3132 research outputs found
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Designing the Sweet Spot: The Next Food-as-a-Service Approach for Independent Hospitality Sector
Full text linkThis research explores how emerging technologies can support
Toronto’s Quick Service Food Establishment (QSFE) SME (Small
and Medium Enterprises) in adopting circular economy practices to tackle key sustainability challenges such as excessive food waste, slow digital adoption, and shifting regulatory landscapes.
Focusing on the intersection of technology, business resilience and urban food systems development, the study explores how digital tools can help small food businesses transition toward more regenerative models while remaining economically viable. A mixedmethods approach combining design thinking and strategic foresight grounded in Dator’s Four Futures framework was used to conduct user research, stakeholder analysis, and systems mapping to identify root causes and future opportunities.
The research proposes a Food-as-a-Service (FaaS) model that
leverages shared infrastructure, AI-enabled local production, and blockchain-driven transparency to reduce waste, engage consumers, and lower operational costs. A backcasting framework charts a realistic pathway toward 2035, aligning technological shifts with policy evolution and behavioural change.
By connecting speculative futures to grounded design
interventions, this research demonstrates how foresight-driven strategies can inform actionable, scalable solutions for circular food systems, starting in Toronto and extending to other urban environments navigating similar transitions.
Keywords: Circular Economy, Smart Food System, Strategic
Foresight, Innovation Business Model, Digital Transformatio
Sparks of Change: Does Play Have a Role in Rebuilding Connections, Communities, and Modern Masculinity? Exploring the Intersection of the Masculinity Crisis and the Importance of Playing in Public by: Maham Mansoor Abubakar & Bonita (Bonnie) Leung
Full text linkThis project explores the depth and urgency of the masculinity crisis and its far-reaching impacts on society. As rigid and harmful norms around masculinity continue to perpetuate emotional suppression, social isolation and gender-based violence, the consequences are becoming increasingly visible in the mental health struggles faced by boys and men. These mental health struggles are fracturing communities and at times leading to mass violence. Left unaddressed, this crisis threatens to deepen cycles of disconnection leaving especially adolescent boys, vulnerable.
Grounded in literature reviews and expert interviews, this research investigates the deep-seated societal myths surrounding masculinity and how these narratives affect boys, men and our communities. Through play exploration, surveys and a play participatory workshop with boys and their caregivers, the study highlights a critical need for community-rooted, child/youth-led interventions that challenge harmful gender norms.
We explore public play - particularly within urban neighborhoods - as a powerful tool for promoting connection, conversations, and alternate expressions of masculinity. Central to this approach is the father-son bond, whose influence can help reshape norms from within the family unit. Our research culminates in the development of Play Sparks in a Cart!, a neighborhood-based play kit designed to encourage meaningful play, spark conversations and build cohesion within neighborhoods. This initiative offers a playful, practical path toward mitigating the masculinity crisis and its impacts and supports caregivers in fostering healthier, more inclusive communities - one playful spark at a time
Invisible Chains: Caste, Religious, Nationalism, and the Struggle for Freedom to Innovate in India
Full text linkIndia's narrative as a rising global power, brimming with potential from its large youth population and democratic structure, often conceals the reality faced by millions constrained by "invisible chains." This report critically examines how systemic social, economic, and psychological structures of oppression, primarily deeply rooted casteism intertwined with politically potent religious nationalism, limit lives, stifle creativity, and block the nation's collective innovative potential.
By connecting systemic oppression directly to the prerequisites of a thriving innovation ecosystem, such as social trust, psychological safety, and diverse participation, this report offers a critical lens often missing in standard economic analyses of India's growth. Drawing on an extensive review of academic research, credible reports, and publicly available data, the analysis argues that these interconnected systems perpetuate inequality, erode social trust, fuel impunity, degrade public discourse, and inflict psychological trauma, thereby systematically hindering the prerequisites for innovation and broad-based development.
The study maps these dynamics using a systems thinking framework, identifying reinforcing feedback loops and key archetypes like "Shifting the Burden" and "Success to the Successful" that maintain inertia. Ultimately, the report concludes that breaking these invisible chains through strategic interventions targeting paradigms, rules, and information flows is essential for India to achieve substantive freedom, realize its constitutional ideals of justice and equality, and unleash the full potential of all its people
Voice and Beyond: Shaping the Future of Personalized Conversational Agents
Full text linkAs advancements in generative AI and multimodal communication emerge, voice agents are poised to transition from functional tools to emotionally engaging companions. This thesis explores the future of interactions between Generation Z and AI voice agents, envisioning how these technologies could transform daily life by 2035. Through foresight and speculative design methodologies including STEEPV analysis, participatory futures, and design fiction prototypes, this research examines signals, trends, images, and drivers shaping the future of AI-human interaction.
The study focuses on the societal, ethical, and emotional implications of hyper-personalized and intelligent voice agents, exploring questions around inclusivity, safety, and design principles. By integrating trend research and user insights, creating, and prototyping three future scenarios set in 2035, this work offers actionable frameworks for creating AI agents that better align with values and expectations of users and communities. Ultimately, the thesis aims to inspire critical reflection on AI's role in society while guiding the design of voice agents that enrich the human experience responsibly and inclusively.
As advancements in generative AI and multimodal communication emerge, voice agents are poised to transition from functional tools to emotionally engaging companions. This thesis explores the future of interactions between Generation Z and AI voice agents, envisioning how these technologies could transform daily life by 2035. Through foresight and speculative design methodologies including STEEPV analysis, participatory futures, and design fiction prototypes, this research examines signals, trends, images, and drivers shaping the future of AI-human interaction.
