Caroline Hummels

Biography

Caroline Hummels is full professor Design and Theory for Transforming Practices at the department of Industrial Design, TU Eindhoven. She develops alternative practices for societal transformation, addressing key societal challenges, e.g., climate change, healthcare and polarisation, by interweaving cutting-edge academic theories with forward-looking practical applications. By leveraging emerging technologies and co-designing in collaboration with public, private and civic partners, she catalyses ecosystems, e.g. through the design-infused transformation movement d.centre|EU, to transform existing practices into just, sustainable and beautiful ones.

Caroline is redefining the boundaries of industrial design and its intersections with engineering, computer science, philosophy, psychology, educational science, organisation science, and art. Her ability to translate complex ideas into accessible formats,( e.g. prototypes, visuals, workshops, lectures, and public discourse), has made her a respected voice worldwide in research, education and policy development.

During the Design Innovation Sessions, Caroline Hummels will give a presentation called 'Designing for healthcare transformation: from envisioning to experiencing & back again'. The world is facing grand societal challenges, including health and wellbeing. How to develop more attuned, beautiful and sustainable healthcare systems? How can we bridge individual experiences and systemic dynamics, aspirations and challenges, health perspectives from the global North and global South, and imagined futures and the sometimes-harsh reality? In this presentation, Caroline will reflect, through words and images, on fifteen years of research on designing for transformation in the healthcare sector, through the lens of her recent experiences as a patient. She explores and discusses what design might offer with respect to alternative propositions and futures, and approaches and methods to explore these quests.