RIT Student Faces Fierce Competition ‘By Design’ for National Student Merit Award

Jake Silsby, a senior industrial design student at Rochester Institute of Technology and a resident of Gasport, N.Y., advances to the Northeast District Conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America to compete for the National Student Merit Award.

The competition is March 27-29 in Cambridge, Mass. Silsby will present his portfolio of work along with design students from Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, Syracuse University, Art Institute of Philadelphia, Philadelphia University, Kean University, Massachusetts College of Art, Montclair State University, University of the Arts, University of Bridgeport and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Silsby’s portfolio bested six other RIT industrial design majors at the university-level competition on March 13. The juried panelists were Doug Miller, vice president of Fisher-Price Division of Mattel; John Brandon, owner of Aerie Design Services; Scott Osiecki, vice president of ChaseDesign; and Don Stucke, Fisher-Price.

With five regional districts in the Industrial Designers Society of America, each holding its own conferences in March or April, the professional organization awards five National Student Merit Awards annually. In the five-year history of the society’s National Student Merit Award, an RIT student has won top honors three times in the Northeast division.