Mei-Wen Sun is originally from Taiwan, but if you ask her, she is an American. For her thesis, Mei-Wen combined her love of both cultures into the next emerging market: Smart Homes for 2020.
There are many factors Mei-Wen took into consideration when developing her initial concept, including how rapidly the Boomer generation is aging and how China will be the biggest construction market in 2018. In the Asian lifestyle, Confucianism plays an important role in life, and the home is a miniature version of society. However, the Smart Home system was originally based on a Western lifestyle. In her thesis, Mei-Wen designed a Smart Home for the Taiwanese market because there is a high level of acceptance of new technologies. By focusing first in Taiwan, the Smart Home business can expand into China second. Mei-Wen’s Smart Home combines the best of Western technology with the Eastern way of life.
Interdisciplinary Design
Troy Baker thinks outside of the box. So far, in fact, that he’s out of this world.
Troy’s thesis stemmed from a brand extension project from the second semester studio class of the Interdisciplinary Design MFA program. For the studio class, Troy wanted to pair the outer space tourism business with the best place on Earth, Disney World. What he ended up with was the Celestial Harbor Experience.
For his thesis, Troy expanded the Celestial Harbor Experience into two parts: how to make it a permanent vacation destination and the business case for a space tourism establishment.
But how do you push the limits of a space vacation? Troy designed the station to include degrees of weightlessness, simulated gravity and a living ecosystem to make the Harbor sustainable. The Celestial Harbor Experience pushes the human exploration story into the next chapter, so we can continue to write the story of our humanity.
The most recent innovation in car segments arrived in the United States as crossovers – SUV-style bodies built on car platforms to improve fuel economy. Automotive companies discovered social trends that pointed to new car buyers wanting the interior space of a SUV, but the fuel economy of a car. These blurred lines created confusion within vehicle segments and today vehicles are classified into segments in order to comply with rules established by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Hyeon Jung Shim, a recent graduate of the MFA Transportation Design program, wrote his thesis about at what’s next in vehicle segmentation. By looking at social trends, past trends, economic and political influences, Shim forecasts what the next segment will be. Also, Shim explored how the current and previous segment definitions have hybridized into new segments. Shim concluded that looking into the past is an important step for determining the future.
