Home
I Statements
Making the Question
Premonitions
Self/Informed
Education + Action
Culture Studies
Fresh Approaches
Voices
The Future
Crafted Tales

Welcome to PARALLEL, a multidimensional digital space hosted by Design and Technology’s class of 2021. We are product innovators, digital storytellers, multimedia artists, and data explorers—and we’re excited to present this showcase for our final thesis work.

Our projects fall into six categories, where we investigate several questions. How can design drive social change? What does the future hold? What new ideas can we propose for current issues? When do narratives reveal deeper connections? How can we take a closer look at culture and media? And where do we see our place in the world?

Education + Action
Finding the intersections of design and data with social impact. These projects seek to teach new ideas and skills, highlight social injustice and inequity, and call for political change and action.
Bitsharm
Sharm
An augmented reality (AR) application to bring a playful experience for learning blockchain.
Battle for Your Brain
Mary Ann Badavi
Battle for Your Brain is a research and policy investigation into misinformation and the algorithms that help it thrive.
Misinformation Trends in India
Pavithra Chandrasekhar
A data investigation revealing the patterns in misinformation in India.
Unheard Voices
Bhavya Gupta
Unheard Voices is a storytelling platform aimed at highlighting the aspirations of migrant women workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Mumbai, India.
Believer
Dae Young Kim
In this era of post-truth where biases and falsehood replace facts and spreads into every corner of our society, Believer questions our ways of receiving information.
oasis
Aya Nakamura
Homesick
Nicole Polidore
Homesick is a 2D interactive story
that aims to provide a narrative about
the struggles of self acceptance for
the BIPOC / LGBTQ+ community in a
heteronormative society.
Undercover
Sherry Shao
Undercover is an AR game that visualizes the vision of security cameras to raise awareness of mass surveillance
COPE
Taylor Su
COPE is an experimental take on how we would be able to live with PTSD.
Please note that COPE is not a certified method of therapy but just one possible way of recovering.
EchoLearn
Zhizhen (Jerry) Tan
EchoLearn is an experimental pedagogy and mobile VR simulator activating the blind and visually impaired community's equal access to echolocation distance education. Users in the experience can direct
My Spoken Story
Minyue Wang
My spoken story focuses on getting Chinese children to speak up by using a tablet application.
Other people’s children
Yusha Wen
"Other people's children" is a card experience design project that lets parents and children have more communication.
Nüoteny
Ruihan "Ray" Xia
"Nüoteny" by Ruihan "Ray" Xia is a series of collectible Designer Toys, also called art toys, conceptualized and revolved based on the idea of a feminist futuristic identity.
Tama Tama Paradise
Allie Xiao
Tama Tama Paradise is a single-player strategy-simulation game for mobile devices and a sugar-coated recreation of social media conflicts targeting teenage Chinese fangirls.
Crescendo
Vic Yuen
"Crescendo" by Vic Yuen is an interactive mobile app designed to help perspective music students learn guitar by implement practicing habits into their daily routines.
Culture Studies
Culture covers many things: from heritage and traditions to media and entertainment. The projects here examine, question, and honor the ideas and identities around which people create community.
Foreign Lands, Familiar Stars
Chel Chan
Foreign Lands, Familiar Stars is a series of creative investigation and contemplation on self-identity.
Sorry but I Cook Danmei
byeciao
A project about Danmei and Contemporary Chinese Feminism
命運 Destiny: Matronymic Surnaming – Through the Scope of Chinese Society
Kennis Chen
This film illustrates infanticide due to gender bias and the miserable fate of women in China using non-literal imagery.
Wooo Chile
Cierra King
“Wooo Chile” considers how Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence, can be used to aid linguistic and cultural preservation of African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
From Birth to Present
Kelly Kong
From Birth to Present / Audio-Visual Installation
seeks to understand human experiences and interpretation from the first-person perspective through dematerializing preconceptions and archetypes.
(Un)Echo Chamber
Franziska Mack
(Un)Echo Chamber is a web-based sound experience that explores radicalization in online spaces.
Grounding Lessons
Rosa Ng
Grounding Lessons documents my embodied experimentations in textiles, worms, soil, history, and mapping.
SEARCHED FOR: “qualia”
Gabriella Ortiz
SEARCHED FOR: "qualia" is a web based experience which explores our data trails and the emotions and memories attached to our digital history.
InsideOUT
Terri Wright
InsideOUT is a speculative fiction short dance film. It tells the story of a distressed woman finding solace after encountering her anthropomorphized subconscious.
This is The Master-of-Nets Garden
Aria Wu
This is a kindergarten class activity that introduces children to the Classical Gardens of Suzhou through a mobile game.
