University of the Future

TU/e's Innovation Space was exploring what a university could look like in 2050, built around learners working together across disciplines instead of sitting in separate courses. For Dutch Design Week 2024 they wanted visitors to feel that idea in a few minutes, not just read about it, on a large touch table with several people playing at once.

Each player gets their own panel, turned to face their side of the table, all running off one shared game. You pick a language, hear a short intro and choose what you're passionate about before a countdown runs out. Then you drag activity cards into a clock to decide how you'd spend your time on a real problem, like dementia care or climate change. At the end, everyone's choices light up on a shared campus map, with lines connecting players whose choices match, followed by a combined impact on a rotating globe. I built it solo, testing against the actual installation hardware instead of a desktop layout.

A round at the table takes about 6 minutes and ends with a QR code that invites players to continue the conversation about TU/e's future.

The installation was shown at Dutch Design Week 2024 at the Enversed Experience Center. It was my first build for shared hardware with several people touching it at once, which changed how I think about layout, syncing and pacing across panels.