Design and AI symposium 2024
Embedding the Magic and the Real
The 3rd annual Design & AI Symposium has just wrapped up at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven with a successful run October 22/23, 2024. The sold out event was hosted this year by TU Eindhoven and TU Delft in collaboration with Dutch Design Week and Design United. Keynotes featured Savannah Kunovsky (IDEO), Bas Van De Poel (Modem) and Tobias Revell (Arup) with diverse breakouts that ranged from “Unpacking the AI Act for Designers” to “Generative AI Through a Feminist Lens”. Also included was an Industry Perspectives session featuring talks by Philips, IBM, and Dutch design firm Clever-Franke. Attendees were enthusiastic with comments like “This experience reshaped my understanding of AI and will guide my future creative practices and research” and “Wow, my brain hurts but in a good way.”
The next edition of the event will be hosted again in 2025 during Dutch Design Week, October 18-16 October 2025. Check back here on the event website for more news shortly.
Register now!
79 EUR regular event ticket (plus service fee)
99 EUR regular event ticket + e-ticket for DDW (plus service fee)
NL: Bij aanmelding gaat u ermee accoord dat wij uw gegevens delen met Dutch Design Foundation t.b.v. bezoekers registratie voor de DDW Mission Days. EN: By registering you agree that we share your data with the Dutch Design Foundation for the purpose of visitor registration for the DDW Mission Days.
350 EUR Package deal: 5 regular event tickets (plus service fee)
Programme
In this 3rd Design & AI symposium we wonder:
- Where is design in embedding the magic of AI into the everyday reality?
- Where is design in embedding a sense of reality into the magic of AI?
- Is design going to disrupt the magic of AI? Will reality disrupt the magic of AI?
- Is AI going to generate the magic of design? Will design generate the reality of AI?
We have prepared a wonderful programme over two days:
The programme will be updated as new details emerge, stay tuned.
Symposium Day 1
October 22, 2024
Main location: Atlas building on TU/e campus
(De Zaale 1, 5612AP Eindhoven)
Breakout sessions: Neuron building on TU/e campus (De Zaale 5, 5612AJ Eindhoven)
Day 1 starts in the afternoon with a welcome and our first keynote, we continue with break-outs and close with networking drinks.
12:30 Arrival with Coffee
13:00 Welcome to the Symposium (Atlas 0.820)
13:20 Keynote talk: Savannah Kunovsky (Atlas 0.820)
14:20 Break / Switch buildings
14:30 Breakout sessions 1 (Neuron)
15:30 Micro-break / Switch rooms
15:40 Breakout sessions 2 (Neuron)
17:00 Wrap-up & Town Hall (Atlas 0.820)
17:30 Networking Drinks
Symposium Day 2
October 23, 2024
Main location: Natlab, Strijp-S area (Kastanjelaan 500, 5616LZ Eindhoven)
Day 2 starts with two keynote talks, we continue with break-outs and close with lunch.
08:45 Arrival with Coffee (Lobby NatLab)
09:15 Welcome to the second day (Podiumzaal NatLab)
09:25 Keynote 2: Tobias Revell - Arup (Podiumzaal NatLab)
10:15 Keynote 3: Bas van de Poel - Modem (Podiumzaal NatLab)
11:00 Break & Switch rooms
11:15 Industry Perspectives Session + Workshops
12:30 Lunch
Breakout sessions 1
October 22, 2024
Evolving Perspectives on AI and Design (Neuron -1.354) with Kars Alfrink, Iohanna Nicenboim, Jesse Benjamin
In this session, panelists will share their different perspectives on AI and its potential for design. They will discuss creative methods to ensure contestability, experiments that go beyond human capabilities, and explorations of technological architectures and aesthetics. The session will take us on a journey through design, philosophy, and ethics with short talks followed by a shared discussion.
Interactive Session: AI and Education (Neuron 0.354) with Janet Huang, Dave Murray-Rust and Simon Maris
How will AI change our education practices? What do we need to doing? Are we afraid of the right things? What are the magical opportunities. This session is about surfacing the important questions, sharing ideas, hopes worries and thinking collectively about the potentials and pitfalls of AI and Education.
Introduction to Feminist Generative AI (Neuron 0.262) with Francisca Grommé and Sara Colombo from Feminist Generative AI Lab
In this interactive session, we’ll take you through some of the ideas around feminist generative AI - how can we develop GenAI with greater ethical integrity, tailored to benefit those with less societal privilege, and aligned with the values and needs of marginalised communities, using technology as a tool for empowerment and social justice. We will demonstrate that feminist principles help design better AI for everybody.
Breakout sessions 2
October 22, 2024
Exploring the margins of the magic (Neuron -1.354) with Cristina Zaga, Savannah Kunovsky, Tobias Revell, Natalia Stanusch, and Filippo Santoni de Sio
We see wonderful possibilities being discussed around AI, and we see prophecies of doom. Somewhere in between, there’s a space where actual AI touches actual people. Avoiding the usual frenzy of doom or utopia around AI, we explore with our panelists how to question the meanings and normative understanding of AI while grappling with digital materialities? How to explore new spaces of creative and social liberation through AI while involving communities and policy makers to co-create AI for planetary flourishing?
