Keynote Speakers - Creativity & Cognition 2024

Rubaiat Habib Kazi

Senior Research Scientist

Adobe Research

Feynman’s Stylus

Abstract: In this design fiction talk, a renowned theoretical phycisist collaborates with an AI system to remake his scientific diagrams in digital media, which transformed the field of theoritical physics in 20th century. What roll will AI play into the invention of new representations (diagrams, abstractions, notations)? How would those representations look like?

Bio: Rubaiat Habib is a Research Scientist at Adobe Research. His research interest lies in developing tools, interactions, and frameworks that facilitate powerful ways of thinking, design, and communication. His research in dynamic drawings and animation turned into award winning products & features (eg, Autodesk Sketchbook Motion, Adobe Fresco, Adobe Character Animator) that reach a global audience. Rubaiat received several awards for his work including Apple App of the year 2016, three ACM CHI Best Paper Nominations, ACM CHI and ACM UIST Peoples choice best talk awards, and ACM CHI Golden Mouse awards for best research videos.

Website: rubaiathabib.me

Carol Strohecker

University of Minnesota

College of Design

In Dialogue

Abstract: This keynote extends the theme of organic creative spaces from architecture to learning environments more generally, moving from Frank Lloyd Wright to Jane Jacobs and Janine Benyus—tipping hats along the way to Galileo, Wittgenstein, David Bohm, Peter Senge, and the father/daughter Batesons, Gregory and Mary Catherine. These references shape a framework in which dialogue becomes a method for design and for developing design communities.

An exemplar, the Kusske Design Initiative (KDI), is advancing dialogue across disciplines to strengthen a growing community of creative problem-solvers engaged in interdisciplinary collaboration and focused on stewardship of natural environments, ecologies of humans and other living beings and systems, circular economies, and experimentation with “biomaterials.” Spanning every scale of human experience—from apparel to cities—these materials are sourced, manufactured, used, and disposed of in ways that “do no harm” and ideally give back to their environment, promoting its health and sustainability. KDI collaborators seek inspiration from nature and from each other.

Bio: Formerly the Dean of the University of Minnesota’s College of Design, Carol Strohecker is now Dean’s Associate and Advisor to the Kusske Design Initiative. She has published and presented widely on topics related to learning theory and the development of environments in which people can learn through creative processes. Her works in interactive media resulted in four U.S. patents for computational methods.

Previously, Dr. Strohecker served as vice provost of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and as the inaugural director of the University of North Carolina’s Center for Design Innovation (CDI). She also conducted research on learning environment design and technology-enhanced learning at Media Lab Europe (the European partner of the MIT Media Lab) and MERL (Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs).

Dr. Strohecker has served as an advisor for various programs of the European Commission and the US National Science Foundation. She also co-founded the NSF-funded global Network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts, and Design (SEAD), through which she advocated for supporting transdisciplinary collaboration.

A former Executive Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an Arts Management / Research Fellow at the US National Endowment for the Arts, Dr. Strohecker has taught at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), Media Lab Europe, Learning Lab Denmark, CDI, and Harvard GSD. She studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she received the Master of Science in visual studies and the PhD in media arts and sciences.

Website: http://www.carolstrohecker.info/