Emerging technologies like AI, blockchain and gene editing have the potential to make great contributions to society, and at the same time there is an urgent need to address the embedded bias, dominant perspectives and the replication of real-world structural inequities they perpetrate. It’s critical that all of us understand how emerging technologies work, their ethical implications, and can fully participate in how emerging technologies are shaping our world.
If we want technology to represent all of us, it needs to be created by all of us.
What might that look like? Imagine designing a ballroom gown with algae to reduce carbon emissions. Or a machine learning model that lets you sing in any octave or language, but uses the vocal data of other singers. The d.school’s emerging technology portfolio invites Stanford students and the public to prototype across these new design mediums, and learn how to contend with the implications on diverse communities and the natural world.
Community
Events
We encourage public participation through our events and engagement with communities locally and across Stanford. We host a number of events (physical and virtual) throughout the year for Stanford students, the community of Palo Alto, and K12 educators, students and families.
Designing Social Media for Youth Mental Health
Join us for a youth-led event to collectively address the moral panic around social media, persuasive design and youth mental health.
Our Learning Resources
We believe in learning through making, and that can be challenging with complex and emergent tools. That’s why we focus our energy on crafting resources that are accessible, project-based and meaningful. Our suite of resources invites learners to understand, evaluate and make with emerging technologies.
REP| MAGAZINE
rep| magazine supports young people, educators and families to design with emerging technologies, and wrestle with how their identity and social status shape the tools they put into the world. This series explores voicebots like Alexa and Siri, gene editing and the food industry, supply chain calamities and blockchain, and more.
I LOVE ALGORITHMS
The “I Love Algorithms” game kit enables anyone, technical or not, to prototype with machine learning. If you understand what machine learning algorithms can do, you can better envision the implications of your designs, and influence conversations about data and bias. This game kit features six common machine learning algorithms, a set of popular datasets like Wikipedia, Fitbit and CelebA, and a game board which invites you to design experiences, products and systems.
d.school Classes
We provide young designers with a range of opportunities to make with emerging mediums like artificial intelligence, IOT and blockchain. Our trans-disciplinary approach encourages creative expression and the exploration of societal challenges across design, technology, art, science and the humanities.
DESIGN OF DATA
Learn the art of telling stories with visual information in this annual Spring course.
DESIGNING MACHINE LEARNING
Dive into this popular class which takes a multidisciplinary, human-centered approach to designing systems of machine learning and AI.
Questions about our emerging tech resources? Reach out to Ariam Mogos (ariam@dschool.stanford.edu).