Pratikesh Pundkar
Master of industrial design
Rhode Island School of Design
Specialisms: Interaction Design / Design and Technology / Industrial Design
Location: Boston, United States
Pratikesh Pundkar
First Name: Pratikesh
Last Name: Pundkar
Specialisms: Interaction Design / Design and Technology / Industrial Design
Sectors:
My Location: Boston, United States
University / College: Rhode Island School of Design
Course / Program Title: Master of industrial design
About
I design with the senses, especially the ones we often overlook. My work explores how smell, touch, and memory can become tools for communication. In Smora, I created a way for people to collect and revisit scents tied to people and places, offering a new kind of memory object that feels personal and present.
My focus is on designing for presence, grounded, physical experiences that hold emotional weight. I’m interested in how objects can help us stay connected, slow down, and feel more human in a fast, digital world. I value ambiguity, subtlety, and the quiet ways design can speak.
My process starts with questions and grows through curiosity, observation, and hands-on making. I’m drawn to the spaces where function meets feeling.
In an age where AI-generated visuals, audio, and text dominate our communication, Smora explores the overlooked potential of olfaction as a truthful, emotional, and memory-rich medium. This project introduces a product system and interaction experience that allows users to: • Capture scent from real environments or people • Store them in memory-capsule-like cassettes • Reflect on the memory through scent-triggered interaction • Share olfactory stories with others Grounded in neuroscience, design ethnography, and material experimentation, Smora reclaims presence and emotional depth in digital communication. It is not about perfume or artificial scents, but about authentic smells from our surroundings and hidden information encoded in objects, people, and spaces.
Competitions
