Tänvused stipendiaadid. Foto: Marek Metslaid, Ülemiste City
A recent graduate of the Service Design Strategies and Innovation master’s programme at the Estonian Academy of Arts, Kumaraaditya Rao has been awarded the 2026 Ülo Pärnits Scholarship for his master’s thesis, While We Wait: Transforming Public Transport Waiting into a Pleasant Experience in Ülemiste City.
The thesis explores how waiting for public transport in Ülemiste City can be transformed into a more enjoyable and human-centred experience. The research demonstrates how design can help address practical challenges of everyday life while contributing to the creation of higher-quality public spaces.
The Ülo Pärnits Scholarship was awarded for the ninth time this year. Established in honour of the founder of Ülemiste City, the scholarship promotes lifelong and practice-based learning while supporting research that contributes to the development of the area as a future-oriented innovation campus. The annual scholarship fund amounts to up to €22,000 and is financed by AS Mainor, AS Mainor Ülemiste and KristoSten OÜ.
For the 2025/2026 academic year, applications were invited in four thematic areas: smart city governance, business models and innovation, community and health, and environment and the built environment. Alongside our graduate, students from Tallinn University of Technology, the University of Tartu and Pallas also received scholarships.
Congratulations to Kumaraaditya Rao on this well-deserved recognition!