Choosing a Project

You will propose a project and choose a team. Generally, any project is appropriate (please refer to project theme) as long as it addresses a real problem experienced by real people and is not too big or too small for your team members.

Development Technology

The focus of the course is on Interaction Design, not web, database, mobile, push, software engineering, or other technologies. Thus, you are free to use any technology to develop your prototype. It is recommended to use very simple technology (e.g., without using a database) to build the prototype. If you are not sure what to use, we can recommended set of technologies for you. Contact a TA for assistance.

Acceptable Platforms

You are free to use any platform you wish for your projects, but keep in mind the following:

• • You need to supply your own hardware for testing, so choose a platform that several team members already own.

  • It’s best to choose a platform that your users would actually use. You should generally do this unless there is a good reason to do otherwise. (See below for some good reasons.)

  • In the later Iteration, you may conduct a web experiment with your high-fidelity prototype. This will be much easier if your prototype is a web app, but there are work-arounds if you have a native app.

  • Because mobile apps are becoming more common and pose interesting design challenges, we encourage you to design apps for mobile devices, if possible.

Project theme

We have the following project themes you may choose from: 

• 1. Climate change - Find a problem on climate change to solve (educating behavior changes eg. global climate actions, Greta Thunberg 2 3, etc). If you don't know where to start, start with plastics from Eco-Bot, NEA to Akira in KamiKatsu, and BeeVi toilet UNIST. Is Govt the problem? Beware of Green washing and investment scams on ESG SPAC, Fossil Fuel taking over COP.

     • United Nation Climate Action Reports.

     • Ren21 Renewable Now, Reports on Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Sweden, etc. Why is there no report on Singapore? 

     • Evidence: UN IPCC 2021 Report Lytton on fire, Gulf Mexico ocean fire, Fareed GPS Greece on fire, John Kerry, 

     • What is MSE SG Green plan about? Is it enough? Mind the gap. Are we green washing?

       • Plant 1 million trees (unlike other countries where citizens help. In SG only national park can do this?) What can you do?

       • Quadruple solar energy deployment by 2025 (2020 428MWp to 1.5GWp). Floating Solar Farms, HDB Green towns, MoT EV 28,000 charging points, and all newly registered cars to be cleaner-energy models from 2030. How do we put up our solar panels and contribute to the SG power grid?

       • Reduce the waste sent to landfill by 30% by 2030. Circular economy towards zero waste. How can you help? At least 20% of schools to be carbon neutral by 2030.

       • 30 by 30 SFA 30% food locally and sustainably by 2030

       • Civil Service College Ethos on Sustainability Issue24, Issue 17, 

       • SMU alum Oh Chu Xian & Adriel Ng Magofium, ClimateChangeSG, SMU enabling youth to adapt to climate change, Prof Winston Chow, 

     • What can you do? Greta. What project can you do?

       • Check out the UN ActNow app. Adapt these UN Climate Solutions to SG. Select a category. Here are some UN Climate Actions and UN Youth in Actions (9 things you can do right now). 

       • Past IDP projects: Educate community-Awareness (changing habits- carbon emission plastic/water/energy/transport/food usage, buy/shop local, appliance energy monitor, EV charging points, etc). Calculate Carbon Footprint. Reduce (waste food, water, energy). Reuse (used furniture, appliances, electronics, etc). Recycle (locate recycle bin). 

       • NOTE: Survey SG residents. Find out if they care, and ready to do action? Then propose a solution (For IDP this is an app/website/portal solution).

  2. AI for rapidly aging Singaporeans- By 2030, almost one in four Singaporeans will be over 65, creating what economist call a "super-aged" society. This demographic reality makes AI adoption not just beneficial, but essential.

     • • Japan embraced automation and robotics. Labour literally disappearing due to retirement.

       • Real people face anxiety about keeping up with teachnological change. SkillFuture include AI and GenAI training.

       • Workers concerned about AI discrimination can approach the MOM Tripartite Alliance for assistance.

       • Climage change, ageing population, mental health, space exploration - these required precisely the creative problem solcing and collaborative thinking that human excel at. AI adoption accelarating demand.