DIDI is a design and innovation program hosted by Dubai’s Institute of Design and Technology aimed at high school students worldwide. This program encourages design thinking methods to solve today’s problems and create a better tomorrow. The team TechPhantom (Amtul Baseer, Jaydev Nair, Jazlynn Mujeeb Valiyara, Reel Osman, Trun Vishal Ramteke) had the opportunity to solve problems for real-life clients, in their case Schneider Electric. Over eight months, they worked on developing a Smart Home prototype based on a four-step design process: analysis, ideation, prototype creation, presentation, and pitching. The final steps of the process are the boot camp and final event, where the selected teams will pitch their prototyped solutions to a jury of clients, other professionals, DIDI professors, and experts. The team collaborated and came up with numerous ideas to create a sustainable home (in terms of construction materials and features) and makes the best use of technology.
The ASCE@NYUAD student team and CITIES have supported the team, and they have been chosen for the DIDI Project Design Space finale.
“We’d like to thank Jason, Jennifer, Mawadda, Yasmeen, and the CITIES team for taking the time to speak with us and guide us properly. The NYUAD Student Research Team’s research was incredibly helpful. They helped us understand how buildings can be designed to minimize the Heat Island effect to assure a more comfortable future. For instance, we learned how using green rooftops and construction materials could play a key role in managing temperature. And more importantly, they helped nurture our designing abilities, guiding us to identify the root of a problem and then develop methods to create solutions. They essentially gave us a crash course on the design. We also learned that designing is not about how things look but how things work. We think their support and feedback truly enhanced our home, and we felt it was essential for us in reaching the DIDI Project Design Space finale.”
