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Our project is an interactive protest installation designed to raise awareness about harassment and the lack of safety for women on public transportation. By replicating the unsettling experiences many women face daily, we created components that simulate moments of fear and discomfort, such as a touch-sensitive handrail that triggers a blinking eye animation. The interaction intensifies with repeated pressure, increasing the number of eyes, reflecting the feeling of being targeted. A delayed "helpless" help button mimics the frustration of unresponsive assistance. Safety statistics about women’s experiences are displayed to further contextualize the issue. This immersive experience challenges bystanders, fosters empathy, and sparks urgent conversations about systemic change in public transportation safety for women. Combining touch-sensitive technology, real-time animations, and wireless communication, the project critically examines the feelings of harassment and the inadequacies of current safety measures.

Our project is intended to be an eye-catching, harmless tool for protesters to disperse messages throughout the crowd. The goal of our project is to play into the common felt tension during protests, through the use of sound and light. It consists of a large balloon, fitted with LEDs and filled with messages written on confetti floating above a protest. As the volume of the crowd increases, the LEDs within will increase in brightness until a threshold is reached, and the balloon pops. Protesters look to the sky and watch as messaged confetti flutters across the landscape. Our final goal is to feel a release/escape from the tension after the pop of the balloon and the messaged confetti flutters around.

Illumibadge is a wearable, interactive symbol designed to express solidarity and unity within movements like Palestinian solidarity. This innovative badge reacts to proximity, lighting up or changing patterns when it detects nearby badges, visually connecting wearers in real-time. Customizable in design, shape, and color, Illumibadge allows users to tailor the badge to their specific cause, particularly the Palestinian solidarity movement. Whether attached to a keffiyeh, jacket, or backpack, the badge adapts to any setting—be it everyday wear or during protests. As the wearer moves closer to others, the badge illuminates more brightly, reinforcing the message of collective action. Illumibadge empowers individuals to express their commitment to Palestinian solidarity and fosters a visible sense of community, enhancing the visibility and impact of the movement.

“Say to Say It” is the prototype for an AI mask that uses translating software to produce culturally relevant and meaningful translations that increase visibility, allyship, and activism across communities far and wide. With the device connected to our app interface, you can connect the mask by bluetooth to any speaker system even beyond the ones included on the model. On the app, you can select the amount of desired languages for translation. Once connected to your sound system and languages of choice, the mask can operate hands free and through the touch of a button on the side. With your chosen languages in the queue, you will press once to repeat the selected language and press twice to change languages. Also on the app interface, you can find locations for protests near you alongside chat forums with updates from other activists. Our vision is to bridge communication and geographic barriers and involve communities transnationally, culturally and linguistically.

Our project addresses the urgent issue of immigration enforcement in schools where students live in fear of deportation. We designed a protest object as a lunchbox to provide a discreet yet powerful tool for awareness and protection. Inside, it contains “Red Card” statements that clearly outline a student’s legal rights when confronted by ICE, ensuring they have access to crucial information in moments of distress. When activated, the lunchbox flashes red and emits a loud alert, drawing attention to the situation and signaling for help. This interactive design serves as an educational resource and a protest statement, empowering students to assert their rights while exposing the injustice of immigration raids in academic spaces. By integrating advocacy into an everyday object, our project transforms a symbol of childhood into a tool of resistance, solidarity, and safety, reinforcing the message that schools should be places of learning, not fear.

The Red Lines protests the censorship of the Palestinian genocide, exhibiting how narratives are shaped by biased media. Inspired by a children’s DIY television project, the TV displays photographs of the atrocities affecting children, families, homes, hospitals, and other safe zones which have fallen victim to an ever-changing ‘red line.’ The user can interact with the device by rotating the rods (changing the displayed frame) or turning the knobs (adjusting the light intensity and volume). One knob controls the volume of censored, Western news media. A second knob controls the volume of drone sounds and the TV’s backlight, revealing red annotations that contrast the censored narratives of Western broadcasts. Finally, a third knob turns the overall sound on or off. The knobs, when broken, highlight the illusion of control: users believe they can create and control their own narratives, when in fact they can only passively consume censored content.

