LinkedIn

ntran1@sva.edu

A new loan service for financially underserved women who power the markets in Vietnam.

There are over five million financially underserved women vendors who power the markets in Vietnam.

Due to having to manage all of their finances in cash, these women lack formal credit history resulting in high barriers to accessing quality loans. Moreover, with no extra savings, any emergency will immediately put them in debt. They also can not save enough to improve their family’s way of living, ensure education for their children, or grow their business.

Cơm No Ấm is a women-centric service that allows them to gain access to bank loans. The service provides a simple loan application process, fast approval, and flexible repayment options that respond to their need for privacy, safety, and convenience. It also strives to empower those women vendors to stay on top of their finance by helping them build their confidence in taking and managing loans, as well as gradually build their traditional credit history.

jsonbrnch.com

jbranch1@sva.edu

@jsonbrnch

A platform that crowdsources financial support for individuals in temporary housing.

Homelessness isn't a technology problem; it's a connectivity issue—connectivity to affordable housing, a social fabric, or resources for upward mobility. The connectivity issue is leading more Americans, including more New Yorkers, to chronic financial instability. Declining wages, income volatility, poor access to benefits, and lack of affordable housing are making it nearly impossible to make ends meet and keep a roof over your head.

When the middle class drops to lower class, forced into temporary housing and eventually homeless, how do they get back on their feet?

Village provides individuals in temporary housing with crowdsourced financial resources so they can pay for the things they need. Village provides short-term relief for the things they need most, and long-term relief in the form of credit building for things they will need in the future.

kehudesign.com

khu2@sva.edu

A modern solar collector that helps eco-conscious apartment dwellers power their devices every day.

Nature and the power industry struggle to keep our lights, laptops, and WiFi routers running every day. If we covered all of New York City’s rooftops with solar panels, we could produce enough energy to power 1 million homes. To date, less than 1% of apartment dwellers in New York City have access to solar energy. That’s because they have no authority over their building rooftops, and often have little understanding of how to harvest solar energy.

Aray is an easy-to-use solar collector designed for eco-conscious apartment dwellers. Its transparent solar panel allows users to turn their sunny windows into solar farming fields in less than 5 minutes. The IOT-connect charging station enables them to charge their personal devices at home. With Aray’s mobile app, users can understand their energy usage and encouraged to continue responsible behaviors.

Solar energy production shouldn’t be limited because of rooftop access. Together with Aray, we can tap into the unused vertical space of buildings and empower ourselves to shape the urban energy landscape.

andreakang.me

akang4@sva.edu

A public display for compost drop-offs that inspires participation by visualizing environmental impact.

New York City has the largest residential organics collection program in the country. Yet in 2017, the program only picked up 5% of the city’s total food waste due to lack of awareness and education. Over 100 community-run compost drop-offs across the city can help fill the gap — but they operate like weekly pop-up shops, lacking proper signage and online information.

Sprout unifies all of those disparate elements into a clearly recognizable community composting system. Sprout is an interactive display for compost drop-off sites that celebrates community efforts by measuring participation and visualizing its positive environmental impact. Every drop-off can be easily found at sproutnyc.com, where you can learn how to set up composting at home, find recommended products and tips, and even receive text reminders and fridge posters that reinforce your new routine.

Many of us want a more sustainable future, but it’s hard to see that future when our existing services are invisible. With Sprout, composting becomes a highly visible, publicly celebrated movement.

pauladaneze.com

pdaneze-delcastillo@sva.edu

@paulinhadaneze

A supportive network that helps NYC small business owners build an alliance in their neighborhood.

Gentrification and soaring rent increases have made it nearly impossible for NYC mom-and-pop shops to stay open. To conserve costs small business owners have to wear many hats to run their establishments. They don’t have enough time and revenue to spend on new marketing strategies.

The businesses who succeed usually have a supportive local community, fueled by other business owners. Unfortunately, not every business owner has the time or resources to network in this way. Being a small business owner can be very lonely. They don’t have a team with which they can share their challenges or from whom they can get feedback. What if we empowered them to connect and work together to help one another?

Local Biz Collective is a supportive network that helps NYC independently owned business owners initiate an alliance in their neighborhood. Our toolkit offers a set of workshops with engaging activities to build empathy, facilitate collaboration and spark action. The website empowers business owners to start a new group or get connected with a group near them. With these tools, they can work together to co-address the obstacles of their industry.

crystalywang.com

cwang12@sva.edu

@crystalywang

A set of paper cards that helps students to understand physics through manipulating objects and formulas in augmented reality.

How can we make physics more engaging and accessible to high school students? With advancements in mobile AR technologies such as ARKit and ARCore, augmented reality is becoming a powerful tool to democratize education, giving access to materials that were previously out of reach to students.

Newton aims to explore how we can bring physics out of the textbook and into our real world, using simple paper cards and controls to help manipulate the world around us.

This AR app comes in two modes — an exploration mode and challenge mode, allowing the students to play with formulas as well as collaboratively answer questions to test their knowledge. This project is meant to sit within a classroom itself, and acts as a template that can eventually be extended to all types of topics in STEM.

xiaoxi-yuan.com

xyuan6@sva.edu

@xiaoxidesign

Helps contemporary art visitors understand artwork through an interactive mobile chat experience.

