Theme: Holistic Design
Our project addresses holistic-centered design and decision-making to drive sustainable societal transformation, aligning with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By focusing on holistic design of policies, systems, and solutions, we aim to tackle critical societal challenges such as poverty, climate change, access to education, and healthcare.
We emphasize a multidisciplinary, inclusive approach to holistic design, ensuring no one is left behind, especially in resource-constrained and vulnerable communities. By training the next generation in holistic-centered design, we empower future leaders to embed holistic design into every decision and innovation, creating a fairer and more sustainable world, one design at a time.
Our project addresses holistic-centered design and decision-making to drive sustainable societal transformation, aligning with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By focusing on holistic design of policies, systems, and solutions, we aim to tackle critical societal challenges such as poverty, climate change, access to education, and healthcare.
We emphasize a multidisciplinary, inclusive approach to holistic design, ensuring no one is left behind, especially in resource-constrained and vulnerable communities. By training the next generation in holistic-centered design, we empower future leaders to embed holistic design into every decision and innovation, creating a fairer and more sustainable world, one design at a time.
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Program Goals
Vision: Cultivating a future generation of holistic designers
Holistic design is essential to ensuring all individuals can access, design, and use products, services, and systems effectively. To drive meaningful change, we must rethink design processes across policies, products, services, and systems, embedding holistic design at every stage to address systemic challenges like poverty, climate change, and health disparities.
Our approach focuses on training holistic-centered professionals equipped to design scalable, sustainable, and inclusive solutions. By integrating holistic-centered decision-making into traditional design thinking, we aim to develop new frameworks and paradigms that prioritize accessibility and usability, particularly for underserved populations. Our goal is to transform the design landscape across sectors—government, academia, and industry—ensuring a fairer and more inclusive future.
Holistic design is essential to ensuring all individuals can access, design, and use products, services, and systems effectively. To drive meaningful change, we must rethink design processes across policies, products, services, and systems, embedding holistic design at every stage to address systemic challenges like poverty, climate change, and health disparities.
Our approach focuses on training holistic-centered professionals equipped to design scalable, sustainable, and inclusive solutions. By integrating holistic-centered decision-making into traditional design thinking, we aim to develop new frameworks and paradigms that prioritize accessibility and usability, particularly for underserved populations. Our goal is to transform the design landscape across sectors—government, academia, and industry—ensuring a fairer and more inclusive future.
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Design of 5Ps for People
Holistic Design for 5Ps NRT Training Program:
The NRT program at UTEP is a pioneering graduate training initiative focused on holistic-centered design and decision-making. This unique program integrates coursework, research, and community engagement, offering a discipline-agnostic, transdisciplinary, and convergent approach to prepare students for tackling societal challenges. Grounded in UTEP’s mission to provide access and excellence, this program empowers graduate students to design holistic solutions across policies, products, processes, places, and pedagogy (5Ps).
Key features include:
- Graduate Certificate in Holistic Design: Open to students from any discipline, with customized coursework and experiences tailored to individual career goals.
- Community Engagement: Trainees connect with resource-constrained communities to develop practical, impactful solutions.
- Transdisciplinary Research: Students collaborate across fields, leveraging UTEP’s strategic strengths and existing programs, such as health holistic research, diversity in education, and community-based research.
By equipping students with tools and frameworks for holistic-driven innovation, the program aims to create Design Influencers (DIs)—leaders who integrate holistic design thinking into their professions to drive lasting societal change.
The NRT program will also establish an Holistic Design Corp to sustain its impact, alongside developing scalable toolkits and a replicable training curriculum for use by organizations worldwide.
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Our Sponsor: National Science Foundation