Research Projects with Purpose. Impact with Heart. Futures by Design.
Project-based learning with the INNOVATE framework
The work we have been doing at the Responsible Innovation Lab with Arizona State University this semester has been ultra rewarding, we believe students are not just preparing for the future—they’re building it. The Student Innovation Projects showcase is a living archive of the ideas, experiments, and deeply human questions students have tackled through hands-on work with real-world partners. Project-based learning provides better opportunities. These projects are bold, diverse, and globally aware—grounded in values from the INNOVATE framework and shaped by the tools of Responsible and Principled Innovation.
I am firmly committed to project-based learning as a superior tool in preparing students for the future.
This space highlights two vibrant pathways:
Future17 Projects, where students co-create solutions with global development partners like Mercy Corps Ventures, Emirates WWF, and CrowdDoing.
Undergraduate Research Projects, which explore everything from AI in education to food security policy, platform design for equity, and ethical chatbot development.
Whether it’s policy, climate, education, or community infrastructure—these projects embody what it means to innovate responsibly, ethically, and imaginatively.
What You’ll Find Here
Across both pathways, you’ll discover:
Poster artifacts and project summaries
Live or demoed tools (chatbots, dashboards, courses)
Student insights and LinkedIn profiles
INNOVATE framework aligned reflections—showing how these works embody Inclusion, Foresight, Transparency, Ethics, and more
Calls to action for collaboration, hiring, or replication
- Check out Mave, our chatbot that helps us reach our goals
These are not class assignments. These are stories of students engaging with the complexity of the world and choosing to meet it with creativity, empathy, and care.
Future17 Projects: Innovation Without Borders 🌍
The Future17 program is a global, cross-university collaboration designed to connect students with organizations working on the frontlines of sustainable development. Guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and facilitated through Mercy Corps Ventures and other partners, students tackle challenges across climate resilience, biodiversity, urban mobility, and more.
These are multi-week, international projects involving:
Interdisciplinary student teams
Faculty mentorship (including our lab’s own Chris Deaton)
Industry partnerships that demand real deliverables—not just theory
Highlights from Spring 2025 include:
A climate chatbot trained to guide capital flows into emerging tech in Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia
A wildfire innovation studio designed to reshape how sponsors and stakeholders collaborate in the face of climate crisis
A biodiversity engagement strategy with Emirates WWF to bring citizen science into underrepresented ecosystems
Youth transportation insights for sustainable mobility policy in Tempe (a local spin on an international request)
Research-driven tools to rethink climate finance and resilience-building in emerging markets
→ Explore the Future17 Showcase →
Undergraduate Research Projects: Local Roots, Global Questions 🧠
The Undergraduate Research Fellows program fosters deep, self-directed inquiry into societal challenges that require fresh thinking, ethical foresight, and human-centered design. Many of these projects were incubated in FIS 480: Innovation Studio, with direct mentorship from the Responsible Innovation Lab.
These students have developed:
Custom AI tools for ethical education
Advocacy strategies for state legislation
Tech platforms to support unhoused populations
Navigation tools for ASU’s corporate education students
Systemic solutions for institutional hunger
Every project is built around the INNOVATE framework, the ethical compass that guides our work at the lab. These students don’t just learn frameworks—they apply them to systems that affect real people in real time.
Some featured topics:
🧠 AI as a Thinking Partner — a reimagined video course to help students use AI for critical thinking rather than shortcuts
🍽️ Fueling Minds, Ending Hunger — a legislative push for food security across all Arizona public universities
🤖 Chatbots for Ethics Education — live tools embedded in this very site that support transparency, reflection, and inclusive engagement
🧭 The Uber Roadmap — a student-built guidance platform to support learners navigating corporate-funded education
→ Explore Undergraduate Research Projects →
What is the INNOVATE Framework?
Every project featured here is grounded in the INNOVATE framework, developed by Chris Deaton and embedded in the ET Responsible Innovation Charter. It is both an ethos and a method—a way of aligning design, discovery, and decision-making to serve people and the planet.
INNOVATE stands for:
I – Inclusive Solutions
N – Next-Gen Thinking
N – Nimble & Scalable
O – Open to Change
V – Value-Driven Purpose
A – Accountability
T – Transparency
E – Ethical Responsibility
(+S) – Sustainable Impact
Want to see how INNOVATE lives in practice? Every student project links back to specific elements of this model—often multiple ones.
→ Learn More about INNOVATE →
→ Explore the ET Responsible Innovation Charter →
This where it all began in 2019.
External Links & Collaborators
To learn more about the ideas, movements, and organizations that shape and collaborate with our work:
🌍 Global Development & Innovation
🧠 Innovation Education & Ethics
Why This Matters
We live in a time where technology can either divide or unite, accelerate harm or enable healing. The students featured here have chosen the harder path: to work with deliberate intention, to listen before building, and to create tools that lift others up—especially those at the margins.
This showcase is more than a portfolio—it’s a proof of possibility. It says that innovation can be principled. That students can lead. And that the future, if designed with care, can be radically more inclusive, ethical, and sustainable than the present.
Whether you’re here to hire, learn, collaborate, or be inspired—welcome. The journey begins below.