Assistant Professor, University of Houston
Elham Morshedzadeh, Ph.D. is an industrial designer, usability researcher, and educator whose research focuses on healthcare, community-centered design, and usability. She has taught design internationally and in the US, and was recently honored with the 2021 Young Educator Award from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
Since 2017, she has collaborated with clinicians, engineers, and faculty at Virginia Tech to create unique research opportunities that are also learning experiences for her students—such as a study funded by the National Institutes of Health to design a comprehensive telemedical encounter for infants and preschool children, a sponsored program with the Veteran Affairs Hospital in Salem, VA and Walter Reeds National Military Medical Center.
Prior to teaching, Dr. Morshedzadeh spent 10 years as a professional industrial designer in Iran, where she was lead designer on a range of high-profile projects. She now incorporates her prior industry experience working with teams of engineers, anthropologists, and architects into the classroom by emphasizing the importance of experiential, evidence-based decision-making in participatory design. She joined the University of Houston on August 2022, as a Presidential Frontiers Assistant Professor for Healthcare Innovation.
Building a Stronger Future for Women in Design: An Interactive Workshop
What do you (individually or/and your institution) do to empower women and non-binary designers?
This is a question we should be asking ourselves – and one that will be answered with the tools and resources co-created during this session. This interactive workshop will be hosted by IDSA’s Women in Design Committee, featuring Lea Stewart, Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, Priyankaa Krishnan, and Marcelle van Beusekom, moderated by Committee member Elham Morshedzadeh. The session’s goal is to create an accessible bank of resources and actionable items for designers who are interested in growing their equity skills. During the session, attendees will learn about the pros and cons of different methods for empowering equity.
The activity will focus on brainstorming future tools and strategies for empowering women and non-binary industrial designers. To create an interactive and experiential format, the workshop will involve a variety of activities and collaboration. Participants will explore the current state of equitable industrial design, identify potential gaps and opportunities, and explore existing effective strategies. This session provides designers with the opportunity to connect with professionals, reflect on their own roles, and learn how they can contribute to create an equitable and inclusive environment.
By the end of the workshop, participants will have developed a better understanding of the challenges and successes of different equity-related initiatives. