Designing for Physical AI

Catalog description

Designing for Physical AI is a startup accelerator-style, human-centered design course where students create AI-enabled products that sense, interpret, and act in the physical world. Building on the course's foundation in Extended Realities, this course expands into robotics, AI glasses, AR/VR devices, responsive environments, sensor-driven objects, and other forms of embodied intelligence. As billions of dollars flow into frontier models and AI infrastructure, human-centered design is urgently needed to translate technical capability into products that genuinely improve people's lives. Students will work in multidisciplinary teams on a Physical AI design project throughout the quarter. Teams will conduct user research, frame meaningful needs, prototype functioning proof-of-concepts, and test their ideas with real people. Along the way, students will explore how AI-assisted coding, creative agents, and rapid prototyping tools change the human-centered design process itself. The class will examine responsible innovation questions around privacy, surveillance, safety, access, environmental cost, and the social implications of pervasive AI systems. Students will receive mentorship from world-class experts across design, engineering, product, research, entrepreneurship, venture capital, AI, robotics, and XR. Hardware, software, and technical support will be provided. The course will culminate in a public exhibition attended by investors, industry professionals, designers, technologists, and potential partners. No advanced technical background is required, though experience in human-centered design, AI-assisted coding, creative technology tools, or physical prototyping is highly encouraged. Group applications are encouraged. Final enrollment codes are granted after application approval and attendance in the first week. Apply using this link:…