Design intelligence

A $5 pair of eyeglasses with liquid-filled lenses that can be modified to fit anyone's prescription.

A 22-gallon water barrel that can be rolled along the ground.

A prescription bottle that is easier to read and open, and is color-coded for each family member.

Each uses design to solve problems for people: The glasses help those without access to eye doctors. The Hippo Roller helps women in Africa fetch much more water than they could carry in five-gallon buckets. The pill bottle, adopted by Target, helps prevent elderly people from taking the wrong medicine by mistake.

These items and 37 others will be on display Monday and Tuesday at N.C. State University as part of the Design Revolution Road Show - a traveling exhibition that is visiting two dozen high school and college design programs across the country this spring in an Airstream trailer.

"We want to influence the next generation," says Emily Pilloton, the mind behind the road show.

Pilloton is a California architect who got sick of using her skills for high-end residential projects and luxury product design. In 2008, she created Project H Design, a nonprofit group focused on design solutions for humanity's problems. Among other products, Project H Design has designed school playgrounds from Windsor, N.C., to Uganda that teach children math.

"Their mission and message is important: the use of design use and design process to meet the critical needs of society," says Marvin Malecha, dean of the design school at N.C. State University.

Last year, Pilloton published "Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People." (To promote the book, Pilloton appeared last month on the Comedy Central TV show "The Colbert Report." Steven Colbert tried on the eyeglasses mentioned above.)

Forty of the products featured in the book are part of the traveling show.

Changing lives

One of those items on exhibit is LifeStraw, a drinking straw with a built-in filtration system. While that may not seem like a huge design leap, it is extraordinarily valuable to people who live without clean water and spends much of their time searching for it.

With such a straw, Malecha says, "Your life changes. You can move onto things other than survival."

The Hippo Roller is a similar life-changing device, Pilloton says. Before women and children in South Africa used to fetch water two to three times day, carrying buckets on their heads. It was inefficient and hard on the body.

Now, Pilloton says, the women can use a Hippo Roller to fetch enough water for several days, leaving them more time to care for their families, start a business or go to school.

The design road show has added two North Carolina stops: in the Bertie County school district in Windsor on Thursday and Friday, and at Chowan University in Murfreesboro on March 8.

In May, after the traveling road show ends, Pilloton and partner Matthew Miller, a fabricator and metalworker, are moving from the San Francisco Bay area to Bertie County to work for one of the poorest school districts in the state.

Bertie's playgrounds

Bertie County Schools Superintendent Chip Zullinger had read about the playgrounds that Project H Design built in Uganda. He says he asked Pilloton for designs to make the playgrounds in Bertie County.

Pilloton responded by sending Miller to build a playground at each of the district's four elementary schools with the help the school's maintenance staff. Miller then redesigned a computer lab, and the couple created a visual campaign for free broadband access for parents of school-age children across the county.

"They believe design has the ability to lift a community out of poverty," Zullinger says.

This fall, the couple will teach a part-design, part-shop class to students at the county's agriculture vocational school. Zullinger says the couple will teach students high-level math and science by engaging them in design projects, including building bus shelters for school students.

About the couple, Zullinger said, "They want to give back to the community. We're really fortunate that the giving back they want to do will happen in Bertie County."