Rashi Agarwala

Innovation Design Engineering (MA/MSc)
Profile photo of Rashi Agarwala, smiling and looking at the camera, wearing a white top with a neutral background.
A person with medium skin tone and long dark hair, holding their hands near their mouth as if speaking, facing a bamboo-and-metal pole with a mounted device that has a screen displaying a green leaf logo. The device is wrapped in red padding, and the background is plain white.
A person with medium skin tone and long dark hair, holding their hands near their mouth as if speaking, facing a bamboo-and-metal pole with a mounted device that has a screen displaying a green leaf logo. The device is wrapped in red padding, and the background is plain white.
Farm Whisperer, a smart farm tool co-designed with the tea tribe community in Assam.
Three women are sitting outdoors on mats in front of a tea plantation. Two women wearing colorful saris face the camera, while another woman with long dark hair, sitting cross-legged, faces them with papers spread out on the mat. They appear to be engaged in a discussion or interview, with a backpack and a white bag nearby on the ground. The background shows rows of green tea bushes and tall trees under an overcast sky.
Three women are sitting outdoors on mats in front of a tea plantation. Two women wearing colorful saris face the camera, while another woman with long dark hair, sitting cross-legged, faces them with papers spread out on the mat. They appear to be engaged in a discussion or interview, with a backpack and a white bag nearby on the ground. The background shows rows of green tea bushes and tall trees under an overcast sky.
An immersive co-design experience engaging Assam’s tea community to collaboratively create culturally rooted, user-centred solutions.
The image displays a product ecosystem called "esda | THE ECOSYSTEM" designed to aid people at risk of seizures. Centered in the image are two upright gloves—one purple and one black—mounted on stands. Below the gloves is a black device with a brass valve attachment, and nearby is another round, black technical component.
The image displays a product ecosystem called "esda | THE ECOSYSTEM" designed to aid people at risk of seizures. Centered in the image are two upright gloves—one purple and one black—mounted on stands. Below the gloves is a black device with a brass valve attachment, and nearby is another round, black technical component.
Gloves designed to detect and monitor seizures by sensing hand gestures for epilepsy management.
The image compares a city square before and after adding green infrastructure for flood management, showing changes in absorption, precipitation, water level, and risk using graphic bars. It includes a map inset highlighting the drainage area, and overlays icons, mobile, and desktop screens to illustrate interactive, educational features. The overall design uses yellow highlights, blending photographic, diagrammatic, and digital interface elements.
The image compares a city square before and after adding green infrastructure for flood management, showing changes in absorption, precipitation, water level, and risk using graphic bars. It includes a map inset highlighting the drainage area, and overlays icons, mobile, and desktop screens to illustrate interactive, educational features. The overall design uses yellow highlights, blending photographic, diagrammatic, and digital interface elements.
A mixed reality experience with Lambeth Borough to help SuDS designers visualise and plan sustainable urban drainage solutions.
A person with medium skin tone and long dark hair, holding their hands near their mouth as if speaking, facing a bamboo-and-metal pole with a mounted device that has a screen displaying a green leaf logo. The device is wrapped in red padding, and the background is plain white.
Three women are sitting outdoors on mats in front of a tea plantation. Two women wearing colorful saris face the camera, while another woman with long dark hair, sitting cross-legged, faces them with papers spread out on the mat. They appear to be engaged in a discussion or interview, with a backpack and a white bag nearby on the ground. The background shows rows of green tea bushes and tall trees under an overcast sky.
The image displays a product ecosystem called "esda | THE ECOSYSTEM" designed to aid people at risk of seizures. Centered in the image are two upright gloves—one purple and one black—mounted on stands. Below the gloves is a black device with a brass valve attachment, and nearby is another round, black technical component.
The image compares a city square before and after adding green infrastructure for flood management, showing changes in absorption, precipitation, water level, and risk using graphic bars. It includes a map inset highlighting the drainage area, and overlays icons, mobile, and desktop screens to illustrate interactive, educational features. The overall design uses yellow highlights, blending photographic, diagrammatic, and digital interface elements.

About

My design practice is grounded in care, co-creation, and the belief that change starts from the ground up. I work closely with people to understand how systems, whether policy, health, or infrastructure, touch their daily lives, and how design can bridge the gap between institutional intent and lived experience. At the heart of my work is a commitment to active listening, deep field research, and building trust through participatory, human-centred approaches.

One expression of this is my thesis project (Farm Whisperer) with tea estate workers in Assam, where I developed an oral-to-visual AI model to help capture and act on tacit, location-based knowledge. Rooted in the rhythms of plantation life, this system translates informal, spoken descriptions into spatial data that can be visualised on a map. The goal is to bridge local intuition with formal systems of decision-making, enabling workers to report pest outbreaks, safety concerns, or environmental changes using their own language and reference points. By foregrounding oral knowledge and reimagining how data is generated and shared, the project challenges top-down models of information flow and explores new ways for communities to participate in shaping the systems that govern their work and wellbeing.

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