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Design for social innovation can find in the design schools a major driver for its application and diffusion. In fact, design schools (and, more in general, all the design-oriented universities) can orient their didactic and research activities towards social innovation.
GET TO KNOW US!
DESIS is a no-profit and cultural association, with the purpose to promote design for social innovation in higher education institutions with design discipline so as to generate useful design knowledge and to create meaningful social changes in collaboration with other stakeholders.
President
Ezio Manzini
For over three decades Ezio Manzini has been working in the field of design for sustainability. Most recently, his interests have focused on social innovation, considered as a major driver of sustainable changes. In this perspective he started DESIS: an international network of schools of design, active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability. Presently, he is President of DESIS Network and Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been guest professor in several design schools world-wide, as (in the past decade): Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), Jiangnan University (Wuxi), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape town), Parsons -The new School for Design (NYC).
International Coordinator
Teresa Franqueira
Teresa Franqueira is Associate Professor at the University of Aveiro, is a designer and the Director and Scientific Coordinator of the Design Factory Aveiro at the Creative Science Park Aveiro Region. She has a PhD in Design at Politecnico di Milano; a MsC degree in Industrial Design; a Post-Graduation degree at the Glasgow School of Art and Portuguese Design Centre and a BsC degree in Product Design. Teresa is the International coordinator of the DESIS Network – Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability and was the founder and coordinator of the research group ID+ DESIS Lab (from 2011 till 2018). Teresa is also senior researcher at the ID+ Research Unit (University of Aveiro and University of Porto).
International Coordination Support Team
Gisela Pinheiro
Gisela Pinheiro is a product designer, with 5 years of experience in two companies in the area of technical and decorative lighting. I have a master’s degree in design, with a post-graduation in Product and Service Innovation, a multidisciplinary and international experience that shares a strict relationship between Porto Design Factory (PT), Swinburne University (AUS) and Stanford University (USA). This academic experience made me recognize the dynamism of Design Thinking and the sinuosity of the management of a multidisciplinary team. I am currently a PhD student in the field of Design, wanting to further my knowledge, namely in the search of meaning in the role of the Chief Design Officer (CDO), in the strategic view of a company.
International Coordination Committee
Davide Fassi
Davide Fassi is a PhD, associate professor at the Politecnico di Milano where he teaches Spatial Design and Product Service System Design. Coordinator of GIDE (Group of International Design Education) and member of the international coordination at DESIS Network (Design for Social innovation and Sustainaibility). Adjunct professor at Tongji University. He created “Coltivando, the convivial garden at the Politecnico di Milano” and belongs to humancities.eu. Awarded in 2018 by the “XXV Compasso d’Oro” for the applied research “campUS-Incubation and settings for social practices”.
International Coordination Support Team
Carla Cipolla
Carla Cipolla has been involved since 2004 in projects on design for social innovation in Europe, Africa and in Brazil where she is now associate professor of the UFRJ – Federal University of Rio de Janeiro / COPPE – Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in Engineering. She is coordinator of the UFRJ/Coppe DESIS Lab, which is one of the founding members of the DESIS Network. Her research and design activities in this group are focused on design for social innovation, emphasizing international cooperative and comparative projects of relevance to specific Brazilian issues.
International Coordination Committee
Miaosen Gong
Dr. Miaosen Gong is an associate Professor of School of Design, Jiangnan University, where he is also founder and coordinator of DESIS Lab_JU. He is the co-coordinator of DESIS-China network (The Network on Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability in China) and member of international coordination committee of DESIS association. His research interests focus on Strategic Design for Sustainability, Design for Social Innovation and Service Design. In last years, he has been in charge of a number of government funded projects and international research collaboration on related topics, such as CCSL-China 2007, CHITA 08, DESIS 09/10/11, and DESIL (2012-14), GIDE (2013-), D+C (2014-). He has more than 25 peer-reviewed academic publications in international conferences and journals, and is reviewers of several international design conferences and journals. He graduated in 2000 with a bachelor degree of industrial design in Nanjing University of Science and Technology, in 2003 with a master degree of art design (2003) in Jiangnan University and in 2006 a second master degree of strategic design in Politecnico di Milano where he obtained his PhD degree in design in 2010.
International Coordination Support Team
Lou Yongqi
Prof. Dr. Lou Yongqi, PhD, is Dean of the College of Design and Innovation at Tongji University in Shanghai, Fellow of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), and Vice President of China Industrial Design Association(CIDA). Lou has been the pioneer in China for design-driven innovation education, research and practices that connect design, business, and technology. He is the founder of Design Harvests, a design-driven urban-rural interaction project; Shanghai Tongji-Huangpu School of Design and Innovation, the first design-thinking K12 school in China; and She Ji — the Journal of Design, Innovation, and Economics published by Tongji University and Elsevier. Lou served as the board director of World Design Organization (WDO) and Vice President of CUMULUS, International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media. He was invited as the keynote speaker in many conferences such as BODW 2018, IFI 2017, IDSA 2016, ACM SIGCHI 2015, WDC 2014 Design Policy Conference, IIT Design Strategy 2013 et
International Coordination Committee
Adam Thorpe
Adam Thorpe is a Reader in Socially Responsive Design and Innovation at University of the Arts London. He is based at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design where he is Creative Director of the Socially Responsive Design and Innovation Hub and the Design Against Crime Research Centre and co-ordinator of the University of the Arts London’s (UAL) Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Lab.
