Design Your Futures

Dr Nadya Shaznay Patel, an Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology, has over twenty years of experience as an educator, researcher and trainer. Dr Patel’s work sits at the crossroads of Critical Design Futures (CDF) thinking, design-driven and futures-oriented entrepreneurship education, and GenAI applications for innovation. Her contributions towards the development of interdisciplinary design innovation and digital media production modules, which integrate hands-on industry briefs with futures-oriented, AI-enabled experimentation to resolve real-world problems, have inspired her students to produce AI-enabled prototypes presented to industry partners. Dr Patel is the Principal Investigator of a Ministry of Education Tertiary Research Fund research project on a conversational AI coach to develop students’ creativity, cultivate entrepreneurial readiness, and future-oriented dispositions. She is also the Principal Consultant of Pagasa Lab, where she spearheads the development of Cogito, an AI “intellectual sparring partner” that prompts users through the CDF framework to surface blind spots, stress-test business models, and imagine alternative futures. 

RJ Zheng [Renjie] is a Co-Module Lead (Associate Faculty) of University Design Modules at SIT teaching interdisciplinary design innovation. RJ holds Masters Degrees in Architecture and Social Science from National University of Singapore (NUS). RJ is also an Associate Partner at CDG Architects with more than a decade of design experience in residential, commercial, retail and hospitality projects.