MIN-Corps MVP Challenge Best Overall Prototype

​

Awarded the top prize with co-designer Jonathan Jakubas for our MVP Challenge Project Octo, an educational toy for kids with congenital heart disease. Through the MIN-Corps MVP Challenge over 20+ teams were granted funds to help develop a prototype or pilot to show how an idea could work and the impact it could have. On May 10th at UMN Founder's Day, all of the projects were showcased and pitched to share the work and show how the funds were put to use.

For this project, Jonathan and I developed over 15 physical prototypes and many iterations of the digital prototype of the accompanying app. Throughout the course of the project we tested these with over 25 kids to get feedback and refine the design.

​

​

2023 College of Design Student Academic Excellence Award - Graduate Team Category

​

Award granted by the UMN College of Design in recognition of work done as a graduate student team with fellow UMN PDES graduate student Jonathan Jakubas on the Octo project, developing a toy for kids with congenital heart disease.

Read more in this article highlighting Octo and two other PDES projects that were granted money through the MIN-Corps MVP Challenge: https://design.umn.edu/news/product-design-program-shines-min-corps-mvp-challenge

"This team has done incredible work with Professor Carlye Lauff to design an Educational Toy for
Children with Congenital Heart Disease. Jessica and Jonathan have worked on developing several
prototypes for this project. “Octo” is a stuffed animal dinosaur toy that is designed to become
an educational and interactive companion for children with congenital heart disease. This team
was awarded the MIN-CORPS MVP Challenge (Minimum Viable Product)."

​

​

2023 PDMN Andersen Windows Product Design Blitz - 1st Place

​

Competed in a 24 hour, 11 team design sprint on a team with Tom Mahota, Yash Soni, Julia McMurtrey, and Micki Grover to develop a new product concept for Anderson Windows. Within the 24 hours we conducted user research, market research, concept ideation, prototyped, and pitched our selected concept.

​

​

2022 College of Design Student Academic Excellence Award - Graduate Team Category

​

Award granted by the UMN College of Design in recognition of work done as a teaching assistant for the Creative Design Methods and Product Innovation Lab courses in conjunction with fellow UMN PDES graduate student Alex Cotter.

"Jessica and Alex are being nominated for the Student Academic Excellence Award based
on their collaborative contributions as the Teaching Assistants for PDES 2701 in Fall 2021
and PDES 3711 in Fall 2022. Their mentorship and support of guiding the undergraduate
students has been exceptional in shaping the future direction of our program."

​

​

College of Science and Engineering Dean's List

​

On the UMN College of Science and Engineering's dean's list for 7 of my 8 undergraduate semesters; earning a GPA of 3.666 or higher with a course load of at least 12 credits.

​

​