Teaching Leadership & Courses
UC San Diego
Human Centered Design Specialization Director, The Design Lab
Technology and Precision Health Division Lead, HW School of Public Health
MPH Curriculum Committee Member, HW School of Public Health
Technology and Precision Health Division Lead, HW School of Public Health
MPH Curriculum Committee Member, HW School of Public Health
Human Centered Design Specialization
The Graduate Specialization in Design is like a minor in design at the graduate level. It is something that can be added on to approved programs, which currently include both master and PhD Programs in Computer Science and Public Health and the Cognitive Science PhD Program. The program was specifically designed to be easy to do and fit into these current programs. Receiving a specialization in design requires students take 17 credits overall, with up to 16 of these credits coming from their home program requirement/elective course options. Thus, it is easy for master and PhD students from Computer Science, Public Health, or Cognitive Science to not only complete their core program, but also receive specialized training in Design.
Programs that offer the Design Graduate Specialization
There are many likely benefits to the specialization in design including:
The Graduate Specialization in Design is like a minor in design at the graduate level. It is something that can be added on to approved programs, which currently include both master and PhD Programs in Computer Science and Public Health and the Cognitive Science PhD Program. The program was specifically designed to be easy to do and fit into these current programs. Receiving a specialization in design requires students take 17 credits overall, with up to 16 of these credits coming from their home program requirement/elective course options. Thus, it is easy for master and PhD students from Computer Science, Public Health, or Cognitive Science to not only complete their core program, but also receive specialized training in Design.
Programs that offer the Design Graduate Specialization
- Ph.D. Programs
- Masters Programs
There are many likely benefits to the specialization in design including:
- It will be listed on your graduate degree. Thus, it will be a mark of distinction that could help you stand out compared to others, which could help you be more competitive for jobs that appreciate design methods.
- The specialization will expose you to a wide breadth of design approaches. Through the program, you will be required to take one 4-unit course, DSGN 201 together with other students from the program. This class will give you an opportunity to collaborate with other students from across the University. Further, the class includes lectures from core Design Lab faculty members from across a wide range of disciplines, such as computer science/human-computer interaction, public health, cognitive science, speculative design, communications, business, electrical engineering, urban studies and planning, etc. Thus, you will be exposed to a wide range of approaches to engage in design.
- The specialization will support depth in design relevant to your home discipline. Up to 3 of your 4-unit courses will come directly from your home program and be relevant to design. This allows you to develop some degree of depth in terms of the practice of design as it is conducted in your home discipline.
- You will have explicit training in power, privilege, and ethical responses. A core requirement of the program is that all students take a course that explicitly discusses issues of power, privilege, and ethical responses to them. This requirement is meant to support your development in working through and managing the complexities in effectively supporting values such as diversity, equity, and inclusion in your work. This type of training is valuable both in terms of effective citizenship and will also likely be highly attractive to employers.
Courses
DSGN 201 Human-Centered Design and Complex Sociotechnical Systems Course - Winter 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024
This class exists to expose students to the complexities of engaging in design, broadly defined, to bring forth desired future states within complex areas of work that require accounting for social, behavioral, technological, and, often, ecological factors and constraints (henceforth labeled as sociotechnical systems). This is no simple matter as it requires anyone acting in the role of a designer to have myriad, interconnected knowledge, skills, and practices that span these areas. For example, designers need capacities in dealing with ethical and political quandaries, issues of power and privilege differentials that manifest from historical cultural norms, precedents, and default options, understanding of humans and human behaviors, technical capacities to understand what is truly possible, and implementable in real-world contexts, and knowledge and understanding of natural systems and the ways in which humans interact, both positively and negatively, and are embedded within said natural systems. Given these complexities, the class seeks to offer two key perspectives, compassionate critique and systems thinking, as foundational bases with which to engage as a designer in complex sociotechnical systems. The compassionate critique approach is explicitly meant to provide students with an actionable approach to engaging with social complexities whereas systems thinking is meant to provide students with a way of thinking to engage with the technical aspects of sociotechnical systems.