Contemporary art is an excellent way to stimulate visitors' conversations and reflections on our social problems and our life, but it is often abstract and metaphorical. Wall labels in exhibitions are important to help people understand artwork. However, existing wall labels can be too academic to understand, and not always help with artwork interpretation. Their format may not entice viewers to learn more about the art. How might we help visitors break through these problems?

SpART is an app that helps museum visitors better understand contemporary art exhibitions. This virtual guide leads visitors through exhibition spaces and explains the context of each piece. It demystifies contemporary art through an inter-personal, conversational experience that quickly shows the nuance and meanings behind artists’ choices. It also fosters conversations between museum visitors. People use SpART to have informed, meaningful visits to art museums and to engage in an enjoyable and informative exchange about art, its meanings, and how it relates to our everyday lives and personal experiences.

addihou.com

ahou1@sva.edu

@madease76

A civics knowledge platform that prepares the next generation of voters, high school students, to be well-informed empowered citizens.

Civic knowledge and public engagement in America are at an all-time low. We expect young voters to vote without providing them with the civics knowledge necessary to fully comprehend living in a democracy.

POLLY is a civics knowledge app aimed at young citizens that revolves around relevant talking points, facts and quizzes that will connect potential voters to basic terminology and concepts, as well as to the issues that matter most to them. Users will become more empowered citizens, becoming part of the political conversation rather than feel excluded from it.

glendacap.com

gcapdeville@sva.edu

@glenditacap

Encourages distracted students to stay on track and transforms reading into an empowering experience.

When we have to read, it’s important to be free of distractions in our environment; things like noise or movement can break our concentration. But what can we do when we space out, and the distractions are in our minds? People living with attention deficit disorder (ADD) confront this difficulty every day. ADD is especially hard on high school students. It makes essential activities such as learning by reading difficult and time-consuming. This ends up damaging their confidence and sense of self-sufficiency, which leads to poor academic performance.

Ground Control is a tablet application that encourages students with ADD to stay on track and transforms reading into an empowering experience. Through an integrated note-taking system and haptic feedback, this digital reading environment helps students identify and quickly recover from distracting behaviors. It can be adapted to match each individual student’s pace and preempts frustrations through peer-generated sharing and assistance. With Ground Control, students strengthen concentration and build awareness around their reading habits and become more confident learners.

rachelbalma.com

rbalma@sva.edu

@da_balmdiggity

@balmdiggity

A blanket and music-therapy tool that translates music into varied, haptic feedback for pediatric patients who are deaf or hearing impaired.

Pediatric patients who are deaf or profoundly hearing impaired rely on the tangible aspects of music to gain benefit from music therapy, a creative and clinical practice that can play a key role in their multi-faceted growth and development. However, traditional instruments were largely built for an audio, not tactile, sound experience. They were also built for body shapes, sizes, and abilities that fall towards the center of the bell curve.

Form takes a fluid and familiar shape, a blanket, to meet the varied needs of the patients. It allows music therapists to use their own familiar interface, traditional instruments, but gives patients more nuanced haptic feedback than a traditional instrument is able to. Form is, at its heart, an exercise in exploring what music feels like when the only way it’s experienced is through tactile means. More theoretically, it looks to shift our perspective on music, sound, and ability.

abhinavsircar.com

asircar@sva.edu

@SircarAbhinav

@abhinavsircar

An IoT-connected medication dispenser with built-in Voice UI that personalizes the medication experience for elderly patients.

Medication non-adherence is a massive problem in the U.S. healthcare system. It causes an unnecessary expenditure of $290 billion dollars annually. It is especially relevant for elderly patients who suffer from chronic conditions and need to take multiple medications every day. Issues include forgetfulness, difficulty in managing multiple medications, lack of knowledge about their medical condition, and low motivation.

Medicube builds upon the existing innovation of multi-dose packaging by pharmacies like PillPack. It is an IoT-connected medicine dispenser with a built-in voice assistant that provides patients with personalized, timely medicine reminders along with necessary information. It provides effective incentives for patients to motivate them to adhere to their medication regime. Medicube also provides a platform for caregivers to closely monitor the health of their patients or loved ones, while still respecting patients' personal independence.

margaritayong.com

lyong@sva.edu

@margaritayong

@margaritayong.ixd

A therapy game for stroke survivors to take recovery into their own hands.

In the United States, more than 795,000 people suffer a stroke each year. About two-thirds of these people survive and require rehabilitation. Most survivors become paralyzed on one side of their body and lose the ability to move their hand. Continued therapy can help survivors regain voluntary movement even years following their stroke. However, most survivors do not adhere to their prescribed home exercise program. These exercises are excessively boring and because progress seems slow or hard to see, many survivors give up.

Dexter is a hand therapy game for people recovering from stroke. The app-enabled tabletop game guides participants through a series of levels to regain fine motor skills that correspond with milestones in hand therapy. The game motivates players to practice while having fun through challenges and missions. The interface allows them to see their own progress and compare it with other players.

