Language
Today, the richest eighty-five people have more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world combined. The world is becoming more and more unequal, with a highly uneven and inequitable distribution of access to resources and opportunities. In cities across the world, one phenomenon contributing to social inequity is gentrification. Amidst rapid urbanization and gentrification, how can people benefit equitably from urban development? The primary focus of this thesis is to study the role gentrification plays in social inequity, the loss of sense of belonging in gentrified neighborhoods, and how we can engage the community to create social equity and sense of belonging in such cities, against numerous challenges, such as rising social divisions, hatred, xenophobia, a toxic political discourse, and a complex and predatory financial system.
Read thesis (PDF) ↗︎
With a rising number of new and existing smart and connected cities being developed, Idemia, a leading French identity and security solutions provider, asked us, "What services will the citizens of smart cities demand in 2025?" With an in-depth analysis of global and regional emerging trends in cities, our team focused on the Indian market and proposed a multimodal public transit ticketing and aggregation solution tailored for the Indian scenario.
See project →
The world is but a small village today, thanks to the advent of the Internet, the smartphone, and flights becoming more affordable to the masses. As content consumption has become digital and social, media companies are diversifying their offerings and exploring new business areas. Prisma Media, a leading Paris-based media and publishing company gave us an open brief to help them develop a service for users seeking to explore a city and enjoy the experience, like say, travelers seeking a food tour. With the objective of smoothening cultural exchange and providing the experience of travel without traveling, our team proposed two solutions—a locally-organized global festival series, and a branded chain of culture cafés to foster cultural exchange and provide the travel experience for travelers and locals alike.
See project →
The Lucitopia Rural Design Challenge 2019 was held in Qingliangshan, Zixi County, China. The core objective was to ecologically revitalize rural life in the Zixi Qingliangshan area, and bring attention to its scenic beauty. Our team proposed to close the resource loop by fostering innovation of leftovers and by-products, and discovering new use-cases with a waste innovation lab and research center.
See project →
The Indian formal education system is broken. 95% of engineering graduates are unemployable, and there is a severe lack of quality 1:1 guidance for students. Even for a self-motivated learner, finding the right content and learning path can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Being an autodidact myself, I teamed up with some friends in early 2018 to build a personalized learning assistant for savvy and curious young students who are motivated but lack the tools to find the right mentors and learning resources.
The Prix Design & Science is a collaborative design challenge, with teams of multidisciplinary students from top colleges across Paris tackling a particular problem every year. The 2020 theme was 'Agriculture and Megacities'. Our team of 4 sought to reduce the cognitive gap between the agricultural producers and consumers, and to inspire future generations to take up the farming profession.
"Sahil's a fantastic, multi-skilled problem solver and thinker. Don't let his quiet, incredibly polite demeanor fool you. Below the surface is a sharp mind, simmering with insights and effective solutions to many a design or UX challenge. His combo of hard work, design and UX skills would make him an asset to any company."
