Student Essay Contest Winner

Valerie Casey designs products, websites, and environments that focus on the intersection of technology and behavior, and adapt to the natural patterns that emerge as users act in their real or virtual environments. Projects include developing novel interfaces for webpads and smartphones, designing intuitive and rich interactions for home environments, museums, and corporate spaces, and creating visual and informational strategies for online educational modules and e-commerce ventures. She has an M.E.D. in cultural theory and environmental design from the Yale School of Architecture. Her focus on the ways cultural knowledge is produced through representation and display continues to inform her professional practice. She lectures internationally on design and human-computer interaction and is currently a creative director at frog design in New York City.

The Masters of Environmental Design Program (M.E.D.) at Yale School of Architecture is a two-year research-based program of advanced architectural studies culminating in a written thesis/independent project. The program is intended for students, including postgraduate and midcareer professionals, who seek an academic setting to improve scholarship and research skills, to explore a professional or academic specialization, and to sharpen critical and literary expertise. The program provides the foundation for a career in writing, teaching, curatorial work, or critically informed professional practice, or may provide a foundation for PhD studies in architectural history and theory. Areas of study include: history, theory, and criticism of architecture and urbanism; ecologies and economies of the built environment; and multimedia research.