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Kyung Ran Choi
Background
Educational Background
Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Design, IIT, U.S.A.
M.F.A. at University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
M.F.A. at Seoul National University, Korea
B.F.A. at Seoul National University, Korea
Professional Background
2002-2004 Advisory design consultant for Samsung Housing Construction Co., Korea
2002-2003 Design consultant for Daelim Co., Posco Steel Co.
2001-2004 Design consulting and development for INAX. Co., Japan
1993-2004 Design consulting and development for Hanssem Co., Korea
Current Position
Associate Professor
Head of Interior Design Department, College of Design, Kookmin University
Head of Furniture Major, Graduate School of Design, Kookmin University, Seoul, Korea
Doctoral thesis title:
Culture-Centered Design Approach for Design of Living Environment
Link to dissertation abstract
Eric Henry Swanson
Background
Eric Swanson is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Design. He holds a B.S. in communications from the University of Cincinnati, an M.F.A. in film and video production from Florida State University and an M.Des. in Design Planning from ID. Prior to beginning his Ph.D., Eric worked as a Design Planner at VSA Partners, Inc. in Chicago, where he worked on internet development for large corporations, including key work on e-commerce planning and functionality for meadpaper.com. Prior to VSA, he worked as an Information Design Intern at McDonald's Corporation in Oak Brook, IL where he built frameworks for the development of hand-held computing applications for corporate-to-franchisee Business Consultants (with Carlos Teixeira).
Design research interests:
Interaction design, Contextual design, Design information systems, Scenario-based systems design
Doctoral thesis title:
A Modular, Scenario-Based Platform to Integrate Contextually-Rich Human-Centered Research Data Throughout Interactive Systems Development Processes
Link to dissertation abstract
Elva Yadira Ornelas
Background
Yadira is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Design at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, supported by the Mexican Ministry of Education. With over 15 years of teaching experience both at undergraduate and graduate levels, she has taught design at diverse institutions such as the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez (Mexico), University of Texas at El Paso (USA), Universidad de Palermo (Argentina), Centro de Estudios Superiores de Diseño de Monterrey (Mexico), Universidad de Guadalajara (Mexico) and is currently adjunct faculty at the Illinois Institute of Technology (USA). Her speaking engagements include peer reviewed international conferences in London, Hong Kong, Seoul, Buenos Aires and Delft. She is also a team leader at the Mexican Board for Accreditation of Design Programs (COMAPROD). Yadira holds a M.A. in Information Design (2002) from Universidad de las Americas - Puebla, and a B.A. in Graphic Design (1996) from the University of Texas at El Paso.
Design Research Interests:
Cultural Artifacts, Design Methods
Doctoral thesis title:
Cultural Artifacts as Emotional Catalysts and Social Mediators
Jihyun Sun
Background
Jihyun Sun is a Ph.D. candidate and is currently adjunct faculty at the Institute Design, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. Her interests in design are interaction design, contextual design, design information system, user experience design, and human computer interaction (HCI). She worked as a user interface designer at Samsung Electronics, designing interfaces for consumer electronics products and digital convergence devices, as well as conducting both user research and usability testing. She holds two international and domestic patents related with user interface design. Ji-Hyun Sun has a B.F.A. in Visual Communication Design from Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea and a M.S. in Cognitive Science from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. During her graduate study, she has given several conference presentations and published multiple papers regarding interaction design and human-centered system design.
Design research interests:
Interaction design, Human-Computer Interaction(HCI), Contextual design, Design information systems, Ambient Intelligence, Pervasive Computing
Doctoral thesis title:
Spatial Dimensions of Ambient Interactive System (AIS) Design
Link to dissertation abstract
Dongwoo Oh
Background
Dongwoo is currently pursuing a Ph.D degree in Design at Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. His current research is the development of a framework for analyzing temporal dimensions in interaction design.
Prior to beginning his Ph.D., Dongwoo founded Morpics Inc., where he worked for five years as a principal and executive project manager in Seoul. During that period, his work focused on embodying user interaction design for various embedded systems such as mobile phones, internet protocol televisions (IPTV), car navigations (Telematics), etc. Prior to Morpics, he worked for two years as a creative director at Yage, Inc. in Tokyo and Seoul, where he worked on internet business and communicated with clients globally.
Dongwoo holds a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Visual Communication Design from Hong-ik University in South Korea.
Design research interests:
Temporality, interactive system design, human/computer interaction, and human-centered design
Doctoral thesis title:
A Temporal Interaction Framework: Incorporating Temporality into Interaction Methodology
Ahmad Fakhra
Background
Ahmad Fakhra is currently a Ph.D. in Design candidate at the Institute of Design. His Ph.D. research involves developing a theoretical and conceptual framework for design creativity that would inform and guide architecture and design educators and practitioners on how to foster creativity in their respective contexts. His research also proposes a creativity-design method designed to help stimulate certain cognitive mechanisms and styles commonly associated with creative productivity.
Mr. Fakhra holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Syracuse University
and a Master of Science degree in Interior Design from Pratt Institute. He
is a scholar currently employed by Kuwait University as a prospective
educator for the Department of Interior Architecture.
Design research interests:
Architecture and design creativity, creativity and cognitive psychology,
Doctoral thesis title:
Conceptualizing Design Creativity in the Context of Architecture and Design Pedagogy
Background
Juan Salamanca´s current research area is human activity in interactive environments and his research scope tackles the role agents perform in mediated communication. With a master´s degree in design from Domus Academy in Milan, Italy, Juan developed the curriculum of the first undergrad interactive media program in Colombia, directing theoretical and methodological frameworks to more than 100 students. He began tenure as Assistant Professor and Head of Design Department at Icesi University since 2000. As part of his professional activity he has worked as design director and product designer for Colombian companies and more recently as interaction design intern for Motorola.
Juan has been awarded the Silver Prize of the Koizumi Lighting Design Competition, Japan, and has been invited as guest jury of the Braun Prize 2007, Germany. In addition, he has been awarded the Colciencias, LASPAU scholarship 2007 (http://www.laspau.harvard.edu/) and Colfuturo grant 2008 (www.colfuturo.org). Chairman and founder of Diseņo +, International Design Research Conference in Colombia 2004-08.
Design research interests:
Tangible computing, interaction with non-human agents, data visualization, interactive prototyping.
Doctoral thesis title:
Agent Based Interaction Design. Sociality with smart artifacts
Link to dissertation abstract
Background
Santosh is a Senior Staff HCI Researcher in the Experiences Research Lab of Motorola's Applied Research Center. His current research is in next generation TV user experiences including social communication and plain old TV entertainment. He is also interested in design and development of applications/services that promote healthcare and wellness programs. Santosh is a member of SIGCHI, HFES and IXDA. He has published in peer-reviewed papers in international conferences like HFES, CHI, EuroITV, IASDR, HCII, and Pervasive Health.
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