P icture this: You’re lost in the woods, unsure how a harmless hike went from fun times to frantic mess. Do you break your vow to become one with nature and consult the GPS in your pocket? Reluctantly, you pull out your phone.

Now imagine the same scenario, only this time you’re equipped with an AI-enhanced, screen-free hiking companion programmed with seamless navigation and real-time guidance. It’s not sci-fi; it’s NOMAD, a trailblazing innovation that rethinks how we de-screen in the great outdoors — and keep it that way.

Developed by recent industrial design graduate Varshini Chouthri in the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design’s Product Experience Design Lab, NOMAD allows hikers to immerse themselves in nature while maintaining an awareness of their surroundings. By using adaptive artificial intelligence and contextual sensing for hands-free navigation and smart wayfinding, NOMAD seamlessly blends in with the environment rather than interrupting it.

Where Nature Meets Tech

Chouthri says there are a couple ways to use NOMAD: via  a modern-design interface pin, which magnetically attaches to your gear, allowing for a phone- and screen-free journey. Just how disconnected a hiker prefers to be is entirely up to them.

Meaningfully and intuitively incorporating AI into such a low-tech activity didn’t come without its challenges. “It took so much practice, research, a lot of iterations, and the expertise of STEM pros and user feedback,” she says.

Perhaps even more influential, she says, was her hiking community. “There’s a really big community aspect in hiking,” she says. “When one person goes on a hike, they share scenic or hazard points they saw and alert fellow hikers.”

In addition to crowdsourcing thoughts from other hikers about how NOMAD could most benefit them, she pulled inspiration from her own childhood. Having grown up hiking the mountains of California, Chouthri says her family’s passion for exploring Mother Nature was key to NOMAD’s creation.

NOMAD’s continuously evolving knowledge base — a pivotal design feature — is designed to empower both individual users and the broader hiking community. Information such as trail hazards, a hikers’ insight reel and post-hike reflections are updated often, while pre-mapped drone data, AI-powered preparation and dynamic route awareness ensure confident exploration.

At the project’s outset, Chouthri intended to create a hiking companion that would simply get people excited about lacing up their boots and hitting the trails. However, throughout the process — and nearly 20 iterations of the app and interface pin combined — her purpose evolved.

“Through the [PDX Lab] program, I realized I am a very empathy-driven designer,” she says. “I like designing based upon people’s experiences, and I like really working with them. My favorite part of building NOMAD was getting to talk to people and seeing people’s faces when I would show them the finished product.”

Award-Winning Design

If only she could have seen the faces of the judges behind Red Dot’s Best of the Best Award 2025 when they voted on their winner. The international design competition awarded Chouthri’s NOMAD the prestigious top prize, placing it among the top design innovations across the globe. Chouthri says she’s still in shock: “I can’t believe it’s real.”

For now, NOMAD remains a successful school project and award magnet; it also earned recognition from the FIT Sport Design Awards and IDEA Awards. While Chouthri is currently turning her focus to other projects, she says she fully intends to return to NOMAD and get it on the market.

Perhaps even more influential, she says, was her hiking community. “There’s a really big community aspect in hiking,” she says. “When one person goes on a hike, they share scenic or hazard points they saw and alert fellow hikers.”

“When people finally see NOMAD, I want them to say, ‘I want to go on a hike now,’” she says. “We’re so glued to our screens all the time, we completely forget about how cool nature is.”