A paragraph to introduce my idea for helping me allocate supervisors:

I want to build a website with the primary goal of helping clients manage their inventory. Option 1 involves upcycling to directly create new products, while Option 2 involves disassembling the inventory and sending it to downstream factories to be turned into recycled materials. The website will feature an AI-powered customer service system that can provide 3-5 actionable solutions based on the inventory products and processing needs posted by clients, combined with my backend database of supply chain factories—factories capable of repurposing materials from disassembled inventory into new products. Once the client selects a solution, designers on our platform can publish initial design drafts based on the client’s design requirements. Each draft will be provided by 3-5 different designers, offering 3-5 options. The client can then choose one designer they are satisfied with for in-depth collaboration. My first target customers are luxury groups.

The blue words below are the feedback,  the black words are my reflection and the red words are my questions. Thanks for giving any advice.

The project aim (which I think) is to design and evaluate the viability of an AI Platform to connect manufacturers and designers is an interesting and (potentially) achievable project. At the moment though the ambition and scope are pretty vague. Some thoughts on how you might clarify the project:

• Firstly be clear on your definitions. You use a lot of ambiguous throughout the project proposal – recycling; stakeholders; justice… be specific as to what exactly you mean with these terms.

Inventory Management: Refers to the upcycling or disassembly and recycling of clients’ overstocked products.

Upcycling: Directly transforming inventory products into new items, giving them new functions and value.

Disassembly and Recycling: Dismantling inventory products and sending the materials to downstream factories to be turned into recycled materials.

AI-Powered Customer Service: Generates actionable solutions based on the inventory information and needs posted by clients, combined with the backend database of supply chain factories.

Fairness: The platform does not consider designers’ work experience or background, focusing solely on objective criteria such as client satisfaction and delivery efficiency for evaluation. Additionally, the platform optimizes the designer recommendation mechanism and rating system based on designers’ performance data.

• Secondly be clear on the problem your project is trying to fix. It’s not clear to me how inclusion of new designers is a justice issue or how a platform based on AI will help address this justice issue. Try to state the problem as a sentence and/or create a research question which the project seeks to answer. Use academic literature or grey literature to provide evidence of the problem.

Core Problem: How to efficiently manage client inventory while providing sustainable design solutions?

Research Question: How can AI technology and a designer collaboration platform optimize the inventory management process while ensuring fair competition among designers and client satisfaction?

During my past work experience, while meeting with luxury groups, they shared their zero-carbon goals, one of which is to prohibit landfilling or incinerating inventory products. At the same time, the group showed us the quantity and value of inventory for each product category in recent years. I know this is a significant amount. Therefore, they have been actively seeking methods to manage their inventory. However, this data is required to be kept confidential. As a result, I am unsure whether similar grey literature can be found online. If it cannot be found, is it acceptable not to provide it? Or are there any alternative methods?

• Thirdly be clear on what data you need to undertake your project (and/or answer your question). How will you collect that data? From whom? At the moment you focus mostly on analysis (e.g. SWOT) that probably comes later. Instead think about what knowledge you need and how you will go about collecting that knowledge. You mention interviews – but why is that the best source of knowledge here?

Data Requirements (and Collection Methods):

• • Inventory Information and Processing Needs Posted by Clients: (Based on past work experience.)
  • Backend Supply Chain Factory Database: Includes factory capabilities, material types, processing costs, etc. (Leveraging past industry experience and partner resources.)
  • Designers’ Willingness to Join the Platform, Initial Draft Pricing, and Fees for Subsequent Collaboration: (Collected mainly through questionnaires, with the questionnaire design informed by in-depth interviews in the early stages.)
  • AI Algorithm Learning: Continuously learns from factories’ upcycling and recycling practices to provide feasible inventory management solutions. (Currently considering interviews with PhD students in this field and experienced software engineers.)

I also think you would benefit from a much more placed-based industry focused boundary to your project. This will help with identifying the stakeholders and discussing the problem. You cant solve all the circularity problems with one platform but you might make a difference to one industry in one geographical location. Try to think about a good test case for your platform.

Regarding the boundary issue, I hope the platform will initially address the inventory problems of luxury groups in the Chinese market, while inviting designers from around the world to join.

SEM2 W2 Reflection on the feedback of the 1000 words proposal / Yumeng Dong / Circular Economy: KIPP and Futures Project by is licensed under a