Zai Thakoor’s thesis, Rethinking Endings: From Ownership to Stewardship, explores what happens to our products when they reach their end—not through failure, but through quiet wear, fading relevance, or simple neglect. While design often glorifies beginnings—newness, utility, unboxing—it rarely considers the emotional or practical dimensions of endings. This thesis asks: What if we treated endings with the same intention as beginnings?

Tao Tao Holmes ’25 asks the question: Are the gifts we’re giving to kids… just commodities? Or are we building something that can keep growing—a relationship, a connection, a sense of security, a future memory?

Acts of attention, rather than objects of accumulation?

Ningfu (Nymph) Yang’s thesis, In the Dog House: Enhancing Human-Pet Interactions and Alleviating Separation Anxiety, explores how design can ease the emotional strain of separation for both pets and their humans. Rooted in her own experience—and shared by many pet owners—Nymph addresses the growing concern of leaving pets alone and the anxiety it can trigger on both sides. As pet ownership continues to rise globally, her work points to the urgent need for more compassionate, emotionally attuned human-animal relationships.

Harsha Pillai’s thesis, Lost in Translation: Rethinking Acts of Care Across Distances, probes a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to feel close to someone when you live oceans apart? Centered on the emotional and cultural gaps that emerge in Asian immigrant families, the work argues that reconnection often begins with recognition, not resolution.

Emma Brigaud’s thesis, Designed To Reconnect: Shifts In Everyday Food Habits For A Less Wasteful Future, investigates resilient and sustainable food practices within the shared spaces of a neighborhood: where we live, shop, and learn. As witnesses to climate change, consumers often feel paralyzed by despair and inaction. However, households are responsible for fifty percent of food waste in the U.S. which requires a shift in our everyday food habits. Through an exploration of the New York food system, Emma discovered that closing the psychological distance between people and the origins of their food requires a shift: knowing your food and knowing your neighbor. In conversations with chefs, educators, farmers, and municipal leaders, Emma identified opportunities to reduce waste, directly and indirectly, along the food habit lifecycle. Her work proposes playful and meaningful interventions that re-enchant our relationship with produce, turning a system of commercial waste into one of care, connection, and delight.

Zhiwen (Kira) Fu’s thesis, Rethinking Toilets: Aligning Design with Human Needs, asks a quietly radical question: what if the most frequently used object in our lives—the toilet—was never truly designed with our bodies in mind? When Kira found herself tiptoeing and searching for a stool to support her feet—constantly shifting posture on the toilet—she began to wonder: “Is this a personal problem, or is something fundamentally wrong?” The issue, she realized, could lie in human anatomy, unhealthy bowel habits, or perhaps a flaw in the design of the toilet itself.

Jingyi Zhu’s thesis, After the Night Ends: Reimagining the After-Work Life for Third Shift Workers, centers night shift workers in the design of tools that support recovery, resilience, and recognition in a world built for the day. While most of society sleeps, third shift workers are on the job—staffing hospitals, driving buses, and keeping essential services running. Their schedules invert the body’s natural rhythms, forcing them to sleep through daylight and spend their waking hours under artificial light.

Yining “Elaine” Zhang’s thesis, From Cosplay to Daily Life: Exploring the Positive Impacts of Role Play, reimagines cosplay not as escapism, but as a powerful tool for self-transformation. Drawing from her own experience as a cosplayer, Elaine explores how embodying a character can unlock confidence, reshape self-perception, and help individuals explore new aspects of identity. But what happens when the costume comes off?

Hyotae (Haley) Kim’s thesis, B-longing: A Design Approach to Finding Identity and Heritage for International Adoptees, explores design solutions to help international adoptees reconnect with their identity and heritage. Recognizing the challenges adoptees face in tracing their origins, my work focuses on developing tools that preserve crucial information about their background. By integrating thoughtful design with technology, Haley’s thesis aims to create products that facilitate self-discovery, cultural connection, and a sense of belonging.

Jiaqi Gu’s thesis, Cultivating Financial Roots: Growing Children’s Financial Literacy for Life, explores how early financial literacy can shape lifelong money habits. Growing up in a family where money was rarely discussed, Jiaqi experienced firsthand the confusion many young adults face when making major financial decisions for the first time. His project addresses this gap by focusing on children ages 6 to 12—a formative stage for developing lasting habits and attitudes toward money. Guided by the belief that financial education is not just about saving and spending, but about designing a more secure and empowered life, Jiaqi’s work reimagines how families can talk about money through playful, meaningful experiences.

Building Arduino circuits and writing C++ was a central focus of the class of 2026’s first-semester Making Studio course with Becky Stern. Here are some of our favorite projects from this class, in which students designed, built, and code electronic solutions for problems ranging from habit-building, being too noisy in the library, and working out smarter— not harder.

A nature-inspired sound-sensing wall lamp designed by Rida Zeng ‘26 to support meditation and bring harmony into your space.

Our first-year students wrapped up the first intensive course of the spring semester: Intervention Interaction, taught by Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa of Antenna Design. In just 5 weeks, students designed and constructed public interventions that aimed to spark interactions between members of community around SVA campus— with each team of 3 to 4 students optimizing their designs for a particular outcome.

An innovative installation by Tao Tao Holmes ‘25, Zai Thakoor ‘25, and Jin Zhu ‘25 that invites passersby to playfully maneuver themselves through a series of vertical panels, stimulating movement, play, and public interaction.

Under the guidance of Suma Reddy, founder of Riffle Ventures and Gather—a robotic harvesting companion—the class of 2026 dug into climate issues as the basis of entrepreneurial explorations during first semester’s Entrepreneurship for Sustainability and Resilience course. Read through some of our favorite business solutions for problems ranging from wildfire mitigation in Canada, rooftop urban gardens to support native bee populations, and the potential for cemeteries to serve as communal parks preserving our connection to the past as well as our environment.

A breath-activated diffuser designed by Yuancong Jing ’25 and Nymph Yang ’25 to support focus and reduce procrastination-related thoughts.

A product line of spicy treats designed by Emma Brigaud ’25 and Haley Kim ’25 for health-conscious Gen Z adults who seek stress-relief through snacking.

The Nimbus Cloud Shower Chair, designed by Elaine Gao ’25 and Harsha Pillai ’25, is a high-end shower chair for affluent young professionals who consider self-care a top priority.

Introducing the Abra Duo: A dual-use desk and dining table designed by Erica Fink ’25 and Jin Zhu ’25 for professionals working from home in small to mid-size apartments.

As part of the product development cycle we’ve been looking at our product ideas through different lenses. Last week, we explored how our products could be reimagined as services, and created storyboards to help communicate these ideas. Check out some of our favorite frames from the class of 2026!