Led by Trinity Students, The 2123 Project Imagines Forward-Thinking Innovations

A project by Trinity College students showcases a vision for a future full of new inventions and innovations.

Over the past year, the students developed The 2123 Project to explore the possibilities of “how today’s imagination shapes tomorrow’s reality.” The results were displayed at an exhibition called “Envisioning the Future” at the Raether Library & Information Technology Center on September 29.

The students who worked on The 2123 Project through the University Innovation Fellows program run by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) are: Gabriel Koomson ’27, a double major in computer science and economics from Ghana; Patrick Manswell ’27, a computer science major from Baltimore, Maryland; Denise Pedraza Guzman ’27, a chemistry major from Norwalk, Connecticut; and Luna Tariku Sefu ’27, an engineering major with a concentration in electrical engineering from Ethiopia.

Inspired by a set of 1900 World’s Fair trading cards that predicted inventions like video calls and robotic vacuums, the team challenged the Trinity community to think about what daily life could look like in about 100 years. Manswell said that the advancements suggested through a cross-campus collaboration fit into five categories: health and medicine; living in cities; transportation; entertainment and communications; and work and education.

Manswell added that the project was challenging because the group learned that many of the ideas submitted for the project could actually become reality in less than 100 years, pushing the students to think beyond existing technologies. While Manswell and Pedraza Guzman led the forward-looking half of the project, Koomson and Sefu developed the part of the exhibition that featured historical trading cards from the 1870s onward, showcasing how past generations envisioned the future.

After gathering input from Trinity students, faculty, staff, alumni, and others, the team created their own set of trading cards and a companion coffee table book featuring AI-generated images of the futuristic advancements described by the community. Climate-controlled domes, smart contact lenses, teleportation hubs, and fusion-powered jetpacks are among the predicted innovations.

“The 2123 Project combines the imaginations of the whole Bantam community to look forward to the future,” said Danny Briere, Ruane Family Executive Director of Trinity’s Entrepreneurship Center. “This is a lot what of the Entrepreneurship Center here is all about—trying to get students to become bold, imaginative, innovative, inventive, entrepreneurial thinkers and then apply that to the world around them.” Briere added The 2123 Project event marked the start of Hartford Innovation Week, held September 29 to October 3, 2025.

In offering his remarks during the reception, Trinity College President Dan Lugo called the Entrepreneurship Center a place “where imagination meets action” and praised the futurist mentality of the students who led the project. “This 2123 Project represents what happens when that entrepreneurial spirit is woven into the fabric of a liberal arts education,” Lugo said.

“This project moves Trinity beyond its Bicentennial. Our 200th anniversary [in 2023] allowed us to honor the people and achievements that defined our first two centuries, and The 2123 Project looks ahead,” Lugo added. “It’s a very powerful reminder that the future of Trinity will be built by those willing to dream, to experiment, and to lead. … Trinity is not only honoring its past, but boldly designing our future.”

Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam also praised the initiative taken by students. “We’re so proud of the forward-thinking way in which you approached this,” he said. “Where most schools that just celebrated their 200th anniversary would rest on their laurels for a while, Trinity jumped right in, forging ahead, thinking about what the next 100 years looks like. I think that’s an incredible thing; it shows a willingness not just to be rooted in the past, in history, but also to keep an eye forward into the future.” Arulampalam has said that he plans to bring a new artificial intelligence center to Hartford, working with Trinity and other higher education institutions to attract companies and boost the city’s workforce.

As she reflected on working on The 2123 Project, Sefu said, “I think this has been my most meaningful experience at Trinity. It taught us a lot of teamwork and it also encouraged us to empower our peers.”

Learn more about how The 2123 Project was created here.

See more photos in the gallery below.