FMPH 191 / DSGN Minor Elective: Critical Digital Consumer Health - Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
This course aims to empower students to build a lens to critically evaluate digital consumer technologies used in the context of health, such as self-tracking devices, telehealth, social media, and online communities, by exploring the contexts in which they are designed and used, including their social, cultural, and political underpinnings. While there is much potential for technologies to improve individuals' health and well-being as well as promote population health, technologies can also trigger or exacerbate harms. This course will help to balance positive views of digital health with critical analyses through the investigation of digital health's unintended consequences and the ways it can reinforce marginalization. Students will be encouraged to use systems-thinking and carefully consider context when assessing various digital tools. Thus, through this course, students will learn how to evaluate digital consumer tools that are and can be used by the public to promote health. This is important because consumer technologies are increasingly being used by Public Health professionals as interventions, for health promotion, to monitor and surveille health and disease, and more. Key to being able to effectively assess technologies used for Public Health is to engage in self-reflection and understand how our own beliefs, socialization, etc. impact how we think about and understand the benefits and consequences of technologies. Examples throughout the textbook will range across Public Health topics. This course is mostly in the US context but brings in ideas from other countries.
DSGN 119 / COGS 229 / CSE 219: Design@Large, Racism in the Design of Everyday Things - Winter 2021, Spring 2021
Racism in the Design of Everyday Things: Racism is deeply rooted in all facets of society as well as all other “-isms”. Everything we use, big and small, is ultimately designed. Whether intentional or not, conscious or not, the design of these everyday things is shaped by the cultural backing of those who design it and the societal context in which it is designed. That means that racism is built into design; therefore everyone engaging in design must understand the historical context of racism. Design is a way of thinking: addressing the core issues, always taking a systems point of view, emphasizing the role of people in the complex systems of the modern world, and continually iterating on our work. In order to design equitably then, we need to not only meaningfully engage with various stakeholders, but we must also understand how racism manifests in society so that we are able to see how it permeates our design and design processes. What may seem “typical” or “neutral” is actually the product of decisions interlinked through historical contexts, biases, and trials of oppression. Without building our capacity to understand these historical contexts, we aren’t able to see racism in everyday things and therefore perpetuate it. In partnership with Carrie Sawyer, founder of Diversity by Design, we have developed this quarter’s series as a continuation of Winter 2021’s series. We’ll explore a few broad topic areas. Each topic area consists of talks that will help shed light on the historical context of racism and the consequences of “designing” without understanding racism’s deep roots and/or provide examples of anti-racist and equitable approaches in practice across various domains. Too often we want to jump straight to action, but without understanding the historical context of racism (and other “isms”), we perpetuate racism and inequality - even with the best intentions.
This class exists to expose students to the complexities of engaging in design, broadly defined, to bring forth desired future states within complex areas of work that require accounting for social, behavioral, technological, and, often, ecological factors and constraints (henceforth labeled as sociotechnical systems). This is no simple matter as it requires anyone acting in the role of a designer to have myriad, interconnected knowledge, skills, and practices that span these areas. For example, designers need capacities in dealing with ethical and political quandaries, issues of power and privilege differentials that manifest from historical cultural norms, precedents, and default options, understanding of humans and human behaviors, technical capacities to understand what is truly possible, and implementable in real-world contexts, and knowledge and understanding of natural systems and the ways in which humans interact, both positively and negatively, and are embedded within said natural systems. Given these complexities, the class seeks to offer two key perspectives, compassionate critique and systems thinking, as foundational bases with which to engage as a designer in complex sociotechnical systems. The compassionate critique approach is explicitly meant to provide students with an actionable approach to engaging with social complexities whereas systems thinking is meant to provide students with a way of thinking to engage with the technical aspects of sociotechnical systems.
