Pace University Hosts Global Innovation Summit for Design-Led Education and Real-World Problem Solving

Pace University’s NYC Design Factory at the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems successfully hosted two major international events earlier this month: International Design Factory Week (IDFW2025) and the UnBoxed2025 education conference.

Convening more than 60 participants from 20 global Design Factories – innovation hubs based in universities - for a week of interdisciplinary collaboration, design-driven education, and future-focused innovation, the events took place from October 6–10 at Pace’s downtown Manhattan campus at 15 Beekman Street. The NYC Design Factory was transformed into a dynamic space for co-creation, knowledge exchange, and global partnership-building.

The gathering marked a milestone for the university and its leadership.

“Hosting the Design Factory Global Network’s annual conference at Pace was a dream come true for me,” said Jonathan H. Hill, DPS, interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “In my long career in higher education, this is clearly one of the best experiential learning opportunities that students, faculty, and staff can share in that I have ever seen. The hospitality, creativity, and entrepreneurial design thinking processes that Pace showed so clearly demonstrated the excellence of this institution. I was so very proud of Pace.”

Leadership at the Seidenberg School emphasized the value of global collaboration and design-led learning at the heart of the week’s activities.

“In hosting IDFW2025 and UnBoxed2025, we had the opportunity to showcase Pace’s commitment to advancing student learning through collaboration on real-world projects at a global level,” said Li-Chiou Chen, interim dean of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. “These events created meaningful connections among students, faculty, and international partners that will continue to inspire innovation beyond the classroom.”

Pace’s NYC Design Factory serves as a collaborative hub where students, faculty, and industry professionals come together to address challenges in both industry and society through interdisciplinary activities and courses. It is part of the Design Factory Global Network (DFGN), a global consortium of university-based innovation labs dedicated to fostering the next generation of innovators. Through this network, Pace students work with partners around the world—including CERN’s IdeaSquare in Switzerland—on initiatives such as the i2Planet program, a systems-thinking challenge that encourages students to design solutions for complex global problems. The lab’s approach is technology-centered, design-inspired, and human-focused.

“It was an honor to host the International Design Factory Week and the UnBoxed Education Practice Conference at Pace,” said Andreea Cotoranu, clinical professor, director of the NYC Design Factory, and co-chair of the conference. “These events highlighted the university’s role in a global community reimagining how students learn, preparing them for the future and empowering them to create positive impact in their communities and the world.”

The week’s programming included hands-on workshops, presentations, and interactive demos that reflected the Design Factory’s global approach to collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning. Topics ranged from AI-assisted creativity and sustainable design to educational equity and entrepreneurship.

Highlights included sessions like Prompt, Prototype, Repeat, which explored how educators are adapting teaching methods in the age of generative AI; Systematically Incorporating Equity into Design Thinking for AI Education, which focused on inclusive innovation practices; and Flood (In)Tolerant Ecologies, a session using art and design to explore climate resilience. Participants also took part in interactive demos like From Idea to Happy Customer, a board game on startup thinking, and Intellectual Sparring with AI Bots, a workshop on using AI tools for future scenario planning.

“It’s exciting for Pace to be part of a global network that champions innovation, design thinking, experiential learning, and multidisciplinarity,” said Christelle Scharff, Seidenberg professor, associate dean, and co-director of the Seidenberg AI Lab. “The UnBoxed Conference and International Design Factory Week were inspiring showcases of creativity and collaboration. I was impressed by how naturally ideas for joint projects emerged. The week provided the perfect setting to turn those ideas into action and build lasting connections among educators and researchers worldwide. We look forward to bringing some of these projects to life.”

“The conference brought together educators who are reimagining what classrooms can look like when we center creativity, empathy, and technology,” said Jonathan Williams, clinical assistant professor at the Seidenberg School and co-chair of the conference. “It challenged us all to think critically about the future of learning and how we design for it.”

Students played an active role throughout the week, contributing to workshops, presenting projects, and collaborating with peers from around the world.

"Being part of IDFW2025 reminded me why I joined Design Factory courses and projects as a student—it’s about working with people from completely different backgrounds to solve problems that matter,” said Lauren DeMaio, Seidenberg alum and former Design Factory student who also participated in the conference. “This week pushed me to think globally and creatively in ways that only the Design Factory can.”