Lab offers an entirely different and more rewarding application of her education and skills because she “[creates] something practical for someone who is actually going to use it.”
On campus, the DALI Lab is growing exponentially, according to both Holt and Ritter. An influx of projects requires more undergraduate designers and developers, but it is also a small physical space and a highly desirable experience.
In the big picture, Ritter said that the DALI Lab is a powerful contracting tool that could “become the go-to for getting anything [web design-related] done for groups on campus that have money” to pay for the project development.
“Dartmouth does not do that well with innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said, “and the DALI Lab could be our outlet to compete.”