Kasturi Katale of NID Shortlisted for AI Explorer Award at Car Design News People Awards 2024

• Kasturi Katale, a Product Design UG20 student from NID, is recognized for her project “Zuber – MaaS for Built Cities 2200,” which uses AI to predict future mass mobility needs and integrates them into futuristic urban environments.
  The AI Explorer Award celebrates innovative use of AI in design, and Kasturi’s work exemplifies this by offering a visionary approach to transportation in the year 2200.

BILKULONLINE

By Rafat Quadri

Ahmedabad, Sep 4: Kasturi Katale, a Product Design UG20 student from the National Institute of Design (NID), has reached a remarkable milestone by being shortlisted for the esteemed AI Explorer Award at the Car Design News People Awards 2024. Her groundbreaking project, “Zuber – MaaS for Built Cities 2200,” distinguished itself among global submissions, earning her this prestigious recognition.

Kasturi’s project, developed as part of her coursework during an exchange semester in Germany, leverages artificial intelligence (AI) at multiple stages of the design process. This includes extensive research, user studies, persona development, and visualization. The project focuses on anticipating the future needs of users in the year 2200 and integrating those needs into the fabric of futuristic built environments.

Through “Zuber,” Kasturi envisions the future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)—a transformative concept for urban transportation in the 22nd century. Her approach blends AI-powered analysis with design thinking, predicting advancements in technology and architecture to create a seamless, efficient, and user-centric mobility ecosystem. By creating detailed user personas through AI, she ensured the concept addresses the future inhabitants’ evolving needs.

The AI Explorer Award at the Car Design News People Awards celebrates projects that push the boundaries of design through AI integration. Kasturi’s work embodies this innovative spirit, offering fresh perspectives on urban mobility, and inspiring a new generation of designers to think beyond the conventional.

In her own words, “By leveraging AI at multiple stages, I aimed to produce a user-centric and innovative concept that would address the needs and conveniences of future city inhabitants. The project sought to explore and anticipate future technological advancements and architectural developments.”

Kasturi’s project serves as a powerful artefact for envisioning a future transportation system that is not only technologically advanced but also deeply responsive to the societal needs of tomorrow. With “Zuber,” she has successfully re-imagined the future of mass mobility, and her recognition at the Car Design News People Awards 2024 underlines her potential as a visionary in the field of design.

This achievement not only brings pride to the NID community but also highlights the growing role of AI in shaping the future of mobility design globally.

(Rafat Quadri can be contacted at editorbilkul@gmail.com)