Lecturers

Alessandro Mininno works with digital consultancy, in various forms, since 2003. He is cofounder of Gummy Industries, a digital creative agency based in Italy.

Alvise Mattozzi is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies of Science and Technology at Politecnico di Torino. Previously Mattozzi taught Social Studies of Design at the Faculty of Design and Art at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. His research unfolds between Science and Technology Studies and Design Studies. Mattozzi investigates the social role of artifacts, design practices, and the integration between social sciences and design.

Andrea Vetter is a transformation practitioner, researcher, and teacher. Following her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, she worked theoretically and practically on degrowth, commons, and queer ecofeminism. Vetter taught Transformation Design as a Visiting Professor at HBK Braunschweig. She is on the managing board of the socio-cultural center "Haus des Wandels" and editor of "Oya" a popular magazine for transformation. Vetter is also on the supervisory board of the energy cooperative “BEOSeG” and on the advisory board of the think-tank "Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie".

HSLU-Profile
  

Barbara is an interior designer, scenographer and university lecturer. As creative director at Aroma Zurich she creates exhibitions, spatial designs and narrative spaces. Her career includes significant roles at renowned agencies across Germany, China, and Switzerland, including Schmidhuber Munich and Bellprat Zurich. Barbara's academic background encompasses studies in interior design at Rosenheim and Copenhagen, as well as Ethnology in Zurich and Munich. She furthered her education with courses at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and the University of Zurich. For her doctoral thesis in philosophical aesthetics and cultural studies at the University of Potsdam, Germany, she explored themes of perception and atmosphere. Currently, she teaches design theory and practice at ZHdK and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU).

Interview
Book

Beatrice Durrer Eggerschwiler studied agriculture at ETH Zürich and earned an urban and community development MA at HSLU. Since 2004, she has taught and researched at HSLU SA in socio-spatial development, neighborhood, urban, and community development processes, social sustainability in spatial contexts, socio-spatial planning processes, and participation and cooperation processes.

More info in the HSLU-Profile

Beatrice Kaufmann is a designer and researcher in social and health care design at the Institute of Design Research at Bern Acadamy of the Arts HKB. Beatrice also works as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator.

Bruce Sterling is a science fiction novelist, technology journalist, and futurist who has somehow survived for seven decades, despite his unhealthy fondness for cyberpunk. Sterling is the Art Director for Share Festival in Turin, Italy, where he spots trends in technology art for the festival in his Artmaker Blog. His most recent book is a science fiction collection, Robot Artists and Black Swans, the Italian Fantascienza Stories.

Caroline Paulick-Thiel is a strategic designer experienced in developing and leading participatory processes to address public challenges. Since 2015, she has been the Director of politicsfortomorrow.eu. This non-partisan initiative promotes public transformation and collaborates with political-administrative institutions from the local to the highest federal level in Germany.

Christian Schneider is a computer scientist, researcher, and artist who investigates and integrates computational methods into Design, Data Visualization, and Data Science. He received an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Neuchâtel (CH) and the University of Århus (DK) and was admitted to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (US). Christian worked for the Centre for Advanced Visualization and Interaction in Århus (DK), MTV World in Auckland (NZ), Chair for Information Architecture at ETH Zurich (CH), Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore (SG), the Statistics Office in Zurich (CH) and the University Hospital Regensburg (DE). He has also taught workshops at ETH Zurich (CH) and the University of Applied Sciences Chur (CH). When Christian is not teaching, he is most likely to be found working for companies or institutions in quest of revealing hidden gems in their data.

Christof Arn began his journey in the field of ethics with a doctorate in ethics in 2000. He obtained a second doctorate in 2007, focusing on the topic of "ethics transfer." Since then, Arn has dedicated his career to the study and application of ethics in various fields. He worked as an ethics researcher, author, and consultant for companies and as an ethics trainer and lecturer at universities.
From 2010 to 2018, Arn served as Head of the Center for Learning and Teaching at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
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tooting.ch
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Christoph Fischer is a freelance Illustrator and drawing teacher in Lucerne. He works for newspapers (editorial design) and produces art and book projects. Some examples of his work include:

• Book "Während ich schlief" with drawings of his dreams
• Reportage drawing projects "Chicago Westside", "Bahnhofplatz Luzern"
• Long-term documentation of "Teufelskreisel Kreuzstutz" and the sculpture "Heinz"

Instagram: #christophfischer_illustration

Daniele Catalanotto is a Service Design nerd, practitioner, author, and educator who tries to make Service Design simple for anyone. Since March 2024, Daniele co-leads the MA Service Design with Andy Polaine.

