Students
Students come to the Parsons MS SDM program from all over the world. Their experience combines studios, seminars, networking, events, symposia, and more. This page will inform you about student projects like First Year Studio and Second Year Studio, student resources, and other opportunities.
Co-Spark: Co-creating employee growth for holistic wellbeing in the post pandemic workplace 2023
What is CoSpark? CoSpark is a platform designed to revolutionize the way organizations approach employee growth and wellbeing in the post-pandemic hybrid workplace. What is its purpose? With our research we identified a critical opportunity in addressing the dynamic and personal needs of employees during times of transition at a workplace (for eg – New hires, promotions or personal life transitions such as a birth of a child) The purpose of our project is to empower People Operations to create a positive employee experience that boosts retention, job satisfaction, and engagement. We recognized that traditional HR systems are rapidly becoming…
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Beans: Improving Trust in Hybrid Work Place Teams 2023
Our project addresses the challenges and opportunities presented by the hybrid work model. We identified that while hybrid work offers flexibility and efficiency, it falls short on effective communication and informal interactions through digital channels that are crucial for connection and belonging among employees. This lack of connection negatively impacts productivity, satisfaction, retention rates, therefore, companies lose billions annually. The main innovation we identified is the integration of micro transactions for gift sharing and thank you notes through an app called Beans. Our solution aims to facilitate interpersonal relationships in a hybrid workplace by providing employees with a platform to…
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I AM: Holistic health, physical health, mental peace, better total health 2023
Meet I AM, a platform that is looking for a happier, healthier future. I AM was born in the midst of a global health crisis. Over the past three years anxiety, depression, and disordered eating have been on the rise, while we as a society continue to demonize our bodies for the states in which they exist. We recognized that we treat mental and physical health as separate entities, which has set ourselves up to run negative feedback loops, trying to balance mental and physical health rather than just looking to improve our total individual wellness. I AM brings together…
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Exploring financial wellness for Gen Z adults and millennials 2023
FinWell is a one-stop financial wellness platform that empowers and enables younger adults to improve their relationships with money and navigate life’s ambiguities. Through our research, we found that finances are inherently emotional and can be stressful and overwhelming for a majority of the segment. At FinWell, money meets emotions to help you improve your thoughts, feelings, and actions around finances. Our solution starts with a financial personality quiz to help us and our users better understand their behaviors and mental models when it comes to money. They can then speak with a financial therapist, create a roadmap to work…
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SYNC: Leveraging Time Diversity to Unlock Organizational Potential 2023
Studies show that flexible work arrangements boost employee engagement and productivity. Many organizations now give employees the freedom to choose the spaces where they work but have yet to give them a choice over when they work. Sync helps organizations understand employee time needs and redesign work time. It invites employees to share when they work most effectively to catalyze conversations about collaboration and inclusion. The platform also leverages research across psychology, chronobiology, and organizational design to share insights and make actionable recommendations. Future-ready organizations are time-dynamic and time diverse: they are attuned to the different ways their employees think,…
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Impower: Expert Financial Guidance for Immigrants, By Immigrants 2023
Impower is a non-profit platform providing immigrants (low-income and/or with limited English proficiency) with expert-designed financial plans to help them achieve their goals. These are delivered in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step format by a mentor within the user’s community. Out of 45 million immigrants in the US, 53% are not fully proficient in English, and 23% are illegal or undocumented. These factors, combined with residing in lower-income neighborhoods and earning in cash, make it difficult to establish creditworthiness and generate wealth over time. This situation is worsened by the lack of access to big banks that face red tape in innovating…
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GHOST – Exploited human labor fuelling social network platform economies
People share millions of pieces of content on social media platforms daily. However, not all this content reaches the end user. The content is analyzed, filtered, deleted, or archived by imperceptible policies of social media platforms set up by people whose agendas, motivations, and actions are usually intentionally obscured. This project spreads awareness of the invisible underpaid human labor behind content moderation in the gig economy. Designers Maria Shanina RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’23 EXHIBITION
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CBDCs for SDGs
This project is a master’s thesis exploring how ‘central bank digital currencies’ could enable new policies to achieve the sustainable development goals in Norway. The delivery is an alternative strategic vision consisting of design examples exploring technological possibilities and sustainable economics, and alternative strategic principles for how the Norwegian Central Bank could facilitate for a sustainable transition. The examples are carbon rations, long term contracts, local currencies, and volunteer currency. Designers Glenn Sæstad Curator Ishaanee Pandey RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’23 EXHIBITION
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Bread Manifesto
Rising energy prices due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict are posing a serious existential threat to some bakeries in Europe. “Bread Manifesto” highlights the vulnerable livelihoods that have been affected and neglected in the geopolitical conflict by linking the operation of bread processing machines to energy data. The project provides insight into the complexities of raw material production, energy supply and international political relations that underpin bread production. Designers Chuan Liu, Hanqi Li, Lokyin Pang, Tiemu Zheng, Yueying Yang Curator Ishaanee Pandey RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’23 EXHIBITION
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See Rise: Analog-digital continuity in placemaking
See Rise is a virtual reality and analog site-specific interactive project that shows the change in environment and effect of sea-level rise in high-density locations in Boston at risk of flooding. This project covers the themes of climate change with specific attention to sea-level rise and analog-digital continuity in placemaking. Engagement occurred in two parts: physical markers at the site delineating the future shoreline, and a VR visualization of the site with the goal of catalyzing the collective memory of the individual to take action on climate change. Designers Alex Berkowitz, Ethica Burt, Su In Kim. Support: Professor Belinda Tato,…
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