Abstract

In the beginning of the semester we were assigned to work with Curiosity Lab. Upon speaking with Mayor Mason, he explained that Curiosity Lab was working on developing Peachtree Corners as a smart city and asked us to find technology we could implement to attract partners to the lab. From the meeting with Mayor Mason and eventually Mr. Johnson we asked ourselves: How might we successfully implement smart technology to Peachtree Corners in order to attract potential business partners? During the design thinking process though, we came to the realization that we needed to take a different approach from what we initially planned. When interviewing other adults, we all came to the same conclusion that the people of the city know little to nothing about the lab. Curiosity Lab is very successful and well known amongst the tech industry within the community, but we recognize that it is important for residents to understand how the rapid development of our city will affect them. With the new feedback we were given, we brainstormed different ideas that would achieve our new goal while still managing to trace it back to what was asked of us. After carefully reviewing the ideas that we had developed, my partner Karla and I individually created prototypes. When reviewing both of our ideas, we decided that we would combine similar ideas to create an app that would allow for users to give feedback to the lab and stay up to date with what is happening around in the community. The main driving force of this project was the importance of empathy and how it cannot be overlooked when starting something new. There is an ongoing problem with how people in communities are often left behind due to socioeconomic differences meanwhile the areas that they live in continue to grow technologically. By Curiosity Lab working along with the idea of finding a way to increase public engagement not only can we help the people around us but start bigger projects with other businesses that will overall benefit everyone.