Industrial and Product Design Commons^™

Lnp Mediators For Posterity, Yinelia De La Cruz, Stephen Adasonla, Kieara Martin, Yi Soo Hahm, Jaymi Phillips, Holly Spring

Nexus Maximus

We have decided to tackle substance abuse in Lower North Philadelphia by eliminating the stigma around mental health in low income communities. By preventing drug usage in teen and young adult mental awareness, we can combat issues like suicide and the opioid epidemic. Using mediators by partnering with university students we can offer positive role models into the school system, while also offering internships and residency opportunities.

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health and well-being of specific local community populations. The team’s project work will …

Infastructure Revitalizing Community, Kyle Hanson, Caitlin Hagan, Jessica Trio, Mariah Cadzow, Adie Tierney, Jihye Jang

Nexus Maximus

Transforming an unused tunnel once used to hold a railroad into a package delivery system to deliver packages into Center City Philadelphia, the heart of the city, with minimal time waste and traffic blockage. Using foot and bike transportation to handle the "last mile issue". Lastly, in conjunction with the tunnel restructure,we are also proposing a city policy to limit large delivery trucks in center city during peak hours.

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health and well-being of specific local community populations. The team’s project …

What's Cooking?, Jake Isaac, Jessica Overpeck, Alisha Chacko, Kristina Kosztyo, Tuomas Tapper

Nexus Maximus

We decided to focus on a mobile solution to food insecurity and food deserts in Lower North Philadelphia. The approach will use education, cooking, and access to affordable whole foods. We created a business model for our mobile solution and this included many aspects, such as the problem, statistics, the solution, key partners, key activities, cost structure, revenue streams, future plans, etc.

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health and well-being of specific local community populations. The team’s project work will be supplemented with workshops on …

Happy Mind, Bailey Bourgeois, Erica Jacobs, Allison Wisneski, Amanda Torres, Antii Makkonen

Nexus Maximus

Center City is home to a vast majority of overworked 30 year old's with limited social lives and high stress levels which causes mental depletion and higher anxiety. Our solution to this problem is a mindfulness app for mobile phones that this specific group can participate in. The app would not only give you advice on your commute to work, but also give you invites to nearby social events and discounts to a number of stores in the area.

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health …

Phil Like Playing?, José Ignacio Saavedra, Amanda &. Alanoud, Louise Gamble, Maureen Sledge

Nexus Maximus

Through researching issues within central Philadelphia we decided we need to improve the health and overall well-being of the community members. In doing this we found that within the Center City, 56.3% of the population are made up of single adults, with the majority living alone.

They also have 65.8% of the population working in white collar jobs. These situations consist of long working hours which decrease the percentage in social interaction. This can also lead to other issues such as mental health, where stress levels are high.

Our solution to combat the problem is to create a smartphone app …

Fish Bowl, Joseph Goggin, James Fang, Sam Orente, Jessica Horton, Alyssa Milione

Nexus Maximus

Our idea was to try to bring the people of Fishtown together by hosting events that appeal to all ages.

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health and well-being of specific local community populations. The team’s project work will be supplemented with workshops on innovation, entrepreneurship, and content relevant to the theme, delivered by experts throughout the weekend.

Teams will also explore opportunities to leverage that data in meaningful ways that benefit and protect individuals and society. The team project work will be supplemented with workshops …

Philagreen: "Buy Green. Give Green. Live Green", Irene Cooper, Will Bender, Victor Wright, Chelsea Nwanne, Vannessa Njoo

Nexus Maximus

We will use green roofs to reduce levels of air pollution in Philadelphia, while simultaneously working to improve the lives of low-income Philadelphians through the donation of a green roof. Our program “Live One. Give One.” prices property owners based on yearly income

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health and well-being of specific local community populations. The team’s project work will be supplemented with workshops on innovation, entrepreneurship, and content relevant to the theme, delivered by experts throughout the weekend.

Teams will also explore opportunities …

Integration Through Green Murals, Linh Duong, Kirsty Kelso, Julie Thiel, Alexis Cao

Nexus Maximus

Green Murals allow Asian residents to share culture and traditions through food and horticulture. Green Murals are Outdoor plant-based vertical gardens with themes such as vegetables, herbs with food/medicinal recipes, and flower arrangements reflecting traditional/historical stories. It increases green space in South Philadelphia, educate people to eat healthy, attract tourists to the areas, and improve social engagement.

Nexus Maximus V

The 2018 Challenge: "Improving Lives Through Healthy Communities" Teams will evaluate and seek innovation that supports the health and well-being of specific local community populations. The team’s project work will be supplemented with workshops on innovation, entrepreneurship, and content relevant …

Finding Balance In Generative Product Design, Alex Lobos

Presentations and other scholarship

Generative design develops complex forms and structures similar to those found in nature, taking advantage of automated tasks and high-scale computing power. This approach benefits designers in the creation systems that are efficient, resilient and visually engaging. These systems follow specific rules for form generation and meet clear design goals in terms of shape, strength, mass, and other physical attributes.

