We are thrilled to collaborate with HPI to apply the power of design to sustainability and digital technologies. By working together, the research talents of HPI and MIT can accelerate design innovations for a low-carbon economy.

— John Ochsendorf, founding director of the MIT Morningside Academy for Design

Alongside artificial intelligence, design research is a key driver for innovation in sustainability.

— Ralf Herbrich, managing director and professor at HPI, Chair for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability

• Telesymbiosis

Aims to shift from an egocentric to an ecocentric work approach in design, considering the impact on human-nature relationships. It focuses on creating perspective-taking objects to help designers empathize with diverse needs in ecosystems, promoting sustainable design.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Bert Arnrich (HPI), Prof. Hiroshi Ishii (MIT, Media Lab)

• Sidewalk Ballet

A scalable urban analytic approach for explaining social qualities of urban streets: Conducts a large-scale analysis of social interactions on urban streets, considering demographics, design features, and land use. It seeks to understand what makes some streets more vibrant and lively than others.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Gerard de Melo (HPI), Prof. Andres Sevtsuk (MIT, DUSP)

• Predicting Functional Effects of Genetic Variants

Combines proteomics, transcriptomics, and clinical health records to predict the functional effects of mutations in voltage-gated ion channels using AI methods.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Renard (HPI), Prof. Connor Coley (MIT, Chemical Engineering)

• 2D Magnetic Material for Sustainable AI

Focuses on designing 2D magnetic material-based stochastic computing devices to create energy-efficient computers, contributing to environmentally sustainable Artificial Intelligence.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Ralf Herbrich (HPI), Prof. Deblina Sarkar (MIT, Media Lab)

• Culture and the Supply Chain

Explores developing a shared value model of cybersecurity that can be transmitted and adopted by organizations throughout the supply chain, aiming to advance cybersecurity norms and practices adoption.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Christian Doerr (HPI), Dr. Keri Pearlson (MIT, Sloan School of Management)

• Automatic Example Generation for Babylonian Programming

Bridges the gap between domain experts and programmers by introducing interactive examples meaningful to all stakeholders in the programming environment, making software development more participatory.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Dr. Robert Hirschfeld (HPI), Prof. Martin Rinard (MIT, CSAIL)

• AI-Powered Startup Design for the Anthropocene

Explores AI-augmented decision-support systems to improve startup success forecasting, especially for enterprises addressing planetary challenges.

Principal Investigators: Dr. Frank Pawlitschek (HPI), Prof. Dr. Gerard de Melo (HPI), Prof. John Fernandez, (MIT, Architecture and ESI), Prof. Svafa Grönfeldt (MIT, SA+P, designX)

• Personalizing Product Design with Minimal Material Waste

Investigates how to allow customers to personalize products while optimizing material use in novel digital manufacturing processes.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Patrick Baudisch (HPI), Prof. Stefanie Mueller (MIT, EECS)

• Securing the Global Supply Chain

Despite growing standards, this project addresses the unintended cybersecurity risks introduced by some regulations in supply chains.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Christian Doerr (HPI), Dr. Keri Pearlson (MIT, Sloan School of Management)

• Generative Models for Novel Antimicrobials

Explores the use of AI to design novel therapeutic agents and combat antibiotic resistance, a critical global health threat.

Principal Investigators: Prof. Bernhard Renard (HPI), Prof. Regina Barzilay (MIT, CSAIL)

The program supports joint research and projects with a direct connection to sustainability and design, and potential for large societal impact. Design is understood broadly to include design research and thinking, design in the field of computer science, and design in entrepreneurship.

We are particularly concerned with the following areas:

• Approaches for sustainable design innovation: How can new frameworks, tools, systems, and methods – in design, computer science, or other disciplines – augment, capture, and reuse successful practices for sustainable design innovation? How should stakeholders engage in sustainable design innovation?
• Motivating stakeholders in sustainable design innovation: What are the impacts and roles of human stakeholders in the process of sustainable design innovation? How can stakeholders be motivated to implement more sustainable solutions in the future?
• Assessing the impacts of sustainable design innovation: What is the impact of design on human, business, and technology performance as it relates to sustainability and reaching United Nations Sustainable Development goals? How do tools, systems, and methods create the right innovation at the right time? How do they fail? Why is now the right time to apply these tools, methods and/or (computational) systems? What societal impact can design and computer science have in navigating digital transformation or for reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?

