Students from various disciplines at UT Dallas clashed ideas and talents in a yearly competition to battle food insecurity on campus.
Participants of the CreateUTD challenge, organized by the UT Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), developed projects and solutions for the Comet Cupboard and presented their projects to industry experts at the UT Dallas Blackstone LaunchPad on Friday, Dec. 1.
Every fall, AIGA organizes CreateUTD, a four-week design challenge open to all UT Dallas students that pushes aspiring designers to develop a project to impact the community positively. This year, AIGA prompted participants to design a project that encourages students to optimize the Comet Cupboard, a UT Dallas food pantry initiative dedicated to helping students in need.
“The design challenge provides a platform for students to showcase their design skills and enhance their portfolios,” said Jade Nguyen, AIGA president and ATEC senior. “Participants gain valuable experience and have their work judged by industry professionals. This is a challenge to push their limits and reach new heights in their design journey!”
This year’s competition drew more than 30 teams from various majors, including design and production, computer science, and psychology, among other fields of study.
The team StarQuest, comprised of Rehabot Eyassu, an applied cognition and neuroscience graduate student at the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Sajween Khan, an information technology and systems senior at the Naveen Jindal School of Management, won the judge’s choice award.
Eyassu and Khan’s project, StarQuest, was an app designed to amp up awareness of the Comet Cupboard, energize donor engagement, and boost social media exposure.
“One key thing I’ve learned is how important it is to plan projects carefully from the start,” Khan said. “This means understanding what each page needs, the project’s details, and everything else needed to get started. Doing this groundwork early on makes a huge difference in how the project goes and what it achieves.”
AIGA invited the seven teams to present their final project on award night, who pitched their design to three professionals – Professor McKinney (Advisor), Bel Khuu (Comet Cupboard Program Specialist), and Oren Pajela (Entrepreneur). The judges engaged the teams in Q&A sessions after each presentation and were crucial in selecting the winners.
People’s Choice Award: Astral Appetites – Mateo Estrada, Peter Tran, Long Vu
Design Expert Award: Star Quest – Rae Eyassu and Sajween Khan
Honorable Mention: Comet Cupboard Rebrand – Lennie Mikame, Ruhi Varatkar
Kaitlyn Tran contributed to this article.
