Industrial Design Masters Theses
The Master of Industrial Design program explores design as a vehicle for addressing social, cultural, environmental and other concerns, recognizing that design is not simply a professional service, but rather a way of connecting individual interests and values with a social framework. Students with undergraduate degrees in other fields or with limited design experience are invited to enter the program during Wintersession as a means of preparing to begin the two-year master’s program the following fall.
ID covers a broad range of fields, from product and furniture explorations to design for aerospace and medical applications. Graduate students work independently under the guidance of a faculty advisor and thesis committee, and present their final work verbally, visually and in writing. They also participate in the RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition, a large-scale public show held annually.
“Graduate candidates in ID don’t necessarily need an undergraduate degree in the field, but they do need strong visual communication skills. For those without an ID background, learning CAD, drawing and model making can be beneficial, and taking a general product design course can provide insight into the design process. Materials-based courses in a medium such as metal, glass, textiles, ceramics or wood also provide a good basis for work in ID.” - Andy Law, Graduate Program Director
Graduate Program Director: Andy Law
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
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
Mimesis : human-centered digital profiling visual identity, Yangyang Ding
Voran Test Lab : An exploration of teaching collaborative problem solving and critical thinking through emergent gameplay, Taber Gifford
inVisible: a guide to understanding & designing for introverts, Ashesh Gohil
Through the labyrinth, Rebeca Gonzalez Morales
+ one : a new companionship, Vivien Mengjiao Han
Lift a life, Vidur Madhav
Night Knights: reminding children that their nighttime fear isn't something they have to face alone, Ji Hyung Moon
Fifty fifty: redefining domesticity, Ziying Qiao
The objects around us., Rohit Sen
Accessibility to possibilities : discover the unknown unknown worlds, Yutong Shen
Totem: An embodiment of human character and personality in footwear design, Sushant Shivaram
Togather: To gather together, Kyungah Sohn
Surviving in a gregarious world, Shiyang Yao
Ether: a social design, Zihan Zhou
Theses from 2019
Biomatters : future of biology as material source, Tareq Alzawawi
Mindful interactions, Shreyans Bhandari
Unimproved : land observation at the edge of progress, Adam Somers Bowen
Bitter son, Adam Chuong
Pekka : social software to improve in-game dynamics, Yu Mo
Theses from 2018
Autonomous vehicle futures : designing experiences that enable trust and adoption, Jeremy Bass
Foodways for earthlings : recipes and tools for eating in extreme environments, Maggie Coblentz
Curious things, Allison Davis
Idiosyncratic uniform, Erica Efstratoudakis
Really clean no problems at all, Christina Johnston
Letsqube, Biniam Assegid Kebede
For a better normal : fostering the informal sector in post-hurricane Puerto Rico, as a pathway for economic stabilization, Jonathan W. Melendez Davidson
Harmless Studio, David Thomas Pittman
Dispatches from planet nowhere, Aaron Field Simmons
Radically normal : the menstruation issue, Kathryn Smiley
Talking to computers, Jen Spatz
A place for plastics : bioplastics, bacteria and our thoughtless acts, Megan Valanidas
Memory.zip, Yu-Hsing Wu
Theses from 2017
Communicatronics, Adi Azulay
Balance speaker : efficient work and break, Jin Cao
Talistones : a handful of help for homecoming soldiers, Atulya Changanty
Magkasama, Christina Chen
Retooling : experiments in digital apprenticeship, Ryan Ferguson
Body (less) fitness, Dan Gioia
Love view, Wudi Hong
Connections : a new model to customizing everything, Shao-Hsuan Hou
Motivated motivation : a consulting tool to find new platforms for business, Xiaoxio Jin
Embracing traditional Chinese culture through design, Jiaxuan Li
P-Lax : toys for adults, to play & relax, Zhizi Liu
Empowerment of people of all abilities, Kasia Matlak
Jettison all stories : experimenting with our relationship to the physical, Alyssa R. Mayo
Transitions : designing acceptance in a world of change, Hanna McLaughlin