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MIT Morningside Academy for Design

Designing for Sustainability

In 2022, HPI and MIT co-created “Designing for Sustainability” program. This is a multi-year partnership to drive joint scientific design research in multidisciplinary teams at both institutes. It focuses both innovation in all its dimensions and different application contexts as well as computer science for designing sustainable digital solutions.

Creative collaboration across spatial, temporal, and cultural boundaries is central to design. The program's vision is to develop ambitious, long-term explorations related to the innovation strategies of design, to generate sustainable impact for society across various domains of practice. Design research teams with divergent backgrounds in computer science, AI, machine learning, engineering, design, architecture, natural sciences, humanities, business and management are encouraged to apply. 

TIMELINE

  1. Call for Applications / Deadline June 3, 2025
  2. Decisions / Summer 2025

There is a selection process to become a Principal Investigator at HPI or MIT. 

A workshop will be held at MIT as well as at HPI to allow meetings between HPI and MIT researchers. The workshop is meant to identify possible synergies and areas of interest between attendees, facilitating their ability to propose collaborative projects. If you wish to participate to present your current research, aligning with design and sustainability, you may present your idea at one of the workshops. Presentations can take place in person at HPI, or remotely.

  • Workshop @ MIT / Spring
  • Workshop @ HPI / Autumn

Projects

Funded Projects

Completed Projects

Priorities

Funding decisions favor projects that set new research priorities for 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.We seek proposals positioned to yield deep insights into building and designing sustainability and have visibility and potential to make a large societal impact. The protocols that design researchers might apply to achieve “insights” versus “data” will be appraised by the selection committee for viability.

We are particularly interested in the following areas:

  1. Approaches for sustainable design innovation: How can new frameworks, tools, systems, and methods — in design, computer science, or other disciplines — augment, capture, and re-use successful practices for sustainable design innovation? How can stakeholders engage in sustainable design innovation?
  2. 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?
  3. 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 (SDGs)? 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?

Program Components

The program focuses on community building, research and knowledge exchange, and the creation of joint research outcomes.

  • Part of the program are two collaborative on-site workshops, one at HPI and one at MIT each year. Parts of these community events may be open to the academic public, creating vibrant exchanges between researchers and other stakeholders.
     
  • Approximately every six weeks, virtual research seminars and exchange workshops will take place. Based on a rigorous curriculum, PIs of the program and external guests will give talks about current ideas, theories, methods, and progress on joint papers. Moreover, community members will exchange information about their projects and share feedback. In addition to advancing knowledge, these virtual events ensure strong community building throughout the year.
     
  • The program includes a yearly research exchange, i.e., a stay on the partner campus for a few weeks, so that every program member has the chance to better connect with colleagues from the other institution and initiate further projects. These visits are part of the funded budget.

The Principal Investigators (PI) must be tenured or tenure-track professor at the Hasso Plattner Institute or at MIT. They must be authorized to supervise PhD candidates as the primary dissertation advisor. Principal investigators can propose promising and excellent junior scholars (PhD students and postdocs, the minimum requirement is a full Master’s degree or equivalent) who apply with a research proposal.

For questions and to submit application packages, please send an email:

Contact us

Contact Persons

Portrait of Head of Academic Partnerships Marija Petrovic

Marija Petrovic

Head of Academic Partnerships

Phone: +49 331 5509-308
Mail: marija.petrovic@hpi.de

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Portrait of Program Manager Academic Partnerships Alina-Pfeifer

Alina Pfeifer

Program Manager Academic Partnerships

Phone: +49 151 1815-1706
Mail: alina.pfeifer@hpi.de

Last change: 04/11/2024, Mareike-Vic Schreiber