Eduardo Sebastian Paz

The RideSafe Venice app is a contactless bike and scooter rental service for Venice Beach that seamlessly manages the rental process from start to finish and allows users to find sanitized vehicles.

Six months after the pandemic started, bike rental shops were affected by the competition with E-transit companies and massive drops in transportation ridership due to COVID-19.

People rent less in Venice shops because they are concerned about the vehicle's cleanliness and want to avoid face-to-face interactions.

RideSafe Venice is a contactless bike and scooter rental service that seamlessly manages the rental process from start to finish and allows users to find sanitized vehicles. The app provides a platform for renters to search for sanitized bikes and scooters in Venice Beach and complete the rental process quickly through the iOS app. It even offers various protection options, covid safe tips and route navigation, one-click rental extensions, "on my way" and "I'm here" for speedy rental pickup, and 30 minutes guaranteed response for issues that may arise during your rental. RideSafe's goal is to provide a delightful and safe rental experience for residents of Venice who do not own bikes but enjoy getting outside for a bike ride and SoCal exploration. We hope that by doing this, the number of bike rentals will increase, leading bike shops to feel financially comfortable with re-opening and expanding their rental programs.

Spex are Mixed Reality glasses that allow users to learn any software skills or on-device processes by providing a set of Augmented Reality instructions without disrupting their workflow.

The pandemic has forced many people and companies to re-evaluate what "work" looks like. For this challenge, we were tasked to consider tools, processes, and methods that we could employ to create a better setup for co-creation. We have observed that adjusting to new tools and software in a professional environment can be challenging. Looking for help on the internet is often time-consuming and disrupts employees' productivity. So we wonder, how might we provide an efficient and collaborative way for people to learn new skills without disrupting users' workflows?

Social networks have evolved to facilitate sharing skills in a bitesize form. User-generated content can promote collaborative learning. According to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company in collaboration with Microsoft, allowing learners to directly visualize, manipulate, and interact with complex structures reduces cognitive load.

Spex are Mixed Reality glasses that allow users to learn any software skills or on-device processes by providing a set of Augmented Reality instructions without disrupting their workflow. By utilizing AI, concise instructional content, and metadata, Spex gives visual assistance overlaid onto your workspace quickly and more efficiently. We imagine this as a collaborative platform where the users provide the instructional content, potentially incentivized by monetizing content views.

A sign-making station to complement Grand Park events and allow visitors to show their support in a participatory, creative, and safe way while building community online and at the park.

Grand Park has always served as a space for community members to gather and advocate for what matters to them, but safety is the number one concern when people gather to protest at Grand Park. How could we give Grand Park’s visitors a voice and a sense of community in a safe way?

Grand Park is “the park for everyone”. Grand Park has visitors of all ages and backgrounds so our project should allow anyone to participate. People want to spread awareness of a cause to other members of the community, not just politicians. To build a connection between visitors and the park, visitors have to be part of something meaningful and leave their mark in the park.

Our proposal is a system of sign-making booths that can be set up during Grand Park events, like Día De Los Muertos, Easy Mornings, and other concerts and art events. This activity would allow visitors to show their support in a participatory, creative, and safe way by creating signs that can be displayed at the park for the community to see. People think it’s important that their sign is seen and that their message reaches others. Our digital extension of the project involves users using an Instagram filter to share their signs on the social media platform. This interaction creates an opportunity for Grand Park to be promoted and increase its social media followers leading to significant exposure of their events and increased visitors.