Atharva Ranade

After pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture (B. ARCH) degree at Virginia Tech, a very analogue-based undergraduate program, I was excited to learn computational techniques, programming, robotics, and new forms of visual representations during the post-professional-- MSD: AAD degree at the Weitzman School of Design. The three-semester degree has been a complete rollercoaster. Working in a 40 in-person digital studio with over 80 3D-printers followed by robotic arms, quickly turned into working remotely from home. While the collective studio experience was lost, the knowledge and insights gained through zoom pin-up meetings was remarkable. The online teaching format allowed for more diverse group of juries, joining across the globe to help review the work produced. I believe the pandemic nurtured my education as I divided my coursework in two halves, the first half was mainly fabrication driven which included 3D printing and industrial robotic arms, while the latter half saw a deep dive into programming, data analytics and exploring artificial intelligence.
Overall, it has been an amazing and memorable journey in Philadelphia and at Penn.
Moving forward, I wish to apply my knowledge base of design and computation in practice as I inter the architecture industry.