Joshua D. Summers, Professor in Mechanical Engineering and named College IDEaS Professor at Clemson University, co-directs the CEDAR Group (Clemson Engineering Design Applications and Research). Dr. Summers earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University researching design automation. Dr. Summers received his BSME and MSME from the University of Missouri-Columbia working on VR-based submarine design. Dr. Summers has worked at the Naval Research Laboratory (VR Lab and Naval Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence) and served on the Foreign Relations/Armed Services staff of Senator John D. Ashcroft. Dr. Summers’ research has been funded (~$6M) by government (NASA, NSF, US Army TACOM), large industry (BMW, Michelin, General Motors), and small-medium sized enterprises (Wright Metal Products, Hartness International, and others). Dr. Summers’ areas of interest include collaborative design, knowledge management, and design enabler development with the overall objective of improving design through collaboration and computation. The work has resulted in well over 220 peer reviewed publications. Dr. Summers teaching interests has resulted in introduction of four new courses in engineering design, revamping of the senior design program, and the introduction of an international study abroad experience for senior engineers. This research and teaching has been recognized with awards from SAE (Ralph Teetor Award and Arch T. Colwell Merit Award), TMCE (Outstanding Researcher Award), Innovision (Innovations in Education), the South Carolina Governor’s Award for Scientific Awareness, and others. Most significantly, Dr. Summers has been the advisor of record for five post-doctoral students, 6 completed PHD dissertations, 33 MS theses, 5 MS projects, two honor’s undergraduate thesis, and currently supervises over twenty graduate and undergraduate students. All four of his former post-doctoral advisees that completed their service and one PHD student are currently in academic positions at Clemson University, Texas State University, St. Louis University, North Texas University, and Florida Tech.

Yuri Borgianni has obtained the Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florence, Italy (2005) and the Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering at the same Institution (2014). Still at the University of Florence, he has served as Research Assistant from 2006 to 2015. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Free University of Bozen|Bolzano, Italy, where he teaches technical drawing, CAD, design methods for industrial engineering, design creativity, Reverse Engineering and Rapid Prototyping. He is qualified for the functions of Associate Professor according to the Italian law. His research interests include problem solving, value innovation, ideation within engineering design, creative development of new products, design for additive manufacturing, eco-design and user-product interaction. He is author of 80+ publications in scientific journals and international conferences. He has been reviewer for 10+ international journals, as well as member of many scientific committee of international conferences. He serves in the Outreach Committee for the Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science, and in the Editorial Board of Sustainability. He has participated in several research projects as both Assistant Researcher and Assistant Professor. More at https://tinyurl.com/jeet4cr.

Gaetano Cascini holds a Ph.D. in Machine Design and is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests cover Design Methods and Tools with a focus on the concept generation stages both for product and process innovation. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Integrated Design & Process Science, and member of the Editorial Board of the followings: Research in Engineering Design, International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation. He is also member of the Advisory Board of the Design Society and co-chair of its Design Creativity SIG. He has coordinated several research projects, among the others the European Project Marie Curie-IAPP FORMAT (FORecast and Roadmapping for MAnufacturing Technologies). Currently he is the coordinator of the European projects: SPARK: Spatial Augmented Reality as a Key for co-creativity (Horizon 2020 – ICT) and OIPEC: Open innovation Platform for university-Enterprise Collaboration: new product, business and human capital development (Erasmus+ – Capacity Building in Higher Education). He has authored more than 140 papers presented at International Conferences and published in authoritative Journals and 13 patents (assignees Università di Firenze, Whirlpool Europe, Bracco Imaging, Logli, Scam, Meccaniche Fiorentine, Otlav, Politecnico di Milano, SAES Getters, Elettrotecnica Rold).

Dr Brian Dixon is Course Director for the MFA Design at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University in Northern Ireland. He is also co-investigator for ‘Design Innovation and Land Assets', a UK Government funded research project which explores how design might support community design-making in relation to the landscape and environment. Broadly, his research focuses on the relationship between design – in particular, practical, experimental design research – and philosophy, considering how each might productively inform the other. His first book, Dewey and Design: A Pragmatist Perspective for Design Research presents a philosophically informed outline of practical design methodologies can be given greater epistemological weight. He is a Senior Fellow of the UK’s Higher Education Academy and holds a PhD in interaction design from University of the Arts London.

