September 28–30, Brown and RISD hosted the fifth annual Better World by Design conference, the brainchild of four engineering and art students. Three of the founders—Steve Daniels ’10, Sharon Langevin ’09, ’11 ScM, and Tino Chow, RISD ’09—were in Providence for the three days of workshops, expos, and brainstorming. A highlight was National Endowment for the Arts chairman Rocco Landesman’s keynote speech about the importance of the arts. But the former Broadway producer was upstaged by his intro, in song­, to the tune of Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top.”

Credit: Frank Mullin/Brown University