He founded the Swiss Innovation Academy in 2019, supporting over 13,000 individuals, and taught in academia and enterprises. He has been the president of the Service Design Network Switzerland Chapter since 2023. From 2019 to 2024, he worked as an "Innovation Coach" for the Salvation Army, crafting strategies for various Salvation Army territories, regions and departments. He worked as a consultant at Good Innovation and Enigma from 2014 to 2018. In his consultancy and freelance work, Daniele has helped organisations like The British Heart Foundation (BHF), The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), Daimler China, Ricola Thailand, Raiffeisen, IKEA, RTS, Romande Energie, Camille Bloch, EWZ, the City of Carouge, and more. Daniele holds a Master of Arts in Service Design from HSLU, Lucerne University and a Bachelor of Arts from ECAL, Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne.
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Nicole Lachenmeier and Darjan Hil, partners in Superdot, are specialists in information design to visualize complexity. Superdot‘s clients include companies, NGOs, government agencies, and universities. Their work has received several awards, including the German Press Agency Award and the Information is Beautiful Award. Lachenmeier and Hil have been teaching for six years and are currently publishing a book on their methods. 
Modular Information Design Handbook

Fabian Frei is a designer and developer who produces bespoke digital interactions and user interfaces professionally while utilizing methodologies of interface and interaction design artistically.

Francesco Caras explores what it means to design in the current epoch: the Anthropocene. His focus is on digital: an industry that is both a key driver of ecological transition and a significant cause of ecological disruption. A former Design Director at Nokia, Sapient, IconMedialab, and  Ecologia Digitale (Altreconomia, 2022), he examines this paradox and outlines some solutions for digital sustainability. Francesco teaches ecodesign to undergraduate students at IED Milan and to master students at Politecnico di Milano and campaigns for the Right to Repair as part of Repair EU. 

François Chambard is a designer and maker. In 2004, he started UM Project (Users & Makers) at the crossroads of function and fiction, yielding experiments and unusual goods. Recently, the practice has evolved into Unblock, where human technology and the spirit of things collide. Unblock focuses on neurodiversity and its positive impact on the design process.

Franziska Nyffenegger worked in book publishing, translated and interpreted, wrote subtitles, and published as a freelance journalist after completing her studies at University of Zurich (Lic Phil I, Ethnology, Spanish Literature, Journalism). Since 2008 she has lectured at ZHdK in the Department of Design and Department of Cultural Analysis and Mediation. She is a guest lecturer at Lucerne School of Design & Art and Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Writing in study and profession, design history, and design theory are the main focuses of her teaching. In the summer of 2016, she completed a doctorate in cultural anthropology at the University of Basel.

Gregor Finger is co-founder of the Oslo-based spatial design startup Ordinary Objects. OO aims to make prototyping spatial experiences exponentially more intuitive, powerful, and fun. Previously, he worked as a Creative Technologist and Spatial Computing Lead, conceptualizing, prototyping, and leading R&D and commercial projects for leading international brands such as IKEA and BMW.
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James Auger is Director of the Design Department at École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (ENS) and Co-Director of Centre de Recherche en Design, a laboratory jointly run by ENS and ENSCI Les Ateliers. His practice-based design research examines technology’s social, cultural, and personal impacts and the products resulting from its development and application.
crapfutures.com
reconstrained.design
auger-loizeau.com

