This year marks the second consecutive year for “Thought at Work,” an event where students from different schools and different backgrounds can display their work in Industrial Design and gain insight on their portfolios.

This year, Thought at Work will be incorporating New Media Design majors in the conference as well. “When you think of design, you have the real world applications, and then there’s the digital side to things,” commented Sheth. “Take your phone for example, you have the physical hardware of it, and then there’s the digital component which the phone runs on. So both fields are connected in some way.”

The conference brings together alumni and working professionals from different backgrounds to teach and network with students. The conference also allows students to put forth their portfolios for professionals to critique them. This gives students the opportunity to change and improve their portfolios to better prepare for careers and co-ops. “We wanted to create a not-so-formal way of connecting students to each other,” said Kyle Sheth, a fourth year Industrial Design major and one of the Thought at Work conference coordinators.

Hannah Abele, a second year Industrial Design major and another head coordinator of Thought at Work commented: “We wanted to give students lessons that they wouldn’t be able to learn just in the classroom. So, why not start now?”

The conference also has a profound social aspect to it. “Conference is kind of a dirty word, and it’s not too formal… There’s nothing formal about it; it’s all about networking,” said Sheth.

Thought at Work will be held at RIT from October 18-20. Interested students can register on Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Webb Auditorium (Booth, room 1350) on online at the Thought at Work website. More information can be found at thoughtatwork.cias.rit.edu or on the RIT events calendar.