Co-Design with Lirvana Labs!
GIANT Partners With Lirvana Labs in collaboration with Joan Ganz Cooney Center from Sesame Workshop!
The GIANT Room, an innovation hub for children and their families, is excited to announce they will be partnering with Lirvana Labs and Joan Ganz Cooney Center from Sesame Workshop to co-design a writing app. Children entering grades 4 and 5 this upcoming school year are invited to apply and join the co-design workshops. Participants who join will receive $25 per session as a token of our appreciation.
Participation entails joining three free, two hour workshops focused on co-designing and playfully brainstorming ideas with designers and industry innovators. Kids who join will have a chance to learn and practice the art of giving and receiving feedback and then to join a prototyping exercise with industry innovators and researchers. Applicants must join all three workshops on August 18th, August 19th, and August 20th from 10am to 12pm. All sessions will be held in person at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
The GIANT Room believes the most engaging and effective digital experiences are the ones that are designed with children’s point of view in mind, and even better, those that are designed with children and their families involved in the design process. “As part of our mission, we thrive to amplify children’s voices and bring their ideas into the design process of products that are being designed for them,” Dr. Jamalian, The GIANT Room’s CEO explains, “this will benefit children who participate in these sessions, by engaging in design thinking, team-working, and building prototypes with designers in the field, and also children who will use these products once in the market.”
In late 2021, Clement and Christie (a brother-sister duo) decided to establish Lirvana Labs with a shared vision. They are on a mission to harness the power of AI to create a Learning Companion that could teach every single child the critical literacy and reasoning skills that change lives and destinies.
Named after Sesame Street’s visionary co-founder, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center is an independent research and innovation lab within Sesame Workshop dedicated to shaping a positive digital future for children. The Center conducts cutting-edge research on emerging technologies, partners with industry leaders, academics, and educators to translate insights into action, and works closely with policymakers and investors to drive meaningful conversations and decisions. By actively involving children and young people in co-designing the tools that they use, the Center ensures that innovations enhance both learning and well-being—ultimately empowering children to thrive in the digital world.
This program is completely free for children and their families to participate. We are accepting a limited number of children in New York City to participate in the program. Families with children entering grades 4 and 5 in the upcoming school year are invited to apply. Participants who join will receive $25 per session as a token of our appreciation.
For more information about GIANT STEAM programs and a full list of their workshops, class series, and events, please visit The GIANT Room’s website.
Who: Children entering 4th or 5th grade in the 2025-2026 school year
Where: School of Visual Arts, 136 West 21st Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY, 10011
When: August 18th, August 19th, and August 20th from 10AM to 12PM
Other Upcoming Co-Design Workshops for Similar Age Groups: