Making Space: IDeATe’s Approach to Risk, Failure, and Creative Collaboration

​At the center of the IDeATe (Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology) program are collaborative studios: places where recurring cycles of (en)visioning, (re)building and (re)viewing anchor the creative learning experience across our ten minors, from game design to physical computing to sonic arts. Students design alongside peers from other majors, other colleges, and other technical backgrounds, learning to critique and rebuild together. ​These cross-cutting collaborations produce a range of creative works from large-scale textile inflatables, to smart furniture and animations that blend AI and human gestural drawing. Students and faculty talk through the process behind them—the inflection points, the hard conversations that led to better solutions, and the insights that emerge about how to work better with people from other disciplinary traditions. Taken together, these experiences make a strong case for what learning to make together can teach us about the skills and dispositions needed to build for an uncertain future, at Carnegie Mellon University and beyond. ​This event is part of CMU Startup Week (Sept 14-18th, 2026) activating the whole campus community focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and frontier tech.