Industrial Design Masters Theses
The Master of Industrial Design at RISD explores design as a vehicle for addressing social, cultural, environmental and other concerns, recognizing that design connects individual interests and values within a social framework. The program endorses the notion that the most valuable design opportunities today are those promoting the preservation of our environment and a better understanding of human behavior.
Learn more about the Industrial Design Master's Programs
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Theses from 2026
Sentience, Sheetal Agrawal
OPEN_______, Eitan Boiarsky
Frictional Intelligence, Posheng Cheng
Objects With Life, Yu Ting Chiu
Somatic Prosthetics for Planetary Resonance, Disha Dharesh Kumar R
Waterway: A Steam-Based Therapeutic Device System, Mingyuan Dong
I BELIEVE, Rusudan Dushuashvili
Boring Objects Bureau, Eric Fan
Dead Reckoning, Jeremy A. Grail
Beyond the Tampon (Menstrual Equity & Justice Certification), Rucha Kale
CHAIR FOR WORKPLACE MORALE, Alicia Lee
Made in Chimerica, Austin Wang
Material Costs, Karima Weinman
KEV's Dinghy Boat Workshops, Ruiyang Xiao
Theses from 2025
Gradiance: a mindfulness intervention, Kip Geddes
MEMEGANDA, zhengxiang huang
Time Reclamation, Yuming Hu
Playful Parenting, Shloka Kartikeyan
Designing Between Worlds, Levon Kostandyan
Where Motion Lingers..., CHENG-LIN LEE
Rooted in Embodied Making: A Notebook on Process, Vija Lietuvninkas
TUBO, Shaobo Liu
Patchworks - A design framework for repairing systems, one patch at a time., Jack A. Martinez
Smora: Breath as Memory, Pratikesh Pundkar
Gamifit, SiShu Wu
the Red Thread: Objects as Medium, Hsin-Ning Alin Yang
Theses from 2024
Dimensional Dialogues, Farida Abousteit
Dimensional Dialogues, Farida Abousteit
JUGAATRONICS, Monica Bhyrappa
Better Together, Jack Dumala
Designed Impermanence, An Alchemical Inquiry, Dani Epstein
Industrial Tenderness, Elbert Girón
While We Were at Dinner, Anna Glass
Remade Radical: Design Artifacts of a Third World Future, Yasmine Hassan
Repair Rolodex: Exchanges, Changes, and Patchwork Parables, Ethan Howard
Furnicreature, Yijing Huang
Re-touch, Yuxin Jin
Stand by, I'm getting ready., Mina Kim
Snapbot - The Enhanced Physical Play, Morong Li
From One Nature to Another, Sarah Mann
technocene, Vir Joseph Naidu
Wild Joy: An Exploration in Queer Spatial Dynamics, Kipper Thomas Reinsmith
One of One of a Kind, Dominic Rishe
SWING! Active Play Motivation, DONG YOON SHIN
Outside_in, Zixuan Zhang
Waste Illuminates Worlds: Printed Modular Lamp Design Based On Brick and Clay Tile, Yechen Zhu
Theses from 2023
Kole, Isaiah Aladejobi
Fungi in Flux | Designing Regenerative Materials and Products with Mycelium, Arvind Bhallamudi
MILITURE, Bingdong Duan
POSTINDUSTRIAL PLAYBOOK++, Maxwell Fertik
Freedom is a Leaky System: Living Together in the Mess, Calgary Haines-Trautman
Food, Drink, Time, New Year and Cloth, Jian Li
Making That Carries Over, Jae Nam
How to make a hybrid workplace more human?, Ray Sun
Unveiling Pain: Wearables for Objective Pain Measurement, Hanqing Tang
A PRELIMINARY GUIDE TO BUILDING NEW FUTURES IN THE NARRAGANSETT BAY, Maximilian Werner
Knot, Just Craft It, Qingxian Xu
Theses from 2022
Ready made, made ready: everyday objects for everyday emergency, Dara Benno
Memories unboxed: connecting people with stories of our possessions, Megan Tzu-Hsien Chao
To be seen to be heard: embracing social anxiety in the workplace, Jingxuan Chen
Attuning the viewfinder, Ian de Silva
Disoriented: navigating the nuances of communication, Ann Dinh
Sobremesa, Charlie Herbozo-Vidal
Vulva gazing: power and the gendered body, Aaliya Jamal Zaidi
A fleeting landscape: resurrecting the edges of the estuary, Vrinda Mathur
Material Illumination, Lauren Mikaela Glenn
Extended reality interface, Neil Nelson
Breaking | Grounding | Growing: Expanding the Rhode Island gardening reentry programs as a pathway towards stability, Juliana Soltys
We got this..., Julian Wellisz
Sub Sequence : building a participatory infrastructure, Aaron Wright
Theses from 2021
Designing for space; exploring ways of simulating nature and everyday activities in zero-g environment, Sayit Alisan
Psychological well-being through music listening, Majed BouGhanem
Shoes for advanced urban surfaces, Karan Buasakdi
After plastic waste : plastic bottle knitting machine - design for value of recycling plastic, Du Cheng
Katti-Batti : a digital tool for young adolescents to transgress the limitations of gender socialization through empathy & friendship, Chetan Dusane
Beyond conscious: the knowing of self-owned anxiety, WenYu Du
Rebuilt the fading vicinity, Yifan Du
The portal : a tool for uncertain times, Sophie Engel
Inter - : design for fostering action-oriented awareness towards sustainable transition, Elena Danlei Huang
Move in the internet, Jennifer Ziyuan Huang
Living objects, Katie Tzu Hua Huang
The art of microbe maintenance: value and applications in design, Yujin Hwang
Distilling the Narragansett Bay, Parker Ives
Kitsch study and Chinese kitsch market, Jiaqi Ellie Liu
Beacon Public Library: expanding radical civic care for an uncertain future, Katrina Machado
Ars Technica, Bayan Mashrequi
Inside the bubble 2.0, Sunny Yuqing Ma
Wild things: outdoor toys for nature play, John Mawhorter
Indefinite origin: decentralizing knowledge, Tong-June Moon
No winners: transgender athletes in cycling, Max Pratt
Zoomorphic extended body, Nicholas Tamas
Uncertainty wanted: deconstructing gender gap in parenting mentality, Zimeng Xiang
A family game: tell the stories that shape us, Zhuoyan Xie
Theses from 2020
Sol, John Beck
Repairer's recipe : volume 0, Joyce Chang
Experience the world: How the ever-present accessibility of hands-on opportunities & play enhance logistical learning, Mary E. Chavez
Ocean state food stories, Charlotte Clement
Beautiful dirt : exploring the American taboo of death through the things we leave behind, Jake Dangstorp
Designed body, Jingwei Deng
Acute, Alex D'Haeseleer