Interactive Session: AI and Creativity (Neuron 0.262) with Derek Lomas
How can we be more creative with AI? Where does it stimulate and inspire us? Where do we have to worry about losing autonomy, practice, skills or criticality? Are we all becoming curators not curators and does that matter? This session is about surfacing the important questions, sharing ideas, hopes worries and thinking collectively about the potentials and pitfalls of AI and Creativity.
Workshops
October 23, 2024
Industry Perspectives Session (NatLab Podiumzaal)
In this session, we present perspectives from three different industry partners working with AI: IBM, Philips and Clever Franke. Each will give a 15 minute presentation about their lessons from the front lines of AI deployment, with some time for questions after each talk.
Unpacking the AI Act for Designers (NatLab Filmzaal 1) with Marie Therese Sekwenz and Jorge Constantino Torres
The EU’s AI Act has just come into force, aiming to support the safe creation and deployment of AI systems by regulating the risks involved. It can be confusing to navigate - it has its own terminology, and it spans a level of applications and risks from realtime facial recognition and social socring to video games and spam filters. In this session we will talk through the key parts of the act in an accessible and practical manner, and then help to unpack what it might mean in specific situations in an interactive discussion.
Digital Society - TU Design United (NatLab Expo Space)
This session explores the evolution of Digital Future through a selection of diverse and highly interactive artifacts that examines the skills, agencies and concerns that are currently crucial and, even more, will become elemental as the Digital Future evolves.
Industry Perspectives Session
October 23, 2024
Designing For and With AI at Philips Experience Design
Discover how Philips Experience Design is transforming healthcare by bringing together data, AI and design. We will cover current healthcare trends and challenges, and show how design plays a crucial role in healthcare transformation. We will share how we develop human-centered, intelligent experiences – with examples of how our designers collaborate with AI as both a creative material and a co-creator. You will get a sneak peek into our journey and what we've learned from these designer-AI collaborations so far.
Embedding Uncertainty
The fast and widespread adoption of AI in todays world has introduced as probability and uncertainty as inherent traits of technology. As a studio centered around data, CLEVER°FRANKE explores how AI impacts the veracity of their work. Luke will go in-depth on embeddings (the stuff inside large language models) and show how they turned that into an identity, and share other experiments on how they leverage AI to tell stories with data.
The Creative Duo: AI as the new catalyst for design
What happens when cutting-edge AI and bold creativity team up? In this keynote, we'll dive into two exciting roles AI plays in the design world. First, it’s the enabler of magical, never-before-possible experiences, bringing customer interactions to life in ways that surprise and delight. Second, AI becomes a designer’s sparring partner, tackling the mundane and offering fresh perspectives, so creative minds can focus on the bold, visionary work they do best. With insights from IBM’s journey alongside the world’s top brands, discover how AI is transforming design from the inside out—fueling creativity and reshaping the future of customer experiences.
Speakers
Our speakers appear either in keynote sessions or the industry perspectives session on the second day. The keynotes are spread over the two days and lead into the break-out sessions.
Savannah Kunovsky
Managing Director, IDEO
Savannah leads organizations in creating the next generation of technology. Her work spans ecosystems – AI/ML, XR, robotics, the future of the internet, new hardware, and more.
As Managing Director of IDEO's Emerging Technology Lab, Savannah guides teams in developing breakthrough products and strategic futures for global clients like Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Sony. Her past work includes pioneering emotion AI for mental health with Dr. John Gottman and co-founding Moringa School, a chain of tech education schools in Africa. She began her career as a software engineer.
Savannah has spoken at places like SXSW, Fast Company Innovation Festival, the MIT Media Lab, and Harvard. She’s delivered international keynotes, created interactive emerging technology museums, and published numerous articles that illustrate the future of tech.
Her work has been recognized by MIT, Forbes, and the World Economic Forum. She serves on the board of Duke’s Design & Technology Innovation Master’s program.
Tobias Revell
Design Futures Lead at Arup
Tobias Revell is an artist and designer, sort of. Spanning different disciplines and media his work addresses the urgent need for critical engagement with material reality through design, art and technology. Recent work has looked at the idea of technology as a territory, how and through which tools futures are imagined, rendering software and the futility of computing nature, video games and the occult and supernatural in pop culture discussions of technology.
He is Design Futures Lead at Arup and formerly Programme Director of Graphic Design Communication at London College of Communication, UAL and founding director of design research consultancy Strange Telemetry and a founding member of Supra Systems Studio. He is also currently just over one half of research and curatorial power-brand Haunted Machines. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education and Academy and is currently undertaking a PhD in Design at Goldsmiths about the intersection of computer graphics and so-called artificial intelligence through critical practice.
He holds a BA Hons. (1st) in Design for Interaction and Moving Image from the London College of Communication and an MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art from which he graduated in July 2012.
