Social Innovation using Data-Driven Design

Social Innovation using Data Driven Design provides experiential learning opportunities that prepare students to successfully frame and engage with the complex challenges of our world through a unique combination of Data and Behavioral Science. In this class we define innovation as the act of creating new and useful ideas. The “social” aspect of “social innovation” refers to the impact those ideas have on society. A social innovation is new, useful to people, and generates long-term positive impact to the broader society in which it is being implemented. This is a cross-disciplinary project-based course where teams of students work together on creating products or services to address an important social problem, with a focus on climate-change. We will introduce and study a diverse set of data science, ethnographic, and survey tools to help students generate customer insights, and build and test prototypes to address the challenge. Student projects will be closely guided by the instructors and domain experts. The final deliverables will be shared with the domain expert to determine potential application of the concepts beyond the course. This could include advancing ideas through the formation of a startup, incorporating ideas into the domain expert’s work, or establishing partnerships with organizations working on similar challenges. For the Fall 2025 class, we will focus on reducing the negative impacts from climate change by increasing participation in sustainable modes of transportation. Our project partner is Citi Bike (Lyft). Students will work on the challenge to: “Explore new ways to increase Citi Bike ridership across New York City.”