---

---

Jacob DeGeal is a multi-disciplinary designer focused on collaboration, communities, and code. While working as an in-house web designer at Illinois State University, he co-founded a bike advocacy organization. This led him to pursue his MFA at The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied the intersection of planning, community development, design, and technology. There created ChalkTalk, a participatory design methodology for designing sustainable transportation infrastructures. He then became a hybrid planner/designer at NelsonNygaard Consulting Associates in Boston, MA, working on multi-modal transportation projects with cities nationwide. He also won a 10-month public art residency through the city of Salem with his creative partner, Lauren Smedley, helping local businesses navigate the COVID-19 pandemic through creative queuing, placemaking, and wayfinding. Jacob is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Design at the University of Baltimore. His research focuses on how fabrication and design methodologies can influence human behavior in the built environment.