Design students operate in a space where their creations needn't answer to venture capitalists and Kickstarter crowds, making them uniquely positioned to conjure up solutions to problems that might often be passed over. With 150 projects from the world's leading design schools on show, the Global Grad Show in Dubai is an annual celebration of all the creativity student design has to offer. New Atlas was on the ground at this year's edition to sniff out the brightest ideas.

Now in its fourth year, the Global Grad Show takes place during Dubai Design Week and now occupies a prominent piece of real estate in the city's design district. Where the 2017 edition was spread out inside a huge tent a short buggy ride away, organizers brought this year's exhibitors in under the roof of a glassy, atrium-equipped building right in the midst of all the action.