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Industrial Design and Interaction Design Faculty

Industrial Design faculty members are a group of active designers, educators, researchers, and award winners.


Steve Visser, Purdue, Industrial Design

Steve Visser

Professor of Industrial Design
Program Coordinator

Steve Visser has been on faculty at Purdue University since 1989. In 1996 he served as a Fulbright Professor at the University of Art and Design Helsinki. In 2007 he was named Honorary Professor at Nanjing University of Science and Technology in Nanjing, China. Professor Visser's designs have been recognized nationally and internationally. In 2004 he received an honorable mention in the ID magazine annual review. In 2003 he received an Award of Excellence in the Taiwan International Design Competition and an Opus Design Award from Japan. Previously he has received a Good Design Award, two IDEA Silvers, and second place in Forma Finlandia III International Plastic Design Competition.

His designs have been exhibited nationally including the Museum of Modern art, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, and the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. Additionally, his designs have been exhibited internationally, including; Japan, Italy, France, Finland, Taiwan, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, China, Korea, and the UK. [read more]

 


Cheryl Zhenyu Qian, Purdue, Industrial Design, Interaction Design

Cheryl Zhenyu Qian

Professor of Interaction Design and Industrial Design

Deparment Chair of Art and Design

Dr. Cheryl Zhenyu Qian joined Purdue University in 2010 and developed the Interaction Design MFA program. Being a boundary crosser, Dr. Qian is interested in studying and developing cognitive interactive systems to enrich knowledge, employing interdisciplinary research methodologies to improve the design quality, and adopting innovative technologies to better accommodate user experience. Her current research is focused on 1) the harmonious integration of physical and virtual interactions in the user experience design, 2) adopting interaction design theories, tools, and evaluation methods to review, compare, guide, and enhance product design outcomes, and 3) employing innovative design thinking into the domain of visual analytics.

As an academic researcher, apart from winning sixteen IEEE VAST challenge system design awards (2010~2022), the 1st demo contest prize of I2LOR'07, and the 2nd demo contest prize of I2LOR'05, Cheryl has built up a 90+ publication list ranging from journals, conference proceedings, poster presentations, and book translations in the interdisciplinary domains of Interaction Design, Digital Learning, Computer-aided Design, Human-computer Interaction, and Engineering Education. Her Ph.D. dissertation won the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal from Simon Fraser University in 2010.[read more]

 


TJ Kim, Purdue, Industrial Design

Tong Jin / TJ / Kim

Professor of Industrial Design

TJ Kim received his M.S. in Engineering, Design, and Innovation from Northwestern University in 2010 and his B.A. in Industrial Design from the University of Bridgeport in 1998. Prior to joining Academia, he has also worked at consultancy and corporate for more than 18 years as a design leader, delivering leading edge products and business solutions. His works has won many design awards and holds more than 50 US patents. He has been involved with various universities and design communities, giving lectures on design thinking and coordinating creative workshops for non-designers and community organizations.

TJ's research interest is the commercialization of design and building design platforms and communities that help students to develop their own products and establish a company in collaboration with others. This will allow students to gain real industry experience and knowledge by practicing design as a part of a business solution. [read more]

 


Jung Joo Sohn, Industrial Design, Interaction Design

Jung Joo Sohn

Assistant Professor of Industrial Design and Interaction Design

Jung Joo Sohn joins Purdue as an assistant professor of Industrial Design and Interaction Design in the Patti & Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance. Sohn received his MDes (Master of Design) in user research, design planning, and product design from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology. He also holds a BDes (Bachelor of Design) in industrial design from Korea. Prior to joining Purdue, Sohn spent more than eight years as a UX (user experience) designer in the Corporate Design Center at Samsung Electronics and was a visiting scholar with the Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI) at Georgia Institute of Technology.

As a multidisciplinary designer, he contributed emerging devices, new mobile services (e.g., artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and health care), and related user interfaces with cutting-edge technologies in growth markets. He has been granted more than 20 US/EU/KR patents in UI (user interface) and interaction for future display and mobile service. These patents have been applied in consumer products by Samsung Electronics. Due to the successful technology transfer from his team’s research and design, he announced a new concept of health service with AI at the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress in 2019. Sohn’s research interests lie in the fields of industrial design, interaction design, and user experience. In the fusion of these fields, he focuses on developing technology in harmony with human sensibility and emotions.  [read more]

 

Jennifer_Kaufmann-Buhler, Purdue

Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler

Associate Professor of Design History

Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler is an Associate Professor of Design History in the department of Art and Design. Her research focuses broadly on ordinary spaces and objects in the context of everyday life, and her current project is about the progressive origins and emerging problems of the American open plan office (“office cubicles”) in the late 20th century. Kaufmann-Buhler has presented her research at various national conferences and is currently in the process of developing several articles as well as a book on her open plan office research. She earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Design Studies, her MA in the History of Design from the Royal College of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and her BA in American Culture from Vassar College.  [read more]

 

David Marchese

Lecturer of Industrial Design

David Marchese is a Lecturer of Industrial Design in the department of Art and Design. David joined Purdue University in the fall of 2010 as the Shop Technician for Art and Design. During his time as shop technician he enrolled in the graduate program at Purdue and earned his MFA in Industrial Design. David also holds a BFA of 3D Wood Design from William Paterson University and an AAS in Graphic Design from Sussex County Community  College. David made the switch from technician to faculty in 2022. 

David’s design work focuses on furniture and model making. His specialties lie in fabrication both physical and digital. He is working towards utilizing traditional methods in conjunction with digital technologies in the making process. As the world we live in creeps slowly towards becoming mainly a digital one, he strives to keep his designs rooted in the here and now.

When it comes to teaching David carried his pedagogy of being “student first" from his time as a shop technician. He is there to give the students a solid foundation so that they excel in their studies. 

 

Coco Ree Lemery

Visiting Professor of Industrial Design

A creative force and one of the world’s most sought-after furniture designers, CoCo Ree Lemery is an award-winning artist and designer. A former Design Director, CoCo has best-selling products sold at global retailers such as at Pottery Barn, Nieman Marcus, Jonathan Adler, and Williams Sonoma. Her work garnered widespread recognition with awards such as NYCxDesign Awards, A’ Design Awards, European Product Design Awards, International Furniture Design Association, WIL awards, and the Pinnacle Awards.  With a background as a trained Charge Scenic Artist & Scenographer, CoCo also crafts unique environments for clients such as Fox Studios, Ralph Lauren, and the Adler Planetarium with an upcoming immersive installation at Whim Chicago. It was this body of work that led her to be presented with the 2017 Michael Merritt Award. With a flexible style rooted in place and a borderline obsession with the objects that surround us, CoCo has kept a very active artistic practice throughout her career. Her artwork can be seen in diverse collections, from the esteemed Chelsea Town Hall in London to the Atlantic Public Library. Presently, her work is on display at the 2023 Evanston & Vicinity Biennial.  A lifelong educator, CoCo worked with students at the University of Chicago, Hope College, SCAD, and University of Illinois. Currently, CoCo is the Creative Director for Studio Kloak, and brings together her immense experience in consumer retail and immersive environments as a professor to guide students on the path toward successful creative careers.