Scott Penman

Hey! I’m a first year grad student in the Design and Computation stream of the SMArchS program (Masters of Science in Architectural Research). I am originally from Scotland but was raised primarily in Mississippi, graduating in 2013 from Mississippi State University with my B.Arch. I’ve worked in several architectural firms across the country and have done projects spanning a wide variety of subjects, types, and scales. This has included on-site installations with Bill Massie (a pioneer of full-scale digital fabrication), research into rural sustainability in small-town Mississippi, and development of an interface for gestural modeling using webcams and Leap Motion. Most recently, I spent 2+ years working as a project manager for the design of an elementary school and FEMA safe room in Arkansas (currently under construction). 

My return to academia is an effort to pursue research I began in undergrad into human-computer interaction. I am interested in the interface between creative, subjective designers and their more rigid, deterministic computer counterparts. I am excited to study this at MIT, where I can explore this topic alongside cutting-edge work being done in both computer science and cognitive science.

I have extensive experience with Rhino, Grasshopper, and associated plug-ins for Grasshopper, as well as other CAD software and production programs (such as Adobe). I have some experience with Arduino, Processing, and Python. On the fabrication side, I’m fairly well versed in laser cutting and basic woodworking, and I have some experience in casting (concrete and plaster) and mold-making. Pretty terrible with a hammer, though.