By Erin Dostal The Daily Northwestern

The co-founders of Crate and Barrel made a donation to Northwestern to create The Segal Design Institute, University President Henry Bienen announced March 20.

The grant will consolidate existing design programs and will enable the university to expand its offerings in design education.

Gordon Segal, Kellogg ’60, is the chief executive officer of Crate and Barrel and is also a member of NU’s Board of Trustees.

Carole Segal, Weinberg ’61, is Crate and Barrel’s vice president of civic affairs.

While NU doesn’t directly seek donors, the school keeps in touch with its alumni, said Julio Ottino, dean of the McCormick School of Engineering.

When alumni believe in something going on at NU – in this case, design education – they support it, he said.

Administrators did not disclose the value of the grant.

The institute will be housed in the Ford Design Center, which opened in 2005.

Undergraduate students can earn a Certificate in Engineering Design from the McCormick School of Engineering. While the college has an Institute for Design Engineering & Applications, there is no major available in engineering design.

Don Norman, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and one of the institute’s co-directors, said he hopes the institute will help develop an undergraduate major in design, as well as make certificates in design available to students outside McCormick.

“It’s very much a part of our mission to extend our reach to the university as a whole,” said J. Edward Colgate, a professor of mechanical engineering and co-director of the institute.

Students in McCormick are exposed to design in their classes as early as freshman year, Ottino said.

Colgate said he thinks the institute will be helpful in connecting the colleges across the campus. In order to achieve this connection, the institute will be holding faculty events and will be working with administrators across the university.

“(Design) requires aesthetics,” Norman said. “Designs are made to be used on people, so we need the social sciences; (they) involve technology, so we need engineering … let’s bring everybody in together.”

Design innovation is a way of thinking that allows students in all fields to approach complex problems, Colgate said.

“I hope in the long run, we’re not looking at this as benefiting one department or school more than another, but instead that type of student who likes interdisciplinary challenge,” Colgate said.

In engineering terms, design is about products and processes, Ottino said.

It’s not only about making things pretty, it’s about creating things and making them work, he said.

McCormick sophomore Lefteris Gdoutos said design creates applications for what students learn in class.

“Studying design forces you to think about what the problem actually is,” he said.

The institute hopes to provide connections between Kellogg School of Management and the undergraduate schools.

Dipak Jain, the dean of Kellogg, said he’ll work with Ottino in order to develop new graduate programs based in design and management. Kellogg and McCormick offer a Master of Management and Manufacturing Program, in which students can receive two degrees, one from each school.

“Design is a very important element in management today, ” Jain said. “We would like our students to have a better understanding of design.”

Reach Erin Dostal at [email protected]