James Dudley earned his diploma from Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and was a guest student at the Städelschule, Frankfurt. Before running his own studio, Dudley combined his interest in experience and 3D design at Atelier Markgraph, Imagination. His projects include stages for Mercedes Benz at the Frankfurt motor show, the body zone at the Millennium Dome, and the flagship store for Victorinox in London.
Dudley offers remote Sprint workshops for organizations that need to quickly innovate,  prototype and test solutions. Recently he led a two-year research and development program at the National Portrait Gallery, helping to reshape and increase the relevance of the nation's family album.
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Joe Macleod is founder of the world’s first customer-ending business. A veteran of the product development industry, Macleod has decades of experience across service, digital, and product sectors. Author of the book Ends, hailed by iFixIt1 as “the best book about consumer e-waste.” Macleod is head of Endineering at AndEnd and is a TEDx Speaker. Described by Wired as “an energetic Englishman, Macleod advises companies on how to game out their endgames. Every product faces a cycle of endings, from breakage to customer burnout to falling behind consumption trends. It‘s important to plan for each of them. Not all companies do.

Joey Guidone studied at the European Institute of Design (IED) in Turin and MiMaster in Milan. Since 2015 he has worked as a freelance illustrator with newspapers, magazines, advertising agencies, book publishers, and corporate communication studios. Guidone works mainly for US clients such as The New York Times, ESPN, Apple, and Adobe and occasionally collaborates with leading Italian magazines and newspapers. Guidone has received numerous awards from the NY Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, 3x3, Association of Illustrators (AOI), and Applied Arts.

Joseph Press is a Futures Architect and Professor of Innovation, Design, and Leadership. He collaborates with Institute for the Future to inspire and design meaningful futures for individuals, organizations, and communities. Following his Ph.D. in Design Technology at MIT, he pivoted from architecture to a consulting career with Deloitte Digital. Press co-founded the IDeaLs research group at Politecnico di Milano to learn how to engage people to make transformation happen. He has co-authored four books, most recently "Office Shock: Creating Better Futures for Working and Living" and "A Design Driven Guide for Entrepreneurs: Strategies for Starting up in a Multiverse". Press co-founded MakeOurFuture, a platform cooperative of practitioners who empower organizations to accelerate the transition to more sustainable practices. He is a Visiting Professor at Politecnico di Milano School of Management and an Adjunct Professor at Parsons, The New School for Design.

Justin W. Cook is a strategic designer working on problem sets found in climate, health, and governance. He is the Director of the Center for Complexity at Rhode Island School of Design, a platform for research and experimentation. Formerly, at the Finnish Innovation Fund, Justin focused on sustainability and wellbeing in Finnish society. He received a Master of Architecture from Harvard.

Karel van der Waarde studied graphic design in the Netherlands and the UK. In 1995, he formed a design-research consultancy in Belgium specializing in testing information related to medicines for patients, doctors, and pharmacists. He frequently publishes and lectures about visual information. 
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Kris Krois founded the transdisciplinary and practice-based MA in Eco-Social Design at the Free University of Bozen–Bolzano. Together with students, teachers, and partners from design, art, science, activism, and entrepreneurship, he is co-developing design practices, tools, and structures that contribute to social-ecological transformations towards more solidary, resilient, and sustainable modes of living and production. Since 2013 he has been organizing the annual conference By Design or by Disaster. He is a founding member of the research cluster trans-form, Zukunftspakt – Patto per il Futuro, lab:bz, and Scientists for Future South Tyrol. He is engaged in diverse transformation-oriented arenas, always trying to draw together things, ideas, and actors to unfold positive societal changes.

Lea Schmidt is a research associate at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and a doctoral candidate at TU Dresden‘s chair of Industrial Design Engineering. Her research focuses on sustainability, design, and technology, emphasizing material circularity and its design implications.

More info in the HSLU-Profile

Lee Moreau is the founding director of Other Tomorrows, a design and strategy studio based in Boston. Over the past two decades, Lee has directed service and experience design projects for leading organizations like Southwest Airlines, BBVA, Google, P&G, Nike, Eli Lilly, Hilton, Kaiser-Permanente, Chili's, Novartis, Jamba, and Lincoln Center that blur the boundaries between content and experience. Before founding Other Tomorrows in 2019, Lee was the VP of Design at EPAM Continuum, the Director of Environments at 2×4, and worked as a designer at IDEO and the Rockwell Group. When not in the studio, Lee podcasts for Design Observer or teaches design, strategy, and innovation courses at Northeastern University's College of Arts, Media, and Design, where he is the Professor of Practice Design.

