Four Princeton projects receive Design for Impact funding to turn ideas into action

The Keller Center has awarded Design for Impact grants to four Princeton faculty-led projects that will explore innovative approaches to challenges in climate resilience, safety of autonomous systems, physician well-being, and sustainable nutrition. 

The Design for Impact (DFI) program provides up to $50,000 in seed funding along with strategic guidance to help researchers transform scholarly insights into tangible solutions. Co-led by Manish Bhardwaj (Humanities and Social Sciences) and Nena Golubovic (Science and Engineering), the program empowers faculty across disciplines through financial support, expert mentorship, and connections to a robust network of partner organizations. This collaborative ecosystem accelerates the translation of research into real-world applications, reflecting DFI’s commitment to moving beyond theory toward innovations with meaningful societal benefit.

Fall 2025 Design for Impact grant recipients:

Clearly Cool – Radiant cooling for a warming world

Team Leads: Forrest Meggers, Eric Teitelbaum, Andrew Lowenstein
Departments: Architecture, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment

The team is developing a radiant cooling technology designed to make outdoor spaces more livable as global temperatures rise. They plan to use their technology to design a mobile cooling shelter to provide relief in public areas, a potential breakthrough for cities facing extreme heat.

Asimov Box – Building ethical boundaries into autonomous systems

Team Lead: Alex Glaser
Departments: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Public and International Affairs

Glaser and his team are developing a prototype that embeds ethical constraints into autonomous technologies, ensuring they cannot be misused, even in adversarial settings. Drawing on engineering, anthropology, and policy, the project aims to establish principles of ethical restraint and public trust, redefining how society governs the future of robotics and AI.

Institutional Wellness Dashboard – Turning burnout data into actionable insights

Team Leads: Eldar Shafir, Bryant Adibe, Leslie Rowley
Departments: Psychology, School of Public and International Affairs, Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy

This digital platform translates complex well-being metrics into clear strategies to reduce physician burnout for healthcare organizations. By combining behavioral science with machine learning, the dashboard integrates operational data and staff feedback to reveal the true cost of burnout and identify targeted interventions. Already in use at major academic medical centers, the project is exploring pathways for broader adoption at both institutional and policy levels.

Unlocking Sargassum - Seaweed for human nutrition

Team Leads: Jose Avalos, Yekaterina Tarasova 
Department: Chemical and Biological Engineering

This project explores Sargassum, an invasive seaweed, as a sustainable source of bioavailable compounds for human nutrition. The team is developing processing and fermentation methods to enhance Sargassum’s nutritional profile and determine which components can be commercially and logistically integrated into food supply chains. Alongside technical development, the team is evaluating market opportunities and regulatory pathways to assess Sargassum’s viability as a new ingredient in global nutrition systems.

About Design for Impact

The Keller Center’s Design for Impact program empowers Princeton faculty to transform research into scalable solutions for cultural, societal, environmental, and technological challenges. Through funding, mentorship, and strategic guidance, DFI helps innovators move beyond theory and deliver meaningful change.