Students to prototype building sensors, models, AI agents, apps, and more

“You don’t learn to walk by following the rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” – Richard Branson.

In business as in life, magic happens when action meets collaboration.

When it comes to action…Successful business leaders know that luck comes from trying, failing, and then rebuilding. There is no substitute for action. This is why prototyping is so central to our Duke Design Climate class.

Over the next few weeks, our student teams will create prototyping plans for building sensors, models, AI agents, apps, and more, and will execute them next semester in Design Climate II. Students will learn to build, fail, pivot, or start over. As hard as this can be, this is entrepreneurship.

Throughout this process, acting alone is never the answer. Collaborating with others pools resources, accelerates innovation, and builds resilient solutions — ones that work for users and their communities. This is why, over the last few weeks, our students have conducted dozens of stakeholder interviews and taken field trips to make real-world connections.

THANK YOU to all those who have been part of the students’ collaborative journeys over the past two months. Your input and partnership will enable the students to build better, more informed, and more effective solutions.