At RISD, Charlie helped found the Innovation Studio, a laboratory for new ideas to shift the attention of the design disciplines toward complex, present day concerns, and to involve the larger public in the search for their solutions. In 2008, the Innovation Studio launched Partly Sunny: Designs to Change the Forecast, a showcase of design projects grappling with climate change that premiered in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Cannon is also co-founder of LOCAL Architecture Research Design, a design firm that focuses on projects that develop and sustain local communities. As director of research and design, Charlie has worked with extraordinary social innovators and entrepreneurs. He is currently directing a new initiative launched at the 2009 Aspen Design Summit to help support design-driven, community projects in the rural United States.