Prof. dr. Giaccardi, E.

Elisa Giaccardi is Professor of Post-industrial Design at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), where she coordinates the European-funded research and training network DCODE. Her work focuses on the challenges and opportunities that a digital transformation of society brings to design as a field of research and practice. After pioneering work in metadesign, her research over the last decade has turned to more-than-human design. In this space, she engages with how digital things today connect and learn, and thus actively participate in design in ways that previous industrially produced objects could not. Her work has contributed significantly to the development of post-industrial and post-humanist approaches in design and HCI.

A TEDx and frequent keynote speaker, Elisa successfully brings together humanities, media studies, and interaction design. She has an established record in teaching and collaborative research in a variety of disciplinary settings, academic cultures, and international contexts. This experience has influenced her personal sensitivity, coaching and leadership style, and understanding of inclusion and diversity at all levels. She regularly lectures and publishes in international journals and at leading conferences for design research, interaction design, and human-computer interaction, and has been the recipient of best teacher awards and several prestigious scholarships and research grants in both Europe and the United States, including a Delft Technology Fellowship for top female scientists.

Elisa has co-founded the interdisciplinary program AiTech that spearheaded the TU Delft AI Initiative and the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering’s Design & AI program, as part of her service to the larger TU Delft community. She has also directed and started the revision of the MSc Design for Interaction program at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, chaired the Doctoral Education Committee of Delft University of Technology, and worked as an investigator and ambassador at the Amsterdam Metropolitan Solutions (AMS) Institute, a joint venture between TU Delft, Wageningen University, MIT, and the City of Amsterdam. She has held a board position with Delft Women in Science (DEWIS), a campus-wide organization devoted to gender inclusion and diversity.

Elisa has served as an expert reviewer for the European Research Agency, the US National Science Foundation, the National Research Council Canada, and the Dutch Research Council, among others. She is currently Associate Editor of Human-Computer Interaction and editorial board member of the Springer series Design Research Foundations. She previously served as an editor for ACM Interactions, Ubiquity, and the Journal of Writing in Creative Practices.

She is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Design Research Society (DRS), and the Metadesigners Network.

Education

2003
PhD, School of Computing, Communications, and Electronics, University of Plymouth, UK (Examining Board’s Special Mention for PhD Dissertation)
1998
MA, School of Humanities and Philosophy, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy (Summa Cum Laude)

Experience

2012 – present
Full professor, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
2018 – 2020
Visiting professor, Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University, Sweden
2009 – 2012
Associate professor, Department of Computer Science & Institute for Culture and Technology, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
2004 – 2009
Postdoctoral researcher, Center for LifeLong Learning & Design (L3D), University of Colorado at Boulder, USA

Leadership

2019 – 2022
Program Director, MSc Design for Interaction, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
2018 – 2020
Co-founder and Faculty Coordinator, AiTech, TU Delft
2018 – 2020
Committee Chair, Doctoral Education Committee, TU Delft
2017 – 2023
Principal Investigator, Amsterdam Metropolitan Solutions Institute
2015 – 2018
Board Member, Doctoral Education Committee, TU Delft
2015 – 2018
Program Coordinator, Graduate School, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
2014 – 2018
Management Team, Department of Industrial Design, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
2014 – 2018
Section Head and Budget Holder, Human Information and Communication Design, Department of Industrial Design, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
2014 – 2018
Board Member, Delft Women in Science (DEWIS), TU Delft