Human Centered Design & Engineering

Design Jam for Accessibility

In Autumn quarter, HCDE welcomed students for wearABLE Futures, a fast-paced design jam focused on the question: How might we make wearable technology more accessible to all humans? Industry mentors from Ipsos, Oura, Meta, Ralytics, and Microsoft’s Inclusive Tech Lab met with student teams, offering feedback and helping students connect their ideas to real-world feasibility and impact. 

Nadya Peek: Designing Automation

HCDE Associate Professor Nadya Peek is designing open, human-centered automation tools that help scientists run more reproducible, creative, and accessible experiments. Working with collaborators across engineering, science, and fabrication, her research focuses on building flexible automation systems that can be adapted to different labs, workflows, and research questions.

Outstanding Alumni Award: Dr. Natasha Jones

The Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering is proud to recognize Natasha N. Jones (PhD ‘12), associate professor in Michigan State University’s Department of African American and African Studies, as the inaugural recipient of the HCDE Outstanding Alumni Award.

HCDE Team Shines in IBM Challenge

A team of HCDE master’s students has earned second place in the IBM Challenge as part of the 2025 Student Service Design Challenge, an international competition inviting students to design services that advance equality and inclusivity. Their project, Echo, addresses a growing need for transparency and ethical communication around the use of AI in speech-language pathology.