Students Brandon Lopez, Eric Renard Create Vital Designs for Senior Stability

INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA -- The winners of the 2015 – 16 Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge have been announced, and they span the globe. Two San Francisco State University Department of Design and Industry students won first place in the mobility category. Brandon Lopez and Eric Renard presented their CityCart project to a capacity crowd of industry leaders, educators and community advocates at the Stanford Center. Then they joined a day-long workshop at the Stanford Graduate School of Business to learn more about how to turn their prototypes into marketable products. Lopez and Renard won $10,000 and free entrepreneur mentorship. CityCart was conceived during an SF State Product Design II course taught by Professor Ricardo Gomes, IDSA of San Francisco State University. He says he challenged student teams with creating a cart that would help an aging demographic — while enhancing the shopping experience and well-being of older adults.