Digital Detectives – Designing Tools to Outsmart Scammers
Financial scams are getting smarter every day—fake bank calls, phishing emails, investment traps, and social media “giveaway” cons. Scammers don’t just rely on technology; they exploit human tendencies—curiosity, fear, urgency, and trust.
In this project, you’ll become a scam detective and engineer rolled into one. First, you’ll investigate how scams work: What tricks do scammers use? What vulnerabilities do they target? Why do people fall for them? Then, you’ll turn your insights into a simple, user-friendly digital tool or app that helps people spot, avoid, and block these traps.
Your solution could be a scam-alert app, a “safe checklist” before sending money, a chatbot that helps verify messages, or a browser add-on that flags suspicious links. It doesn’t need to be fully coded—students will create wireframes, clickable mock-ups, and low-code prototypes that clearly show how the tool works.
Community Changemakers – Designing a Social Enterprise
Every community faces social and economic challenges, from unemployment and discrimination to accessing education and healthcare. Many of these issues persist due to a lack of innovative, sustainable solutions tailored to local needs. In this project, students will act as social entrepreneurs, using their own observations and research to identify a pressing challenge in their local community. They will then design a social enterprise—a business model that balances profit with positive social impact. Using the design thinking framework, students will develop a design for a model of their solution, considering feasibility, sustainability, and scalability. Deliverables include a business canvas, demonstrating their idea, and a social impact plan. Through this project, students will develop problem-solving, leadership, financial literacy, and critical thinking skills while learning how businesses can drive meaningful change.
Develop a Rating System for Feedback
On an average, people use 100s of services everyday and buy 10s of products every week. Ordering for food, taking an auto or train, buying vegetables are all a part of our daily needs. But not all products or services meet expectations. Collecting feedback, both good and bad, are extremely important to make changes and get better. And feedback isn’t as direct as ‘Yes, I loved it’ or ‘No, I hated it.’ Each product or service can be assessed in many ways. hated it.’ In this project, you take the role of a ‘Head of Customer Experience’ in a hospital and you are entrusted with developing a rating system that can be used by your customers everyday. Put on your thinking caps and get cracking.
Driving Electric Vehicle Adoption
Electric Vehicles (EV) are a big positive change in the world. Our cars use up a lot of fuel and harm the environment. But we cannot stop using them. One way to help the environment and yet not change our current transportation needs is to shift from regular cars to EVs. This, as an element of transportation policy, is being considered by most of the countries in the world. The rapid growth in India’s urbanization, population and wealth over the last few decades has increased the mobility needs of its citizens by over 8 times in the last three decades. The demand for EVs in India has emerged from the contention of addressing this rising demand for automobiles while keeping a check on the environmental pollution. Despite the Government’s willingness to transform the mobility services in the country, the Indian EV industry has the lowest level of penetration rates in the world. Now imagine you are being tasked with changing this for the better. Through a series of steps you have to arrive at a plan to help increase the number of Electric Vehicles being used in India. You must consider people’s needs, environmental needs and Government policies for this project. Let’s get started.
Entrepreneurship for Students
What is entrepreneurship? How can students develop an entrepreneurial mindset? How can entrepreneurs observe the world to identify problems and solve them innovatively? How is technology enabling entrepreneurship and innovation? This project invites students to identify a theme that they are passionate about and identify a business opportunity related to that theme. Students will pick one theme from the following: Heritage Conservation Climate Change Adaptation Fashion and Clothing Health and Wellness Once students pick a theme, they will work in their groups to identify a business opportunity and create a prototype of a product/service within their chosen area. Students will also clearly highlight how technology can be utilised to innovate and improve their solutions. The focus of the project will be for students to learn entrepreneurship by identifying and solving a real world problem.
Building a FinTech Startup
This project immerses senior grade students in the dynamic world of Financial Technology (FinTech) with a focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Ethical FinTech Practices. Students will conceptualise, design and develop a FinTech Startup that addresses SDGs such as financial inclusion, quality education and economic growth while adhering to Ethical FinTech Practices. They will explore key aspects of FinTech, including digital payments, personal finance and blockchain technology. Through guided worksheets, students will create a business plan and a prototype. The project fosters teamwork, business and technology skills, preparing students for future entrepreneurial endeavours with a positive social impact and ethical foundation.
Creative Tech for Human Health
Did you know that the Japanese are known to live the longest? The secret of their long life is the concept of ‘Ikigai.’ The Ikigai way of life is especially popular in Okinawa (a city in Japan), known as the ‘Land of Immortals’. They have one of the longest lifespans and the highest rates of centenarians in the world. Okinawans treasure community and forge close bonds with their neighbors. They believe that having a purpose is essential for life fulfillment and that you can find joy and purpose in many aspects of your life such as helping others, eating well, and being surrounded by loving friends and family. They don’t even have a word for retirement and prefer to keep active well into later life, rather than ‘retire’ and stop all work completely. We live in a very hectic world with too many things to do and very little time to take care of ourselves. What if we could use technology to learn to be more like the Okinawans? The intent is to create a sense of balance between our body, mind and soul. Whether we want to achieve good mental health or lose weight or build better relationships, this app should be able to help us achieve our individual goals. Let’s build an app to help us move into a healthier future.