Last spring, Winston Chung Hall buzzed with creativity as more than a hundred students turned out for DesignVerse 2025, UC Riverside’s second annual 24-hour design-a-thon. Hosted by Design@UCR and Women in Computing at UCR (WINC@UCR), the event was laser focused on its mission: make design thinking accessible, be inclusive, and make it a career-building experience for students from every discipline. The UCR School of Business’s INSPIRE Lab houses the Design@UCR student organization, and Assistant Professor of Teaching in Marketing Jonathan Lim and Rich Yueh are the co-advisors for Design@UCR.
Over one whirlwind day, teams ideated, prototyped, and pitched digital solutions to real-world prompts that asked: How can design make our world better? Workshops on UI/UX fundamentals and prototyping tools kicked off the event, followed by late-night mentoring sessions with industry professionals—fueled by sponsors Raising Cane’s and Red Bull.
The weekend culminated in a showcase judged by a panel of design and tech leaders, including Aaron Guhin (formerly Esri), Jerry Sinocruz (Snap), Jamie Sun (Saatchi & Saatchi), George Vasquez (Freelance Designer), Hara Yum (Carvana), and Mike Zhang (Chartmetric).
Major League Hacking (MLH) sponsored three special prize tracks with awards going to:
- TrueNorth – Best Use of MongoDB Atlas (Varsha Shetty, Katja Crusius, Sonia Baron)
- EcoHood – Best Tech Domain Name (Adelina Martinez, Monjima Lahiri)
- Pause – Best Use of Gemini API (Brittany Chan, Aurelisa Sindhunirmala, Nathalie Himaya, Aurelia Sindhu)
Behind the scenes, student leaders Sarah Lin Sha, Ashna Pradhan, Tiana Nguyen, and Ashley Tsai made it all possible including securing support from additional sponsors Snap, Adobe, DoorDash, Notion, ASUCR, Interview Cake, Pure Buttons, Progressive Graphics, and the UCR School of Business.
For participants, DesignVerse wasn’t just about building projects—it was about building confidence, networks, and a sense of belonging in the world of design and technology. Look for DesignVerse 2026 in the spring!
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Header image: DesignVerse 2025 participants and judges