The study focuses on the societal, ethical, and emotional implications of hyper-personalized and intelligent voice agents, exploring questions around inclusivity, safety, and design principles. By integrating trend research and user insights, creating, and prototyping three future scenarios set in 2035, this work offers actionable frameworks for creating AI agents that better align with values and expectations of users and communities. Ultimately, the thesis aims to inspire critical reflection on AI's role in society while guiding the design of voice agents that enrich the human experience responsibly and inclusively
TinkerPod: An open-source hardware platform for makers
Full text linkTinkerPod is an open-source platform designed for makers, creative coders, and designers, providing hackable and customizable hardware and software. Inspired by the evolution of multitools and influenced by contemporary open-source hardware and generative art, this project explores the application of critical making and personal fabrication to open-source hardware. TinkerPod aims to bridge the gap between specialized engineering tools and accessible, user-friendly hardware for creative and technical exploration.
This research follows a Research Through Design methodology combined with Kanban to create an iterative approach that refines prototypes based on accessibility, modularity, and robustness. The first phase synthesizes inspiration from open-source hardware and Do-It-Yourself electronics to situate the project. The second phase refines these insights into specific design criteria, focusing on hardware durability and accessibility for users with different skill levels. The development phase of the project applies iterative prototyping, leveraging rapid fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing to refine the device’s physical design attributes and functionality. Finally, the development of the prototypes is documented, including the thought process and design decisions made during each iteration.
The result is a device that can be manufactured using DIY methods and tools, incorporating a flexible hardware and software ecosystem that intends to encourage users of different skill levels to experiment, extend, and hack
Burnout: the interplay of capacity and care within community-centred organizations
Full text linkThis research project explores the potential of life-centred design approaches within community organizations to respond to distressing employee experiences. The study investigates how dynamic and intense professional expectations contribute to distress impacting personal capacities, affecting personal well-being and ability to give and receive care. Through foresight and participatory design research methods — such as causal layer analysis to examine underlying causes, to identify emerging patterns and journey mapping to visualize employee experiences — the research aims to uncover new holistically-focused insights and impacts to support care providers
Rituals of Mourning: Nan Goldin's Practice of Remembering Through Her Process of Creation
No full textThis thesis explores the life and work of American Photographer and Filmmaker Nan Goldin as she navigated the ups and downs of her everyday life, a lifelong struggle with addiction, and survived the height of the AIDS Epidemic in New York City. Her work is celebrated for its pioneering every day, snapshot style. She is known for persuasive, colourful images grounded in an examination of the human experience.
In this thesis, her work is examined through a sequence of four photographs featuring the Mueller Family. Cookie Muller was a writer and personality of the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1980s, and a close friend of Goldin’s. The sequence includes photographs spanning 25 years and takes us through major life events including finding love, marriage, illness and death. Goldin is particularly skilled at honouring the complexity of her subject’s lives in her photography. For this reason, her work is uniquely positioned to expose our inclinations towards oversimplified stories when looking at moments in history, which she does once again in this sequence with regard to the AIDS Epidemic’s height in 1980s and 1990s America
Tangible Thoughts
Full text linkThis research explores the significance of using our hands in creative practice and its influence on the maker’s thought processes and creative directions. By examining the intimate interaction between our hands and materiality, I ask: how does manual practice influence the maker’s emotions and thoughts? In this study, learning through handmaking is not only about gaining new knowledge but also recognizing our emotions, exploring the relationship between knowns and unknowns, and reflecting upon curiosity and persistence as the catalyst for activating and maintaining bodily activities. Using muslin fiber and my hands for a series of experimentations to practice simple and repetitive hand motions for utilizing muslin fabric, this study aims to capture my emotional changes, thought processes, and pivotal moments of decision making. The critical phenomenology of bodily experience in this study is heavily influenced by the phenomenology by Merleau-Ponty (1982) and Byung-Chul Han’s discussion regarding the mainstream of advanced technology, especially related to smartphones, in Non-Things (2022) and The Burnout Society (2010). Also, the use of reflection notes as the practical narratives of the making process to navigating research direction is inspired by Yeseung Lee’s Seamlessness: Making and (un)knowing in fashion practice (2016)
Knowledge transfer and decision making in municipal government: A case study on The City of Calgary
Full text linkThis study explores the challenges and opportunities of knowledge transfer and decision making within The City of Calgary's municipal government. The primary research question investigates how knowledge transfer between Line staff, Middle management, and Leadership can be improved to better inform decision making processes. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to capture perspectives from two functional areas. Key findings highlight the impact of organizational structure, culture, and trust on knowledge sharing and decision making. The results suggest adopting flexible organizational structures, fostering a culture of openness to improve trust, enhanced communication channels, and developing creating inclusive communication and connection practices to enhance collaboration and achieve citizen-focused outcomes. These insights offer a roadmap for transforming municipal governance through strategic knowledge management and inclusive decision making
Understanding Sound Environments: Common Soundscapes and Their Effect on Hearing Aid Users’ Listening Abilities
Full text linkThe goal of this project is to understand the experiences of people who wear hearing aids in non-speech environments. This study has two distinct cohorts: people who wear hearing aids and people who do not. The primary method of this study is the soundwalk, which involves taking participants to different key areas around the Eriksholm Research Centre (ERC) to actively listen at pre-defined locations. After the soundwalk, the researcher conducts semi-structured interviews with the participants, allowing the pre-survey results and other thoughts to be further explored. These results were then coded and analyzed using grounded theory, and subsequently compared to identify key differences in cohort experiences.
The overall results indicate that specific interests in certain sounds and the ability to describe those sounds play a significant role in determining the differences in participant experience, in addition to a hearing aid’s ability to mitigate wind and traffic noise and the wearer’s ability to identify electric and hybrid cars.
Keywords
Hearing aids, soundscapes, accessibility, inclusive design, equity in healthcar