There is a large number of methods for creating generative systems, based on establishing desired outcomes and behaviors for how components relate to each other. Examples of methods include L-Systems, Shape Grammars, Swarm Intelligence, Form Optimization, Lattice Design, and many …

Designs For The Future

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

SIGNED magazine catches up with the five winners to discuss their inspiration behind their entries.

Home Ex Data, The Natural Of The Artificial

SIGNED: The Magazine of The Hong Kong Design Institute

Technology has become second nature to humankind. The Homo Ex Data exhibition at HKDI Gallery explored how we can no longer survive without it

Memory.Zip, Yu-Hsing Wu

Masters Theses

I want to turn the unintentional “digital traces” we leave on the Internet into a tangible format so that we can be more aware of the traces we are making. To do this, I have created a series of physical objects that capture those digital traces. My hope is that this series will eventually reflect our relationship with these traces and how we feel connected to the people we care for today.

A Place For Plastics : Bioplastics, Bacteria And Our Thoughtless Acts, Megan Valanidas

Masters Theses

One third of all plastics end up in the ecosystem. It is time we start designing for this outcome. 311 million tons of plastics were produced in 2014 and that number is projected to more than double by 2050. Just 5% of plastics are recycled. Recycling alone is not mitigating the problem. The carbon footprint alone is massive. China’s recent announcement to no longer recycle the West’s waste promises even more challenges. We need to design for plastics to end up in the ecosystem and in the waste stream. This is where plastics go and this is where they should …

For A Better Normal : Fostering The Informal Sector In Post-Hurricane Puerto Rico, As A Pathway For Economic Stabilization, Jonathan W. Melendez Davidson

Masters Theses

For a Better Normal is a proposal to aid informal produce vendors in post-hurricane Puerto Rico. The project takes the shape of a toolkit that facilitates the creation of a cooperative buyer’s club. This cooperative not only provides vendors with the opportunity to create sustainable businesses, but also acts as a pathway to formalization. The outcome of this thesis becomes a case study for how to re-think the potential of the informal economy in relation to the Island’s economic crisis.

Talking To Computers, Jen Spatz

Masters Theses

A popular belief amongst UX designers is that the more voice user interfaces (i.e. Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant) speak and behave like people, the more functional they will be. But, conversational mimicry is not the only way a screenless computer can communicate information. The scope of sounds humans can interpret, manipulate, and make is broad. This project seeks to identify ways designers can mine this domain for interaction cues that promote a deeper understanding of digital content and the systems that deliver it.

Autonomous Vehicle Futures : Designing Experiences That Enable Trust And Adoption, Jeremy Bass

Masters Theses

This thesis is an investigation of the user experience design necessary for a fully autonomous vehicle that would enable trust and adoption of autonomous vehicle-based services. Autonomous vehicles are destined to revolutionize mobility, yet few companies are focusing on how people will best use these new autonomous-based services. This thesis used various forms of user testing to understand user’s expectations and hesitations for riding in an autonomous vehicle. These tests included improv workshops, surveys, interviews and a simulated autonomous vehicle service ride-along. Research revealed that user’s primary concerns were travel time, comfort (spatial and privacy) and personal safety. These concerns …

Curious Things, Allison Davis

Masters Theses

Curiosity fuels progress. It is what pushes us forward individually, as well as collectively. It allows us to make sense of the world and those that are in it. The problem is, we are in the midst of a curiosity crisis whereby our sensitivity to the physical has drastically diminished. Curious Things sheds light on our detachment from our surroundings and explores how ‘embodied curiosity’ can foster our need to know, experience, and explore. Through curious observations and unexpected encounters captured by others, this thesis argues that the use of distinct object forms and visual aesthetics can be viable solutions …

Foodways For Earthlings : Recipes And Tools For Eating In Extreme Environments, Maggie Coblentz

Masters Theses

Studying how food is made, consumed, and appreciated in extreme environments can help shed light on how our experiences of food extend far beyond that of mere nourishment. The social and preparatory food-based rituals found in even the most challenging conditions can lead to a deeper awareness of the role of food on earth today, and can illuminate how humans might eat in the future. This thesis examines the roles of food in war zones, in prisons, and in space to inform speculative recipes and food-based experiences.

Harmless Studio, David Thomas Pittman

Masters Theses

This thesis project is oriented around a vegan concept brand called “Harmless Studio.” The project recognizes that industrial design causes and supports the harm of animals through the use of animal materials. This book presents the historical, social, and scientific background of the human-animal relationship as it exists today, and it challenges the common acceptance of that relationship as it is— ultimately suggesting that industrial design need not harm animals to serve human needs. This vegan approach to design is presented through a selection of sustainable, non-animal materials and objects made from those materials. The objects are presented as part …

Radically Normal : The Menstruation Issue, Kathryn Smiley

Masters Theses

Hey readers, Periods are normal. But you’d never know that by checking out the average bathroom. The only menstruation-related public restroom fixture considered remotely standard is the trash, the one used to hide the evidence. A tampon dispenser is a rare sighting –a functioning, stocked dispenser, even rarer still.

Dispensers’ exclusion from public space reveals the ways that menstruation is not treated like other natural body functions. Instead, it has long been considered a sign of imbalance and weakness, discussed mainly in hushed tones and sly euphemisms. Historically, the medical profession has greatly contributed to cultural anxieties about women and …