Our Work

The Center develops Professional Learning experiences purposefully bringing together architecture, interior design, facilities, education, educational leadership, and industry partners through a common language and a shared understanding of how humans learn. These experiences strengthen both individual expertise and collective capacity while supporting the design, stewardship, and continuous improvement of learning places. As knowledge becomes shared, Strategic Collaborations naturally emerge.

The journey begins with the THiNK Initiative. The Co-Lab convenes diverse voices to find and define the emerging questions which matter most to the future of learning. These conversations are intentionally designed to explore possibilities rather than advocate predetermined solutions. By bringing together multiple perspectives, the Center helps clarify the questions worthy of deeper investigation and creates a research agenda grounded in the real challenges and opportunities facing learning entities today. Those questions provide direction for primary Research.

By bringing together multiple perspectives, the Center helps clarify the questions worthy of deeper investigation and creates a research agenda grounded in the real challenges and opportunities facing learning entities today. Those questions provide direction for primary Research. The Center conducts, supports, curates, and synthesizes research across neuroscience, environmental behavior psychology, learning sciences, architecture, interior design, human factors, and related disciplines. Research is viewed not as an end in itself, but as the foundation for more informed and intentional decision-making: Knowledge Translation. Equally important is the recognition and integration of the important work being conducted by others throughout the world.

Research reaches its greatest value through Knowledge Translation. The Center is committed to transforming research into forms which are understandable, accessible, and actionable for those responsible for creating, leading, supporting, and experiencing learning places. Through synthesis, interpretation, practical frameworks, publications, presentations, tools, and other design resources, the Co-Lab helps move research off the shelf and into the hands of those who can use it to make better decisions. Knowledge translation creates opportunities for Professional Learning.

The Center serves as an important hub connected to the Networked Learning Ecosystem’s symbiotic model where researchers, practitioners, organizations, and industry partners contribute their unique expertise toward common goals. These collaborations accelerate discovery, strengthen research, enrich professional learning, and expand the collective impact of the Co-Lab. As the Center matures, it will establish Awards recognizing exemplary research, leadership, innovation, partnerships, and practice that intentionally and demonstrably advance human learning through research-informed decision-making. Recognition serves not only to celebrate excellence but also to illuminate models from which others may learn.

This journey is continuous. Every collaboration, every professional learning experience, every publication, and every research project generates new insights and new questions. Those questions return to the THiNK Event Series, where the cycle begins again with greater understanding and renewed curiosity. In this way, the Neuro-Design for Learning Co-Lab fulfills its purpose: creating the conditions through which research-informed knowledge becomes intentional action, advancing learning today while helping shape the learning places for their tomorrow.