Trinity Hall students practice human-centered design-thinking to develop prototypes where empathy is the central attribute.

The final experiences of the junior engineering classes included product designs that embraced empathy as the singular most important attribute for designing the details of their product, and were inspired by social issues and personal experiences. The students were asked to design and develop prototypes that would reach users in ways that would be impactful and possibly life changing or changing of spirit. We spend most of our days at Trinity Hall in design-thinking mode, and adding character-building aspects to our internal initiatives has led to some creative and impacting designs.

The highlighted designs shown here are the Tortue Coat and Kardboard Kisses. The Tortue Coat is a convertible coat with a liner that also houses thin telescoping rods that transform it into a tent. The coat is meant to be a service outreach project to serve those in need of shelter, either in cities or disaster relief. Kardboard Kisses is a care package system that is meant to be a positive inspiration tool for children who are ill and spend time in hospitals. Both designs were made in total by the students. So far, the Tortue Coat has interested sponsors, and the Kardboard Kisses packages have been distributed to families in need.