Peek into the Rabbithole
Audrey Xu
DaYa’s World
Justina Yeung
Invisible Bridge
Xuanao Zhang
A site-specific data-based sculpture embracing multicultural connections within local communities and their food cultures.
Painteller
May Zhou
Fresh Approaches
Making life better by mixing the latest with original thinking. The projects in this section offer up a fresh batch of solutions for the people's problems.
Creativa
Natalie Alvarenga
Creativa is a website for recent graduates in communication design to participate in creative networking through collaborative monthly hackathons.
Alive Memoir
Akshay Baweja
Alive Memoir is a voice-only social interaction platform designed for the elderly in the shape of a tangible planter.
able.
Joe Chung
able. (Augmented Bench Learning Experiences) is a set of makerspace tools with augmented reality, Internet of Things, and voice control capabilities.
Proform
Jessica Lee
Improve your running form and prevent injuries using an application that provides actionable insights backed by physical therapists and running experts.
The Other Side of the Window
Shuhao Liu
The other side of the window is a work that uses the window as a narrative container for shared memories of connection and disconnection during the Great Quarantine.
RAM Quilt
Michelle Nee
Why is craft not taken seriously by technologists? These two practices inhabit a shared history and should share a present. RAM Quilt is a project exploring this disjointed memory.
Pizi: Job Applications Made Easy
Patricia Parnet
Pizi is a connected digital solution, focusing on a smart and equitable application submission process with the aim to bridge the gap between students, schools and companies.
Digi-bit
Emi
A desktop application that strives to compel human emotion by fostering a relationship with a virtual creature, aiming to build its players’ physio-micro habits to fulfill their tacit human needs.
MoLight
Taran
Molight is a smart digital lighter which helps you reduce your smoking consumption and motivates you to quit smoking. The lighter is accompanied by a MoLight mobile application.
Project Mix: Virtual networking
Shubhaya Sinha
Project Mix connects alumni and students with a focus on creating preofesional connections. The solution explores giving people an opportunity to have face to face conversations virtually.
LivingRoom
Sky Ta
Connecting with loved ones through distance/distancing or across time zones has become a relevant part of life. LivingRoom is a personal collection of positive affirmations from those you hold dear.
Furiendly
Jiatong (Alyssa) Yu
Furiendly (寻找毛孩子) is non-profit service platform aiming to effectively connect animal rescue groups, potential adopters, and any individuals who are willing to participate in animal rescue in China.
Voices
Responses to the world, reflections of the self. The projects in this section speak today for the sake of tomorrow.
Woven Data
Isabel Anguera
A hand stitched coat that visualizes tracked data about me. It explores the reductive nature of big data, and the information that is lost when our data is analyzed and used for profit.
the Melting Empty Space
Sharon_Jia Chen
untouchable
Memories are like when I look through a piece of frosted glass to see the moment that I once captured





there is no incognito tab.
Sohee Cho
A collection of visual poems chronicling my digital footprints.
The Beaks
Jiangnan Hou
A short VFX film that employs interactions with handmade masks to both reflect and intervene in moments of broken communication.
The Orange Apocalypse
Sarah Lee
The Orange Apocalypse is an installation inspired by the emotions elicited from the surreal atmospheric phenomenon of the West Coast orange skies.
Towards Videogame Composition
Jason Li
Towards Videogame Composition proposes a design and critical analysis framework for videogame creation, recognizing that before they are ever played, videogames must be made.
tamed
Valerie Lin
A fashion therapy system uses machine learning to analyze one’s emotions through personal diary entries and outfit selection.
Conversation with Myself
Jiaqi Liu
“Conversation with Myself” is a self-reflection, summary and interpretation of the artist’s past experiences. This AR pop-up book shows the process of reconciliation between the artist and her karma.
the cosmograph
Dar Min
the cosmograph is a sculptural flowchart residing on the world wide web resulting from subconsciousness-informed methods of coping.
Empty Realities, Abundant Futures
Esther Nam
Killing Time
Sean Scanlan
Sculptural work exploring the violent, increasingly dyssynchronous and atomized nature of time under neoliberalism.
The Wanderer
Yichan Wang
An animated short film in which people can dance while they are dreaming.
A Map of Childhood Memory Exploration
Lino Wei
This project is about memory exploration. In the project, the author describes her childhood memories by drawing them down and putting them into an interactive web gallery for the audience to view.
The Archive of Ugliness
Xiaosu Yu
The Archive of Ugliness collects, categorizes, and edits the designs and images found online. It is a study on how ugly designs, poor images, and trivia aesthetics affect our perception of reality.
E D G E
Nora Zhang
VR Game about privacy surveillance.
Watching Me
Julie
A VR galaxy that builds up a parallel world with several emotion-planets.
The Future
An exploration of thoughts, ideas, and questions to how we see the world of tomorrow. These projects investigate the central idea of "what if" through future realities, parallel experiences, and challenging the norm.