Marco Bellano is a Marie Curie Global Fellow at the University of Padua. Author of numerous publications on music for audiovisuals and animation cinema, including the book “Allegro non Troppo: Bruno Bozzetto’s Animated Music” (Bloomsbury, 2021). In 2014, he received a McLaren-Lambart Award (best scholarly article) from the Society for Animation Studies. He is on the board of ASIFA Italy. Marco has a Ph.D. in the History of Cinema, graduated with honors in piano from the Vicenza Conservatory of Music, and then pursued studies in composition and conducting.
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Marco Steinberg is Founder, and CEO of Snowcone & Haystack, a Helsinki based strategic design practice focused on helping governments innovate. He specializes in issues of development, transformation, and institutional innovation.

From 2008-2013 Steinberg was Director of Strategic Design at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund, where he established the fund’s strategic design capability. He launched a portfolio of public governance innovation initiatives, including Helsinki Design Lab  and Low2No. From 1999-2009 he served as Associate Professor at the Harvard Design School, where he led the Stroke Pathways Project, a system redesign approach to health delivery in the US. 

Steinberg holds degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and Harvard University. In 2020 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Delft Technical University (TU Delft).

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Marta Lago is a healthcare innovation and design expert. She is a Global Innovation Lead at a major biotech company, where she is responsible for driving the design and implementation of strategic solutions to improve patient's lives and health outcomes while maximizing the value of their therapies. An innovator in the healthcare ecosystem, Lago's work focuses on organizational change toward human centricity and creating new spaces for collaboration. Before healthcare, Lago led or supported the creation of new services in different sectors (fintech, scientific publishing, FMCG, etc.) with a human-centric approach. Her understanding of the innovation process helped address the complexity of healthcare innovation. 
Lago holds a master’s degree in Engineering from University of the Basque Country (Spain) and University Fridericiana of Karlsruhe (Germany) and a master’s degree in design from Royal College of Art in London (UK). She regularly engages in academic exploration and teaching human-centered design, research, and entrepreneurship-related topics.

Maya Minder is an Eatart and Bioart artist who lives and works in Zurich and Paris. She studied art history at University of Zurich and received an MA in Fine Arts at Zurich University of the Arts. In addition to her art practice, Minder is an organizer, curator and runs an Open Science Lab at Zentralwäschrei Zurich in collaboration with Hackteria.org. She volunteers with the Swiss Society for Mechtatronic Art (SGMK/SSAM) and Food Culture Days, Vevey. 
Minder has had many exhibitions and received grants such as Cité International des Arts, Swiss Art Awards, Ars Electronica, Salon Talk, Serpentine Gallery, Production Award, Pro Helvetia, Art Explora Fellow, Nomiation KADIST AWARD, Kunsthalle Zürich.

Michele Pagani approached the digital world during his first year of university; at 19, he founded a web agency. After earning his degree and working as a Research Assistant for Università Bocconi (Italy), he moved to New York, where he worked for a consultancy Funaro & Co. Upon his return to Italy, Pagani participated in the launching of many startups, becoming a consultant for startups and web agencies in Italy and the US (TopArt, MediaRails, Mobave, Instal), managing tasks from marketing to product management. Pagani is currently the CEO of Flatmates, an influencer marketing agency founded with Marcello Ascani. Pagani has competencies in quantitative analysis, project management, content creation, and copywriting.

Minh-Nguyet Le is a design researcher working at the intersection of academia and publicly funded design research projects. She completed an MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons the New School for Design in 2012, focusing predominantly on design for social innovation and participatory methods for public sector innovation.

