The educational objective of the Design Studio is to acquire the skills for imagining and designing innovative projects which leverage AI technologies. The design process develops from an initial research phase to ideation and finally prototyping and will provide students with a clear understanding of the different requirements of an interactive service that includes AI systems. The Design studio will cover a wide range of project activities carried out in groups and supervised by the teaching staff.

Students will acquire the following competences:
- knowledge and understanding - applying design methods and tools for ideating an interactive system that relevantly incorporates AI, and that is meaningful according to the user perspective, the technological perspective and the market perspective;
- making judgements - knowing the current potential of AI and being able to critically assess the relevance of introducing this technology into an interactive system; understanding what AI can currently do, what the different applicative domains are, what features it can have and being able to work in team with computer scientists on this topic;
- communication skills - autonomously and in group, students develop the ability to present and discuss their projects and the attitude to negotiation in teamwork.

The aim of the design studio is for students to acquire a method relevant to understanding how to adopt new technologies in their projects.

Focusing specifically on Artificial Intelligence as a new technology that is substantially modifying the systems and services people interact with daily, the course provides students with the appropriate tools to assess the possibilities offered by the technology. It also guides participants in a hands-on process of developing end-to-end a project that includes a meaningful adoption of AI, starting from a given challenge and a selected stakeholder. The solutions developed can serve various purposes and can be services for public organizations, systems for private businesses, or solutions for personal devices.

To achieve this, the first part of the Design Studio provides a set of basic knowledge and skills in user research jointly with an introduction to the characteristics of data and the fundaments of AI. This allows students to progress in the course acquiring a systemic and informed point of view, leading them to recognize and analyze AI in existing solutions around them.

The second part is focused on service design and concept generation. It guides students to translate the knowledge acquired on the various AI techniques and from the analysis of user needs into meaningful ideas that respond to the insights identified.

The final part of the studio focuses on developing an interface, as the main touchpoint of the system developed. This is designed as a decision-support tool that serves the purposes of the main user and must reach an appropriate level of complexity for the adoption of AI.

Overall, each project developed throughout the course aims at designing appropriate human-machine relationships in contexts that have a high social value and significance.

• SDG8 - DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
• SDG11 - SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES
• SDG12 - RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

It is desirable that students have already mastered soft skills like collaborative problem solving, negotiation, team building, and public speaking. It is recommended to have mastered all learning coming from the first semester courses in the same Study Course.

The evaluation will be based on the quality and content of the results achieved throughout the Design Studio.

In particular, the evaluation will concern: the understanding developed about the potential use and application of AI, the coherence between the concept and the expected role of AI, the quality of the final project (i.e., communication, technical understanding and development, prototype).

The evaluation will be given as follows: 20% evaluation of the process (grades given after two delivery sessions organised during the course – see the syllabus given at the beginning of the course for further details); 80% evaluation of the output presented at the final exam.

In particular, the evaluation of the output will concern: the effective use and application of AI in the project, the pertinence, completeness and relevance of the service designed, the efficacy of the interface developed, and the overall quality of the final project (i.e., communication, technical understanding and development, prototype).