Gresham Smith Also Selected to Join Fast
Company's Impact Council
NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 14, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Gresham Smith's MPATH: Empathic Insights
platform has been named as one of the winners of Fast
Company's 2024 World Changing Ideas Awards that were announced
today.
The awards highlight fresh sustainability initiatives,
cutting-edge artificial intelligence developments, ambitious
pursuits of social equity, and other creative projects that are
helping mold the world. MPATH: Empathic Insights has been
recognized in three categories, including as the winner in the Apps
category, finalist in the Science and Technology category, and
honorable mention in the Urban Design category. As a part of the
recognition, Gresham Smith will also join Fast Company's Impact
Council, an invitation-only collective of innovation leaders
from around the world. Gresham Smith is one of the few architecture
and engineering firms on the council.
MPATH: Empathic Insights is a pioneering platform that
quantifies and aggregates how people feel in different spaces.
MPATH's patented approach uses geolocation data and novel stress
measurements from wearable devices to uncover what places cause
stress and then improve design using this information. The project
aims to proactively improve safety, reduce accidents, and create
safer, more inclusive and well-connected communities.
Innovation Director Mike Sewell
led the development of MPATH for Gresham Smith. "We're thrilled to
see MPATH featured as one of Fast Company's World Changing
Ideas," Sewell says. "The international award validates the hard
work of our Innovation Incubator team that keeps our firm on the
cutting edge of our industry. Innovative tools and technologies
like MPATH have the potential to transform the design process and
the impact our work has on local communities."
This year's World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 50 winners, 127
finalists, and 172 honorable mentions—with health, education,
energy, and AI among the most popular categories. A panel of
Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners from a
pool of more than 1,300 entries across climate, social justice,
wellness, politics, technology, corporate social responsibility and
more. The 2024 awards feature entries from across the globe,
including the Republic of Korea, Brazil and Madagascar.
"I was struck this year by the global sweep of the honorees,"
says Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan. "It's endlessly inspiring to
see how the world is coming together to devise inventive solutions
to our most challenging problems. We need ideas from everywhere,
and this year's World Changing Ideas Awards are an extraordinary
encapsulation of the innovation and creativity that is so abundant
around the globe."
Cities across the United States
as well as in Europe are actively
piloting MPATH to see how it can help them design safer streets for
all. Researchers from Vanderbilt
University in Nashville,
Tennessee, recently completed a pilot study of the
university campus using MPATH to study pedestrian safety and
published their findings in the Journal of Transportation
Technologies. The study results suggest that the use of wearable
technologies offers a promising opportunity to enhance pedestrian
comfort and safety, thereby helping to promote greater use of
walkability as a transportation mode in urban areas.
MPATH is also being tested in other parts of the built
environment to discover more about stress in airports, industrial
facilities and hospitals. The aim is to use MPATH to learn more
about optimal levels of stress and how design can impact and
influence enjoyment of spaces.
ABOUT GRESHAM SMITH
We are a top-ranked architecture, engineering, design and
consulting firm with $328 million in
annual gross revenue and 26 offices across the United States. We provide full-service
solutions for the built environment with a focus on the aviation,
building engineering, healthcare, industrial, land planning, life
and work places, transportation, and water and environment market
sectors. Throughout all of our work, we are united in our Core
Purpose: to plan, design and consult to create healthy and thriving
communities. Consistently ranked as a "best place to work," we are
committed to creating a culture that fosters diversity of
experience combined with a common goal of genuine care for each
other, our partners and the outcome of our work. Learn more at
GreshamSmith.com.
ABOUT THE WORLD CHANGING IDEAS AWARDS
World Changing
Ideas is one of Fast Company's major annual awards programs and is
focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and
bold concepts that make the world better. Judges choose winners,
finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the
potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and
fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with
great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more
people to work on solving the problems that affect us all.
ABOUT FAST COMPANY
Fast Company is the only media
brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business,
innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders,
companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in
New York City, Fast Company is
published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with our sister
publication Inc., and can be found online at
www.fastcompany.com.
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SOURCE Gresham Smith