The process of working on real projects for real clients is essential to the student experience at the Segal Design Institute.
Browse our projects gallery to see examples of past projects.
First-Year Projects
Spring Kickstand
A kickstand the improves the usability of tandem bikes.
Envision Unlimited, a Chicago-based nonprofit serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, had a fleet of 30 tandem bicycles with faulty kickstands.
The new kickstand design was created to be more intuitive and easy-to-use, benefiting both the riders and the Envision Unlimited program.
inControl
A video game controller designed for patients who have hemiplegia.
A recreational therapist observed that patients with hemiplegia have trouble playing video games with a controller designed for two hands.
A team of students designed a controller by mapping both joysticks to the user’s functioning hand.
DuraCot
A portable changing table intended for a caretaker to change the diaper of a child with cerebral palsy in a public restroom stall.
A mother of a son with cerebral palsy needed a way to change her son's diaper in public restrooms.
The DuraCot is a functional changing surface that is portable, and intuitive for any caretaker to assemble.
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Undergraduate Projects
GastroPops
A tasty artificial snail made from ground oyster shells and a seafood blend.
Queen conch, an important food source for marine animals, are listed as threatened due to overfishing, predation. and habitat loss from climate change.
The Gastropop snail aims to help inform restoration and conservation efforts — without exacerbating already threatened food sources.
Sno-Gro Boots
Children’s winter boots that can expand up to three sizes.
Many families face the recurring expense of buying new winter boots for growing children each year.
This project, called Sno-Gro Boots, aims to create footwear that lasts for more than just one season, addressing both economic and environmental concerns.
Reusable Trocars
A sustainable alternative to single-use surgical devices.
The healthcare sector in the US is responsible for nearly 10 percent of carbon emissions.
A reusable trocar would reduce waste produced during routine, minimally invasive surgeries.
View more Segal Design Certificate projects
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Graduate Projects
NM Check
A comprehensive virtual care system that brings healthcare to patients
Get the care you need without leaving your bed.
Four EDI students created a forward-thinking solution after Northwestern Medicine asked them to create a virtual care system that would increase the ability of its Primary Care Physicians to see more patients.
Fire + Light
A versatile and ultra-lightweight camping lantern for outdoor adventurers.
While camping, biotechnology graduate student Stephanie Wiegel discovered a ‘pain point’ associated with her headlamp.
A headlamp is essential for camping and hiking to ensure safety in the dark, but it has a spotty, harsh light which limits its uses for social lighting. How might this tool be improved?
Taking on Food Insecurity
EDI students designed new ways for Feeding America to get food into the hands of those who need it most.
Feeding America charged students to create new strategies to rescue foods from retail and bring those goods into the Feeding America ecosystem.
Students tested ideas in the marketplace by visiting food banks, retail store, and various public venues to gather firsthand feedback.
View more Product Design and Development Management (mpd²) projects
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Affiliated PhD Research Projects
Meaningful Audience Interaction
A PhD student's work aims to understand the intersection of audience interactivity and canonical cultural products.
Creating meaningful audience experiences by evoking elements of new digital media forms.
As a complementary experiment in critical making, Elizabeth is designing and building Something Wicked, a video game adaptation of William Shakespeare’s gory, witchy tragedy, Macbeth.
Surface Haptic Devices
A PhD student in the Neuroscience and Robotics Laboratory (NxR) designs, builds, and tests devices that provide haptic feedback on surfaces.
Touchscreen feedback.
We have built and distributed over 75 surface haptic devices to university and corporate researchers and designers and they have been used in competitions, workshops, classes, and publications.
Visualizations of Audio
A PhD student works with Collablab and Delta Lab to develop visualization of audio by applying a computational model.
Creating visualizations of audio for multitrack audio.
His work helps audio engineers more efficiently mix multitrack audio, but the concept of visualizing models of perception extends beyond this application, and beyond just sound.
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