EchoSkate is an interactive platform that transforms ice skating into a medium for creative expression. Using accelerometer data, it tracks a skater's movements — glides, jumps, and spins — and converts them into colorful digital brush strokes in a movement display. The brush size, color, and spacing adjust based on factors like speed and pressure, visualizing the dynamics of the performance. Skaters can save their sessions as time-lapse videos or still images, offering a unique way to review and analyze their progress. EchoSkate also enables real-time sharing, allowing friends and family to experience performances remotely. This feature is especially valuable for professional skaters whose loved ones may not fully understand the technical nuances of their sport. By bridging athletic performance with digital artistry, EchoSkate offers a new perspective on the sport, encouraging both personal reflection and wider audience engagement.

Our project reimagines the everyday experience of grocery shopping by transforming an ordinary cart into an interactive, gamified tool for motivation and fun. Outfitted with a grid of NeoPixel LED strips, the cart visualizes real-time feedback based on the user’s movement—tracking top speed, average speed, angular velocity, and time spent shopping. The LEDs react dynamically as the user moves, creating a personalized visual trail that rewards momentum and movement. To further encourage playful interaction, we added a “wheelie count” feature: when the user lifts the front wheels of the cart, the NeoPixels flash in a vibrant, celebratory animation. This moment of visual flair gamifies a small physical gesture, adding a sense of delight and spontaneity to the shopping trip. Whether someone’s racing through the aisles or just trying to beat their own best time, the cart becomes more than a passive object—it becomes a companion that responds, celebrates, and challenges. The system includes wireless connectivity to store past performance and track improvements over time, unlocking small achievements to keep users engaged. Our goal was to bring a layer of joy and intentionality to a mundane routine, using light, motion, and data to inspire users to move, reflect, and play. It’s intuitive, low-friction, and designed to spark curiosity—turning an ordinary trip to the store into an unexpectedly fun and motivating experience.

Our project is intended to help snowboarders during an off-season, to continue to practice off the snow. The goal of our project was to create a tool that would allow the user to gain the muscle memory needed to become better carvers off the snow. We decided to use a skateboard as our form of transportation, and a gyroscope to track the angle at which the skateboard was moving. The user can see their stats in live-time through the application, on a graph with different thresholds indicating where it was at a proper angle or not. Furthermore, the user can share their stats with friends, and look back on past rides to keep track of their progress. By having this statistical knowledge from off the snow, we hope that the user can then apply their progress back on the snow.

Our project, Eco_plater: Sustainable Mobility with Positive Environmental Impact, introduces an innovative, eco-conscious scooter equipped with a fan-powered seed dispersal system and a companion mobile app. As users ride, biodegradable seed capsules stored in the scooter's rear wheel are released, helping re-green urban spaces with native wildflowers. The mobile app tracks where seeds are planted, provides gamified challenges to boost engagement, and offers route suggestions for optimal ecological impact. Designed to combat the passive nature of traditional carbon footprint tools, our scooter turns daily commutes into active environmental contributions—making sustainability accessible, fun, and rewarding.

Lugging a carry-on suitcase through the airport can be a hassle, but what if your suitcase worked for you? Aeromate transforms your luggage into a smart travel companion, enhancing convenience, reducing stress, and offering added functionality for airport travelers. Equipped with a Flight API, Aeromate provides real-time flight updates, including arrival times, terminal details, and delays, displayed on a built-in OLED screen. Simply enter your flight number via the keypad, and the suitcase connects to Wi-Fi for seamless updates. Aeromate also features a laser-cut, foldable seat, providing a comfortable resting spot in crowded airports. It doubles as a ride-on suitcase for kids and a portable seat for adults. Additionally, the mobile app tracks flights and logs travel history, promoting sustainability by monitoring miles flown and estimating carbon emissions, encouraging eco-friendly travel habits. By reducing stress, offering seating, and supporting sustainability, Aeromate is more than just a carry-on, it’s a smart travel companion that keeps you informed, comfortable, and environmentally conscious.

ReforeStep is an innovative shoe sole designed to make reforestation effortless by holding and dispersing seeds as you walk. With every step, users actively contribute to environmental restoration, planting seeds in areas where reforestation is needed. Paired with the ReforeStep app, users can connect with like-minded individuals while hiking, exchange seeds they have, and find others to join collective efforts aimed at replanting larger areas. The app fosters community collaboration, encouraging people to work together to restore ecosystems and combat deforestation. Inspired by nature’s own methods of seed dispersal, ReforeStep makes it easy for individuals to play an active role in ecosystem regeneration. Whether hiking alone or with others, each step helps contribute to a greener future. By integrating sustainability into everyday movement and social engagement, ReforeStep empowers individuals to take action, plant seeds of change, and restore biodiversity—one step at a time.