We prioritize funding projects with research priorities reflecting the novelty of this emergent knowledge domain. The collaboration plan must demonstrate scientific depth and mechanisms to sustain the proposed innovation. Selection is also based on scientific merit, methodology, rigor, and evidence of open collaboration.

Please read carefully the following if you are a HPI or MIT Principal Investigator interested in the “Designing for Sustainability” program.

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NEW PROPOSALS
Grant proposals must be a maximum of four pages, plus attachments. Joint proposals between MIT and the Hasso Plattner Institute must have an eligible PI on each side and there should be only one proposal per team. Each team can apply for funding up to $200,000. This total should include all potential overhead costs.

In the application form, the proposed funding allocation should be stated. It must be indicated how much maximum funding is to be used in year one and in the subsequent year if applicable. The maximum award for the proposed funding period is capped at $200,000. Each principal investigator in a team of two principal investigators (one from each institution) must receive between 40% and 60% of total allocated funding.

All applications must clearly explain the link to design and sustainability.

Fonts should be 12pt or larger, with no margins less than 2cm, and either US letter or A4 page layouts.

Proposals should include:

1. Cover Sheet. Please use official form available here.
2. Cover Page. Project title, names (incl. affiliations & email) of all members of the proposed project team.
3. Description. Two pages maximum that describe the research project in ways that explicitly address the following key questions.
   If these issues do not fit your vision, please present alternatives and the rationale for using them.
   
   - What is the proposed experiment design? What are the analysis methods?
   - How is performance being measured?
   - What is the expected impact?
   - What human need is being addressed?
   - What societal impact does the proposed work have for reaching United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?
   - Budget should be detailed and broken down by calendar year.The duration of project should be clearly listed.
   
   
4. FAQ. Two pages maximum that answer the following specific questions in 1-3 paragraphs each.
   
   - What is the direct connection to sustainability and design?
   - Describe how exactly the teams will work together and identify students and scholars that will be involved by name; provide information on their status at the university.
   - Describe the level of exchange and how each side is to be invested in the cooperation. How is collaboration envisaged?
   - What other potential future sources of funding do you have? (Background of this question: This program should serve as a catalyst or seed funding for an extended joint undertaking.)
   
   
5. Appendices.
   - References
   - One-page resume for each investigator (NSF style)
   - One-page timeline with milestones and year-end deliverables (paper, workshop, demonstration …)
   - One-page budget justification for one year, with a notation of maximum funding to be allocated in year one of funding. Please provide approximate numbers for the following areas:
   * Salaries (faculty, post-doc, PhD candidates, staff)
   * Supplies (printing, publication, media, experiment consumables)
   * Travel (regional, international conferences, collaboration)
   
   

APPLICATIONS FOR CONTINUED FUNDING

Please submit the following by June 1:

1. Two-page report on all achievements and joint activities taken in the prior funding period (linked specifically to the funding received).
2. Overview of budget spent so far and newly requested budget.

SUBMISSION AND REVIEW PROTOCOL

The Program Committee with balanced institutional representation will review all eligible grant proposals. It may encourage groups to collaborate if it sees complementary lines of interest.

The applications steps are as follows:

1. Call for applications. It will be issued in March, 2023. The deadline for applications is June 1, 2023, 23:59 (GMT). Proposals should be submitted by email as Adobe Acrobat (pdf) attachments to [email protected].
2. Interim phase of review after submission. After submission of the application materials most teams will be sent follow-up questions in mid-June, 2023 to answer electronically within a 3-day period.
3. Interviews. After the interim phase, a small group of applicants (approximately 6 teams) will be invited to meet a Joint Steering Committee for a ten-minute question and answer round. This will only include follow-up questions. At least one member from HPI and one member from MIT must be present for the question round of review with the JSC.