Professor Stephen Ekwaro-Osire is a full professor of mechanical engineering at Texas Tech University (TTU) and a licensed professional engineer in the State of Texas. He was most recently the interim chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the associate dean of research and graduate programs in the Whitacre College of Engineering at TTU. Before joining academia, he practiced engineering in the private sector. He has over ten years of experience in educational leadership. He was previously the interim chair of the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing & Systems Engineering at TTU. He was a Fulbright Scholar and is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. While at TTU, he has held honorary professorships at four universities in four countries. He has published 65 refereed archival papers in scientific journals, 135 refereed papers in conference proceedings, 14 book chapters, and two books. He has also delivered 36 invited talks in seven countries. As a primary advisor, he has supervised and graduated 13 PhD students and 23 MS students, and he is currently supervising five PhD students and two MS students. Besides serving as a primary advisor, he has additionally served on 71 PhD committees and 53 MS committees. He has mentored and trained seven post-doctoral research associates. Also, as the director of his Product Design & Development Laboratory, he has supervised and mentored 246 undergraduate students. Professor Ekwaro-Osire and his collaborators have secured $7.3 million for their research from state agencies, federal agencies, industry, and international funding agencies. For the last seven years, Professor Ekwaro-Osire has been an engineering program evaluator for ABET (Global Accreditor of College and University Programs in Applied & Natural Science, Computing, Engineering, and Engineering Technology). His research interests are uncertainty quantification, prognostics health management, engineering design, and orthopedic biomechanics. He is a founding member of the Society for Design and Process Science, and an active member of the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Society of Biomechanics, and the Society for Experimental Mechanics. Professor Ekwaro-Osire's doctorate, master's, and undergraduate degrees are all in mechanical engineering from accredited institutions.

Oscar Nespoli is a Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Oscar joined UWaterloo following a 23 year career in research, engineering and management practice in industry and government. Oscar’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of design cognition, design methods, design education, and lightweight composite material structures. Oscar maintains strong industry-university relations and a commitment to remain close to design practice. Before joining UWaterloo, Oscar was employed at L-3 Communications Wescam where he led inter-disciplinary teams toward infoful development and commercialization of camera systems. Earlier in his career Oscar was employed at Department of National Defence, the Canadian Space Agency, Owens Corning Canada, and the research division of the Bata Shoe Organization. Oscar has been a licensed Professional Engineer with Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) since 1986. He is a member of the Design Society, and founded and co-chairs an International Special Interest Group (SIG) on Design Practice.

Thomas T. H. Wan, Ph.D., MHS, is a professor emeritus of health management and informatics at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He has taught at Cornell, Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), and UCF. He received his A.B. in Sociology from Tunghai University and completed his MA in Sociology and Ph.D. in Sociology/Demography from the University of Georgia. He chaired the Department of Health Administration at VCU (1990-1999). He completed his post-doctoral fellowship and earned his MHS degree in 1971 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. His research expertise includes healing environment design, healthcare informatics, health systems analysis and evaluation, long-term care, artificial intelligence applications in healthcare, clinical health services research, and structural equation modeling. He has conducted a national study on Rural Health Clinics in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) funded by NIH. This project enabled him to investigate the effects of changing delivery systems or healthcare reforms on efficiency and effectiveness of patient-centric care in the United States. He is an active board member of fifteen scientific journals. He is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Integrated Design and Process. He has published more than 215 articles, 27 book chapters and 15 books. His engagement in health services management research and consultation has helped the development of formal MHA graduate programs in Kazakhstan, Czech Republic, and Taiwan (Kaohsiung Medical University).

Dr. Yong Zeng is a Professor in the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering at Concordia University. He is the president of Society for Design and Process Science (SDPS). He was an NSERC Chair in Aerospace Design Engineering program (2015 - 2019). He was the Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in design science (2004 - 2014). He received his Ph.D. from Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Calgary in 2001 and another PhD degree in Computational Mechanics from Dalian University of Technology in 1992. He is an Associate Editor of AI EDAM (Cambridge), Honorary Editor (since 2018) and Editor-in-Chief (2012-2018) of Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science (IOS), and an editorial board member of Computers in Industry as well as Computational Design and Engineering (Elsevier). Zeng’s research aims to understand and improve creative design activities through formal and neuro-cognitive experimental approaches. He has proposed a new domain-independent design methodology called Environment-Based Design (EBD).

Dr. Zhu's primary research interests relate to teaching and learning in engineering, the development of engineering students' professional skills, the cognitive development of graduate and undergraduate students. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, and Advances in Engineering Education. For her work on the cognitive development of Chinese engineering doctoral students in U.S. institutions, she received the 2013 Doctoral Thesis Award from the School of Engineering Education, Purdue University. Dr. Zhu has chaired multiple projects from the Humanities and Social Science Program, Chinese Ministry of Education, Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Program and others. She currently serves as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Education and as a board member for the Research in Engineering Education Network. She obtained a Ph.D. in Engineering Education and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University. She received another M.S. in Optics from Chinese Academy of Sciences and a B.S. in Physics from East China Normal University.