This studio invites students to explore solutions to enhance passenger comfort and experience in aircrafts with a focus on long-haul travel. Students will investigate user needs and cabin design factors to identify areas for enhancement. Working together with industry partners such as Boeing, projects in this studio will culminate in proof-of-concept prototypes and recommendations that can be submitted for the different categories in the Crystal Cabin Award:

1. Accessibility – advances in seating, lavatories, cabin layout, etc. that remove barriers and enable equal access.
2. Cabin concepts – using design and technology to elevate the passenger experience.
3. In-flight entertainment, connectivity, and digital services – connectivity solutions for a “smart cabin” that enhance the passenger journey or airline operations.
4. Sustainable cabin – solutions that reduce aviation’s environmental footprint and accelerate the transformation toward climate-neutral air travel.
5. Cabin technologies – innovations in galleys, lavatories, trolleys, air-conditioning, electrical systems, safety devices, waste and potable water systems, and acoustics.
6. Passenger comfort – efforts that increase passenger comfort in seating, overhead bins, partitions, etc.

Examples of problem statements in this studio:

• One device experience: how might we design the ground-to-air-to-ground experience to be controlled entirely from a user’s smartphone?
• Matter for aircrafts: could we imagine lights, air vents, and seats in the aircrafts being controlled by the smart home standard Matter?
• Watch parties in the air: how might we design an intuitive way for passengers to create and join watch parties while in the air?
• Game parties in the air: how might we design and intuitive way for passengers to play multi-player games while in the air?
• Interacting with flight attendants: how might we improve the experience of communicating and interacting with flight attendants using new technologies?
• New ways of working in the air: how might we use new technologies like the Apple Vision Pro to enhance and improve the way we work and entertain passengers in the air?

Examples of interesting projects can be found among the past winners of the Crystal Cabin Award:

https://www.crystal-cabin-award.com/winners-archive

Project partner:

• Boeing Digital Aviation Research

Project supervisors:

• Dr Yen Shih Cheng (sc.yen@nus.edu.sg)
• A/Prof Patrick Chia (patrick.chia@nus.edu.sg)

Studio timeslot in Semester 2 AY2025/2026:

• Thursday 1 pm to 4 pm