More info in the HSLU-Profile

Nando Schmidlin is a Sustainable Design Strategist at Milani design & consulting. Nando studied industrial design in Zurich and completed the MA International Design Business Management / Creative Sustainability in Helsinki in 2018. At Milani, he supports circular design efforts for clients who deliver for example power tools, medical injectors or washing machines.
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Ramona Banfi has a BA in Visual Communication and a MA in Interaction Design from the University of Applied Science and Arts of Southern Switzerland. She is a Senior Digital Product Designer at SpotMe and a UX design mentor at Careerfoundry. Previously Banfi worked as UX/UI designer at Experientia, UX/UI consultant at CSI Piemonte, and a UI designer at Arduino.
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Sabato Urciuoli is a London-based Italian Design Director with 15 years of experience working globally, leading and executing immersive products and experiences from the initial idea to the day-to-day crafting. His focus includes Design Research, Product Design, and Visual Systems. Until recently, he led the design team at Jadu AR. Pioneers in the AR field, they developed the first multiplayer augmented reality fighting game for mobile.
LinkedIn

Sabine Fink is a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest,
Snow and Landscape Research WSL and lecturer at ETH Zürich. Her work includes ecological habitat modelling and simulations of the dispersal of less mobile organisms that occur in typical floodplain habitats (plants, fungi, lichens, animals).

Sabrina Tarquini is a design consultant based in Stockholm. She has been moving between service and UX design in her practice, working for corporates, governments, and NGOs. At Namahn, she co-created a methodology for systemic design based on a design toolkit for collaborative sessions which she introduced in conference talks and workshops.
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HSLU-Profile
  

Serena Cangiano is Head of the Digital Fabrication Laboratory and Senior Researcher at SUPSI - University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland at the Institute of Design. She has worked on the design of educational formats since 2009, combining design and technology through prototyping. As an interaction designer and researcher, Cangiano carries out applied projects on design and open innovation, focusing on systemic and social impact. She teaches Multimodal Experience Design at SUPSI and Tangible Experience Design at HSLU. She is a board member of the Swiss Design Network.

In 2015, Cangiano completed her doctoral research at Iuav in Venice on open hardware and design practices. She co-edited “Open Technologies'', issue n. 30 of the Italian publication Progetto Grafico; and the book Rebelling with Care. Her latest publication is included in The Critical Makers Reader - (Un)Learning Technologies. She co-founded Ethafa, a social company that promotes STEM education for young women.

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Simon de Diesbach co-founded the studio fragmentin.com, focusing on interactive installations following his BA in Media & Interactive Design at ECAL. In 2018, he pursued a Master’s in Film at HSLU D&K, directing the animated short “Limits,” which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival. Simon’s work explores new tech and aesthetics, emphasizing environmental and social themes. Currently, he is involved in VR installations and an animated film. He also gives workshops in animation and design at various Swiss schools of applied arts and universities..
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Uwe H. Martin is an artist, visual storyteller, slow journalist, researcher, and educator. He has documented global agriculture’s social and environmental consequences since 2007, together with his partner Frauke Huber. Their work integrates traditional journalistic publications, linear web documentaries, interactive apps, spatial multichannel installations, and performances. Martin teaches photography, film, journalism, and storytelling for eco-social impact at universities, workshops, and journalism schools worldwide. 
He empowers people to become independent and expand their scope of action to bring about lasting societal and environmental changes. Martin co-founded the international art and research project World of Matter and RiffReporter, a crossover between a collaborative publishing platform and a business incubator for entrepreneurial science journalism. 
Martin lives in Hamburg and Salton Sea, California. On the Salton Sea, he is building a campus, desert garden, and research lab on Bombay Beach to bring together diverse expert teams to envisage solutions to the Water-Food-Energy-Climate-Nexus.
landrushproject.com

Valerio Rocco Orlando is an Italian artist and Ph.D. student working in the fields of architecture and urban planning. He aims to understand art as a process of mutual knowledge and understanding through his practice, which includes workshops and video installations. Valerio investigates the interactions between institutions, museums, universities, and the social environment. In his doctoral thesis, Valerio explores the process of establishing an independent and interdisciplinary school in a state-owned building in Matera. The long-term art project aims to explore new perspectives on urban and educational spaces designed by artists in collaboration with local communities in the Global South. Valerio has works in public and private collections worldwide, including Ramallah, Havana, Prato, Lisbon, Rome, Milan and Frankfurt am Main.

Yaniv Steiner participates in the convergence of humans and technology. For three decades, he has worked with companies, governments, and academia to design user-centered solutions which bridge the gap between humans and computers. Steiner helps people connect with their purpose by tapping into their creativity to design meaningful and fulfilling interactions.