Reconstructing History through Memes
Pranjal Deep
A speculative, research projects done by Robots to learn about ancient beings, "Humans"
From Birth to Present
Kelly Kong
From Birth to Present / Audio-Visual Installation
seeks to understand human experiences and interpretation from the first-person perspective through dematerializing preconceptions and archetypes.
Get out of the Dark
Jiaxin Li
a multimedia, interactive personal journey of losing a loved one. Sharing what I have done since my grandma passed away.
The Illustrated Index of Metaphysical Phenomena
Jordan McRae
The Illustrated Index of Metaphysical Phenomena is a collection of digital collages that explore metaphysical principles through the lens of blackness and the African diaspora.
Open Radio Matters
Mia Meus
Humain Hand
Danerick Peralta
This project investigates humanities growing dependence on digital technologies through human history, culture, and new tools.
Fake: An Exploration of Generative Fashion
Joseph Rivera
This project is an experiment within the domain of fashion, exploring the use of machine learning to design digital fashion.
new.ances
Jill Shah
NEW.ANCES is a series of critically designed, computationally augmented making experiments in pottery resulting in a collection of vessels with altered, nuanced forms. .
UNDERWATER
Elijah Xia
Storytelling a prophecy of the totalitarian future of mankind
Project Numen
Benny Zhang
“Project Numen” is a speculative proposal for the future employing elements of design inspired by nature.
Eco Steps Socks
Xueyi Zhang
Socks that you will never lose. We close the loop with unique sustainable practices.
Dream Bubble
Rozi Zhu
Crafted Tales
Stories can take the form of games, interactive websites, and immersive environments. These projects lead their audience through navigating relationships, paint moments of self-discovery, and encourage the creation of community based on shared connections.
Exhalation MR Experience
Hongxi Chen
Exhalation is a mixed reality experience project that focuses on dematerialization, activities in both physical and virtual space, and systems.
The Living Space
Costas Constantinides
The Living Space is a walking simulator game which gives players the freedom to explore at their own pace and experience it how they choose to. The space changes depending on player movement and gaze.
Unmute
Fan Jing
a video game about my personal experience of trying to understand my father
The Color Inside
Pepper
The Color Inside is a walking simulator game, in which the characters communicated with each other violently and ruined their relationships.
LOVEBUG
Maya Filmeridis
LOVEBUG is a dating simulator built for Mac OS. It utilizes the user's operating system to run its course, prompting for total control. It is an exploration of the fear of falling in love.
Author’s Quest
Daniel Han
"Author's Quest" is a 2D platformer that focuses on freedom within limitations. Set in a storybook world that has been desecrated by a malevolent force it's up to the player to stop it from spreading.
The Hidden
Zhuyuan He
The Hidden is an engaging interactive storytelling web experience about Jin's truth discovery journey in a hidden world.
Waterfall of Impermanence: Destruction as Creation
Amber Marie Hurwitz
An interactive art installation entailing an animation of patterns projected onto a sculptural surface, evoking abstract imagery of a waterfall as a metaphor for destruction/creation and impermanence.
From Birth to Present
Kelly Kong
From Birth to Present / Audio-Visual Installation
seeks to understand human experiences and interpretation from the first-person perspective through dematerializing preconceptions and archetypes.
Birds Don’t Cry at Sunrise
Jib Panyapha Leekitwattana
Birds Don't Cry at Sunrise is a short, narrative-driven psychological horror game that focuses on depicting the story a child and parent with opposing beliefs.
Lost & Found Immersive storytelling
Jackson Li
The ultimate mission of this project is to fit children's books to the big screen and increase the fun and interactive experience of children in reading.
Project: Twilight 7
Mengyuan Li
This project aims to explore the possibility of expressing the literary and sensual imagination of sci-fi concept art, making sci-fi adaptation to eastern mythology, and creating a new visual style.
Anywhere Door Collection
Qingyi Li
Anywhere Door Collection is a virtual public space that treasures and shares stories of place.
One Home
Kathryn McCawley
A place, a memory. A house, a home.
Revenge
Shantanu Nair
Revenge is a 2D platformer which experiments with the ideas of diegetic user interfaces and visual storytelling.
Ishikawa
Harris Tsui
Love Me, Love Me Not – a Visual Novel, Gardening Game
Michelle Tu
Love Me, Love Me Not is a garden simulation game in which the player cares for orchids and sentient beings manifested from said orchids. It came from a idealistic thought but I want to believe in it.
Her Room
Irene Yang
Path to the West
Jiyuan Zhan
"Path to the West"is an interactable reading experience that focused on providing an interactive storytelling experience combines with visuals influenced by historical Chinese Dunhuang wall paintings.