Bas van de Poel
Modem
2030 Vision
In this talk, Bas van de Poel will explore why Modem, a design and innovation studio with a set expiration date of January 1, 2030, chose to define its lifespan from the outset. By treating the studio as a radical experiment, Modem aims to redefine the blueprint for a contemporary design studio in a fast-changing creative landscape shaped by new and emerging AI technologies.
Bas van de Poel is the innovation director and co-founder of Modem, an office for design and innovation dedicated to envisioning how forward-thinking companies and institutions can thrive amidst exponential change. Modem approaches this mission as a think tank, collaborating with academic partners like Harvard GSD, MIT, and UC Berkeley, and as a design studio, working with clients such as OpenAI, Google, and Chanel. Prior to founding Modem, Bas served as Creative Director at IKEA’s future-living lab, SPACE10, where he led large-scale digital transformation and sustainability programs.
Peter Skillman
Philips
Peter Skillman currently serves as the Global Head of Design for Royal Philips, He is focused on radical empathy and transforming the lives of patients and clinicians through simplicity, clarity and the predictive insights in their data. Peter spearheads the company's design strategy and oversees the talented designers responsible for shaping both the physical and digital environments of Royal Philips.
Peter's journey began at IDEO, a globally acclaimed design consultancy, where he honed his skills as a designer and engineer. His career highlights include leading the design of award-winning products like Palm Personal Data Assistants and Treo smartphones. Notably, Peter played a pivotal role in driving user experience for Nokia, overseeing the shipment of an impressive 1.6 billion phones in just four years. His expertise further extended to Microsoft, where he led the Windows 10 user interface and Outlook, followed by steering the UX for nearly all Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Peter earned numerous awards for his contributions to the design industry, securing a spot as one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company. With a rich educational background, over 60 patents including a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an M.S. in Product Design from Stanford University, Peter brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Design Leaders Community. Outside of work, Peter is an enthusiastic promoter of sustainable architecture, construction, and design and in 2022 was the Netherlands Epee Fencing National Champion (50+ category).
Luke Noothout
Clever°Franke
Luke Noothout is a designer at CLEVER°FRANKE, who operates at the intersection of design, data and technology. Being a generalist with a broad skillset, he helps in setting up design processes, developing strategies and concepts, building prototypes and designing solution. Since joining in 2019, this mix of creative and analytical thinking has proven to be a great match with CLEVER°FRANKE, an award-winning data design and technology agency, where he has helped clients explore, understand and tell stories with data and navigate complexity in a wide variety of domains.
Driven by a deep curiosity for emerging technologies and how they shape our everyday lives, Luke has shifted his focus within C°F more and more towards research and innovation, playing an active role in exploring and shaping the design agency’s vision on AI technologies, and how these technologies should be leveraged responsibly in both design processes and the solutions that C°F delivers.
Suhaib Aslam
Philips
Suhaib Aslam is a Data & AI Innovation Designer at Philips Experience Design, where he intertwines data, AI, strategy and design to reimagine healthcare. With a focus on clinical and well-being projects, he guides the integration of data and AI into intelligent (service) experiences. He cares about addressing systemic challenges through a transdisciplinary approach, and always embraces empathy and complexity. Suhaib is also involved in consulting, coaching and educational activities within design and innovation communities, and is passionate about shaping the future of design with data and AI as his core creative materials. His journey is one of curiosity, practical innovation, and a profound love for design, driving him to explore the uncharted territories of what makes innovation meaningful for life – both today and tomorrow.
Cristina Meniuc
IBM Consulting
As the Executive Design Director for IBM Consulting Northern Europe, Cristina leads a full-spectrum team of designers, strategists and creatives through the ambitious journey of building business by design. Together with her team, she blends agency craft and consulting rigor for some of the world’s leading brands. Her focus is on continuously evolving design and creative methodologies, and helping companies reinvent their business while creating meaningful impact for their users. Cristina brings over 10 years of experience in blending creativity, technology, and business value in order to help client transform the status quo and reimagine industries in a human-centric way.
When it comes to generative AI, Cristina is helping clients all over the region to push the reality into ever new dimensions, tapping into the power of genAI technologies. She helps organizations maximize the business value of their generative AI innovation initiatives while building memorable experiences for their customers. She focuses on moving from genAI experiments to genAI transformations, activating our network of creators and makers, and facilitating value growth.
Information
Almost everyday for the last couple of years we are being surprised by the hype and the latest magical innovations of artificial intelligence. Initially this AI magic seemed far away from the reality of most design practitioners and researchers. The magic was not yet to be designed, or in overly shiny, or extremely dark fictions and scenarios.
The Design & AI Symposium on October 22 and 23, 2024 is an annual event connecting the design and AI communities. Since 2022, we invite international keynote speakers, academics to host workshops and panels, and a broad audience to engange with all things new in Design and AI.
Day 1
Start in Atlas building on TU/e campus
(De Zaale, 5612AP Eindhoven)
Day 2
Start in Natlab
(Kastanjelaan 500, 5616 LZ Eindhoven)
Previous editions: [2023] [2022]