With Dexter, stroke survivors can develop a strong sense of ownership of their recovery. The more they play the game, the more movement they gain.

miadarling.design

mibanezrisso@sva.edu

@miadarling

@miamarazul

@miadarling

@miadarlingdesigns

A necklace that helps manage panic and anxiety attacks.

About 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety disorders. Liberty is a wearable device that features scientifically-proven vibration levels and sound healing to help users find calm at the onset of chronic anxiety attacks.

The Liberty device is a necklace that wirelessly connects to an app where users can also choose from a curated library of binaural beats, adjust vibration levels, and view data-driven insights. As a multi-sensorial device, Liberty creates an immersive peaceful experience, that centers users, and stabilizes their breath and heartbeat.

kinzakasher.com

kkasher@sva.edu

@kinzakasher

Empowers people with MS and their families to improve everyday symptom management together, through better communication.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a long-lasting disease that affects the body and mind with invisible symptoms such as fatigue, pain, memory loss, trouble in coherent thinking, communication and more. People with MS constantly adjust to the differences between how they feel “inside” and how the world reacts to them when they “look fine” on the outside. Family members, friends, employers and even doctors often doubt the validity or intensity of invisible symptoms. When enough of that happens, people with MS begin to doubt their own perceptions and are further pushed into isolation and feeling that they cannot communicate what they are really experiencing.

Duet is designed for people with MS and their families who struggle to understand their loved one’s needs and emotions on a day-to-day basis. This is crucial in MS care, especially when their loved one feels like a burden sharing their needs out loud. The Duet device is a low-key way for people with MS to communicate those needs and keep their families up to date. Increasing awareness helps families respond effectively to their loved one, and ultimately help them feel better.

jwei.website

wwei@sva.edu

@jweistudio

Make trip planning a true group effort.

Planning a trip with groups can be stressful, overwhelming, and time-consuming. With multiple parties involved, decisions on where to go, where to stay, where to eat, and what to do can be challenging. While there are many travel planning tools on the market, none of them succeed in aligning expectations and facilitating group decisions.

Ditto is a platform that streamlines the process of planning a group trip by distributing tasks and polling the group to form decisions together. A master itinerary keeps everyone on the same page before, during, and after the adventure.

Each group member shares their personal interests and preferences for the trip during the onboarding. As the group shares updates via chat, individuals can bookmark favorites into an integrated repository from which the trip is built. Saving you from delay, indecisiveness, and unnecessary tension, Ditto polls the group on matters requiring advanced booking, allowing everyone’s voices to be heard.

johnyvino.com

jvinothkumar@sva.edu

@johnyvinoo

Helps you discover the best photo spots, no matter where you are.

What is the one thing everyone does while traveling? Whether it’s on an iPhone, DSLR, or GoPro, everyone takes photos. But unfortunately, we also tend to take photos of the exact same places, sometimes even the same angle and pose. What if we could explore and capture our experiences in new cities as if we were a local?

That’s where Spotkey comes in! Spotkey is a guide to the best photo spots in cities worldwide, curated by an active community of photographers who know their cities best. This inspires travelers to find new places and capture something new on their trip, using:

🔔 Notifications about nearby photo spots hidden in plain sight.

🧭 360 visual positioning — shows different angles of the same building to help you pick unusual points.

💡 Local tips — such as what times of day to be able to capture the most luminous light.

🗂 Curated collection — ideas to kick you out of your rut and inspire you to see things with a fresh perspective.

yumeng.design

yji6@sva.edu

@jiyumengnyc

A pre-dating experience that spotlights your authentic character through emoji stories.

We live in a hookup culture. These days dating is like online shopping. After investing inordinate hours on relationship-search apps, people often come home empty-handed. "Swipe culture" pushes people to make decisions instantaneously. In fact, online dating has become a highly strategic activity. It requires people to choose only the parts of themselves that will attract people within the first three seconds. It's like designing an advertisement for yourself. A strategic profile creation may help you get maximum swipes, but it also hides your uniqueness and authenticity.

Why can’t online dating be more genuine and intuitive?

Fantastic Day is a pre-dating app which uses your one-day stories to spotlight your singular character. Generating motivated connections, it crafts a resonant, mutually engrossing pre-dating experience. Fantastic Day is where lasting rapport starts.

katestyer.com

kstyer@sva.edu

@katestyer

A browser extension that helps identify and revise harmful language in our conversations on social media.

Social media has profoundly changed the way we communicate and interact with each other. We can say whatever we want, to whomever we want, without ever bearing witness to the impact of our words.

We can do this because social media was not designed for the complexity of human communication, preferring that we use “like” buttons, emojis, and limited character counts to express ourselves. It has provided us with little guidance for communicating without the vital conversational cues we rely on in person, such as body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. As a result, we have far more opportunities for indifference and misunderstanding than for empathy and compassion. This has been detrimental to the quality of our discourse and relationships, both online and off.

Keeper is a browser extension that calls attention to potentially harmful language in our social media conversations. Leveraging existing machine learning technology that analyzes toxic language, Keeper helps us reconsider our words in real time. It explores what social media could look like if it were designed for the reality of who we are, rather than the ideal.