MaCAD S.1 – Digital Tools for Cloud-based Data Management
Senior Faculty: Luis Fraguada & Will Pearson

It is 2021 and computing is ubiquitous. It is in our pockets, in our cities, in our homes. You are embarking on a course teaching you how to take advantage of computation to solve critical issues in the built environment, but how can you extend this computational logic to those for whom you are designing? As William Gibson said, “The future is here, it is not not evenly distributed.” So how can you involve others in the design process and get diverse feedback? How can we democratize computation and take advantage of the ubiquity of computing? How can you share 3d data with those who don’t have the same software tools you do? How can you share your design logic and knowledge without giving it away?

In this course we will attempt to address those questions by looking at a host of tools that will help you design interactive 3d web applications. These tools will enable you to leverage your skills in Grasshopper and convert your definitions to functions accessible on the web. We will use Rhino Compute, an open source project by McNeel that allows you to run Rhino on the cloud and access it from any device with an internet connection.

Learning Objectives
At course completion the student will:

? Understand the tools and processes involved in creating interactive web applications
? Learn how to work with data and geometry on the web
? Use modern development tools and workflows