The lines between two of New York City’s defining industries – artificial intelligence/technology and design – are increasingly blurry. Many designers, who lead the process of centering a new product on user needs, are beginning to adapt their work to feed into the growing nexus of these markets, while also ensuring that their new tech-enabled designs are working to improve human wellbeing and social good.
Angela Chen M.S. ’22, who is an alumna of Cornell in Ithaca and Cornell Tech, pioneered and launched two AI healthcare design products during her time at Cornell Tech and brings to life the value of tech for good. Her AI designs, Calmspace and Argo Data Marketplace, recently won the 2024 A’ Design Award (Italy), 2024 MUSE Design Awards, 2024 New York Product Design Awards and London Design Awards for their ingenuity in helping address problems faced by those working in the healthcare industry.
Chen found her passion in the interdisciplinary study of design and technology in her undergraduate years in Ithaca. As she was graduating, she saw how the rapid development of AI could be integrated as a tool in her design work. She decided to apply to Cornell Tech to learn and refine the software and technical skills she needed and to help connect her to New York City’s tech industry.
“I wanted to enrich myself in becoming a UX designer, a more creative technologist, an entrepreneur, particularly by empowering myself in one of the largest tech communities in the world, working to advance New York City’s economic development,” Chen explained. “Cornell Tech helped me integrate my design values into technology and break into the tech industry, doing things that were more experience-driven and providing a bridge between my studies and the industry that allowed me to work on real world challenges.”
Chen developed Calmspace during the COVID-19 pandemic when she was a first year student at Cornell Tech. She noticed, in speaking with the faculty and students around her, that there was a high prevalence of anxiety relating to digital devices amongst young people. To help address this and promote better mental health, she designed the Calmspace app, which offered a wide range of wellness features for both individual self-care and group activities, including meditation and yoga, encouraging young people to utilize technology in a way that is beneficial to their wellness.
Argo Data Marketplace was a Cornell Tech Product Studio project that Chen developed in collaboration with The MITRE Corporation. Their work together was also in response to the pandemic, as more experts and decision makers began to need access to confidential health-related data. She and her team aimed to deliver a software solution that facilitated secure sharing among enterprises and institutions. Chen worked to design the user interfaces empowered by the cutting-edge blind learning technology (a machine learning tool), playing a pivotal role in creating Argo as the first platform that supported commercializing confidential datasets for healthcare experts and enterprise users that addressed the complex challenges inherent in data security and privacy.
Both of Chen’s projects are focused on responsibly addressing the social needs she recognized to improve the health and wellbeing of her community and society at large. In every aspect of her design, Chen emphasizes the importance of taking on projects that are created ethically with an eye toward the future.
“It is important that my mindset as a designer is cemented in building a bridge that makes technology more accessible and exploring complex real world applications,” Chen said. “In addition to considering the product needs and business value, it’s about ensuring that the design values of my projects are impactful, sustainable, and create user friendly experiences.”
Much of this mindset was influenced by Chen’s time in Cornell Tech’s Connective Media Program, which allowed her to take human-centered design courses on social perspective and technical classes focused on AI and machine learning simultaneously.
The Connective Media Program is one of Cornell Tech’s many cross-disciplinary programs that provides both students with both hard technical skills and fosters social and economic awareness. Other examples include their PiTech initiative aimed at building a commitment to responsible tech and public interest technology, as well as their MBA program which focuses on the impact of tech and AI innovations in transforming the business landscape.
Through Cornell Tech’s integrated approach to education, tech entrepreneurs and innovators like Chen are able to manifest their design ideas with highly complex engineering and technology while also ensuring that human interest on the user end is kept front and center to maximize public good.
