ID Student Work Receives Fast Company Recognition
September 15, 2025
Fast Company’s 2025 Innovation by Design Awards honors ID projects Northstar and F1 Hand Controller in the Data Design and Students categories, respectively. This year, the Institute of Design at Illinois Tech is the only design school recognized outside of the Students category.
The Innovation by Design Awards, which appears in the Fall issue of Fast Company magazine on newsstands September 23, 2025, celebrates the designers and businesses addressing today’s most urgent challenges while anticipating the problems of tomorrow. The competition, now in its 14th year, is one of the most prestigious design competitions in the industry, spotlighting work that exemplifies originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural significance, and measurable business impact.
DATA DESIGN CATEGORY
Northstar
Focused on expanding career horizons for young Black male students, ID graduate students Salena Burke (PhD 2026), Faysal Biobaku (MDes 2025), Michael Ho (MDes + MBA 2024), Yuhan Ke (MDes 2025), and Yanshu Zhou (MDes 2022) worked with ID Assistant Professor Zach Pino and Dean Anijo Mathew to promote personalized exploration.
With special emphasis on fields where Black males are underrepresented, Northstar features culturally relevant role models, hands-on experiences, student-friendly language, and emotional support. Ultimately, students envision futures for themselves they might never otherwise have considered.
Northstar was recognized alongside category winner USAFacts and fellow honorees Accenture Song and Code and Theory.
STUDENTS CATEGORY
F1 Hand Controller
The F1 Hand Controller, a prototype developed by Faysal Biobaku (MDes 2025) and Associate Professor Martin Thaler in collaboration with Fluid Reality, uses advanced haptic feedback technology that lets operators actually feel what their robots touch.
The F1 Hand Controller has implications for a range of situations—from remote surgery to hazardous environment exploration— where the gap between human operators and robotic systems has been a persistent challenge.
F1 Hand Controller was recognized alongside category winner The University of Chicago and fellow finalist the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). It was also recognized earlier this year by Core77.
Shown here, a participant uses the F1 to twist open a jar.
Video: Faysal Biobaku/ LinkedIn
Honorees were selected by a panel of leading designers, business executives from leading organizations, and Fast Company editors.
ID congratulates fellow winners, including friends and alumni at Empathy and Smart Design, neighbors at the Obama Foundation and the University of Chicago, and fellow design schools—the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD), California College of the Arts (CCA), and UC Berkeley.
Winners, finalists, and honorable mentions are featured online.
Learn more about Northstar and the F1 Hand Controller.