FMPH 191 / DSGN Minor Elective: Critical Digital Consumer Health - Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025
This course aims to empower students to build a lens to critically evaluate digital consumer technologies used in the context of health, such as self-tracking devices, telehealth, social media, and online communities, by exploring the contexts in which they are designed and used, including their social, cultural, and political underpinnings. While there is much potential for technologies to improve individuals' health and well-being as well as promote population health, technologies can also trigger or exacerbate harms. This course will help to balance positive views of digital health with critical analyses through the investigation of digital health's unintended consequences and the ways it can reinforce marginalization. Students will be encouraged to use systems-thinking and carefully consider context when assessing various digital tools. Thus, through this course, students will learn how to evaluate digital consumer tools that are and can be used by the public to promote health. This is important because consumer technologies are increasingly being used by Public Health professionals as interventions, for health promotion, to monitor and surveille health and disease, and more. Key to being able to effectively assess technologies used for Public Health is to engage in self-reflection and understand how our own beliefs, socialization, etc. impact how we think about and understand the benefits and consequences of technologies. Examples throughout the textbook will range across Public Health topics. This course is mostly in the US context but brings in ideas from other countries.
DSGN 119 / COGS 229 / CSE 219: Design@Large, Racism in the Design of Everyday Things - Winter 2021, Spring 2021
Racism in the Design of Everyday Things: Racism is deeply rooted in all facets of society as well as all other “-isms”. Everything we use, big and small, is ultimately designed. Whether intentional or not, conscious or not, the design of these everyday things is shaped by the cultural backing of those who design it and the societal context in which it is designed. That means that racism is built into design; therefore everyone engaging in design must understand the historical context of racism. Design is a way of thinking: addressing the core issues, always taking a systems point of view, emphasizing the role of people in the complex systems of the modern world, and continually iterating on our work. In order to design equitably then, we need to not only meaningfully engage with various stakeholders, but we must also understand how racism manifests in society so that we are able to see how it permeates our design and design processes. What may seem “typical” or “neutral” is actually the product of decisions interlinked through historical contexts, biases, and trials of oppression. Without building our capacity to understand these historical contexts, we aren’t able to see racism in everyday things and therefore perpetuate it. In partnership with Carrie Sawyer, founder of Diversity by Design, we have developed this quarter’s series as a continuation of Winter 2021’s series. We’ll explore a few broad topic areas. Each topic area consists of talks that will help shed light on the historical context of racism and the consequences of “designing” without understanding racism’s deep roots and/or provide examples of anti-racist and equitable approaches in practice across various domains. Too often we want to jump straight to action, but without understanding the historical context of racism (and other “isms”), we perpetuate racism and inequality - even with the best intentions.
Guest Lectures at UCSD
- FMPH 425: Digital Phenotyping in Mental Health. Epidemiology of Public Mental Health course UCSD. January 2022.
- FMPH 491 / 430: Technology in the Context of Mental Health: Current Landscape, Challenges, Opportunities. Technology & Precision Health for Public Good course. UCSD. February 2, 2021.
- FMPH 425: Digital Phenotyping in Mental Health. Epidemiology of Public Mental Health course UCSD. November 3, 2020.
- FMPH 426: Human-Centered Design Issues in Mental Health Technology Engagement. Assessments and Special Topics in Mental Health and Illness. Public Mental Health course. UCSD. May 6, 2020.
The Pennsylvania State University
IST 301: Information and Organizations - Fall 2016
Teaching Fellow, Instructor
Teaching Fellow, Instructor
- Independently teaching required course for the undergraduate Information Sciences and Technology degree
- Providing overview of organizational structures and functions, including information processing and analytic perspectives of organizations
- Developing and adapting curriculum to meet students' needs and learning objectives
- Employing a variety of methods to achieve learning objectives, including in-class activities, videos, journal articles, popular news articles, group activities, and more
- Facilitating teamwork and discussion during and outside of class
IST 110: Information People and Technology - Fall 2012
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Marcela Borge
Teaching Assistant for Dr. Marcela Borge
- Helped teach students ideas and challenges around how technology functions in larger socio-technical systems
- Provided information on the basic science of data encoding, transmission, and storage; people and the interactions among technologies, institutions, regulations and users; and technology and the design and operation of basic information technology devices
- Helped facilitate online teamwork
- Graded quizzes, essays, and team interactions