International Coordination Support Team
Virginia Tassinari
Virginia Tassinari currently works at the Product Design Department of the LUCA School of Arts in Belgium and lectures at the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Her work situates itself on the boundary between design – mostly for social innovation – and philosophy, both in terms of design research and theory as well as through design practice. She is co-initiator of the DESIS Philosophy Talks format, member of the DESIS International Committee and set up and coordinates the LUCA School of Arts DESIS Lab.
International Coordination Committee
Eduardo Staszowski
Eduardo Staszowski, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Design Strategies at Parsons School of Design. Staszowski is also the co-founder and Director of the Parsons DESIS Lab, an action-research laboratory created at The New School to advance the practice and discourse of design-led social innovation to foster more equitable and sustainable cities and practices. Staszowski’s research interests center on the intersection of design, social innovation, and public policy, which has as its core the development of experimental yet practical approaches to enhancing participation in policy development and civic service design. Specifically he studies how design as a method, language and agency can act as an intermediary among different stakeholders and environments to create, orient and govern processes of social innovation and sustainability. This research practice has led to the successful receipt of a number of merit based research awards and grants since joining The New School in 2008. Staszowski teaches courses in the areas of Design Strategies, Participatory Design and Social Innovation.
International Coordination Support Team
Louise St. Pierre
Louise St. Pierre is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media (DDM). She researches and teaches in sustainable design and medical design. She is co-author of internationally recognized curriculum, Okala Ecological Design, initiated Emily Carr’s participation in the international Partnership for Academic Leadership in Sustainability (PALS), and established Canada’s firstDESIS (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) Lab. Currently, St. Pierre is co-chair of the 2014 International Design Principles and Practices Conference. She has received awards for Industrial Design, Exhibit Design and Ecological Design work from organizations such as the IDSA and The American Center for Design, and has been published in ID Magazine, Print Magazine, Innovation, andCommunication Arts. St. Pierre has received funding for a broad range of sustainable and ecological design initiatives, including awards from the U.S. EPA. Prior to coming to ECUAD, St. Pierre was Chair of the University of Washington Industrial Design Program. She continues to lecture internationally on sustainable and ecological design.
International Coordination Committee
Ralitsa Debrah
Ralitsa Diana Debrah is a design educator and researcher at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, and at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa. She is a member of several design organizations including, the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Network (DESIS); e/Merge Africa, Network of Afrikan Designers (NAD), Pan Afrikan Design Institute (PADI), Ghana Institute of Graphic Artists (GhiGha); and Design Ghana. She also currently serves as the Afrikan Ambassador to the Open Design Afrika (ODA) organization. She has worked on several projects related to sustainability in both Afrikan and European settings. Ralitsa is currently a PhD Candidate at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Technology from the University of Cape Town (UCT), Cape Town, South Africa. Ralitsa holds a Master’s Degree in Communication Design and a Bachelor of Fine Art in Graphic Design from Kwame Nkrumah, University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana.
International Coordination Support Team
Amresh Panigrahi
Amresh Panigrahi is a Design Educator at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. A Design Practitioner, an avid researcher working with many national and international level of academic collaborative, industry projects to establish design as a tool for social reform.Some of his most impactful project where he contributed as Project lead and Designer are “Empowering women Basketweavers of Ethiopia-An initiative taken by Ministry of External affairs,Govt. of India, “Design intervention for bamboo and Cane artisan in Bhutan – A craft Design initiative by APIC,Ministry of Economic Affairs, Royal Government of Bhutan & United Nation Development Program,“Design development for soft stone craft of Varanasi under project USTTAD, an initiative taken by Ministry of Minority Affair,Govt. of India. Outreach activity of NID supported all the program as knowledge partners on the field.He is also one of the Nominated educators for “Bharat Vikas award” for the year 2017.
MEMBERSHIP
DESIS Network’s purpose is “to promote design for social innovation in higher education institutions with design discipline so as to generate useful design knowledge and to create meaningful social changes in collaboration with other stakeholders.”
DESIS Network’s purpose is “to promote design for social innovation in higher education institutions with design discipline so as to generate useful design knowledge and to create meaningful social changes in collaboration with other stakeholders.” Applying members who share the same vision and fulfil the following requirements will become DESIS Labs.
Members can be legally constituted higher education institutions or Universities with design disciplines (hereinafter referred to also only as “higher education institutions” or only as “Universities”), private or public, sharing DESIS motivations and visions and supporting DESIS activities (Labs projects, international Initiatives, Platform improvements).
Once the Membership Request Letter and its attachments have been received by the International Coordination Committee, they will be analysed in order to verify if the formal requirements are satisfied. On this basis, feedback will be send to the interested teams.
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