SBIR Phase II: Upstyled Design: AI-Powered Innovation for Sustainable, Customized Product Design in US Apparel, Printing, and Packaging Manufacturing

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to create an artificial intelligence-enabled design platform that turns original ideas into production-ready product concepts. The project will advance scientific and technological understanding of how generative artificial intelligence can integrate natural-language instructions, brand requirements, product structure, material constraints, and automated evaluation within a unified design-to-manufacturing workflow. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop and validate an artificial intelligence platform for customized product design. The research will investigate new methods for translating original ideas into high-quality product concepts, adapting generative artificial intelligence across different product categories and production needs, and evaluating designs to support continuous improvement. These capabilities will be integrated into a unified platform that supports these workflows. The research will also evaluate the reliability, usability, scalability, and suitability for production of the resulting system across a range of customization scenarios. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.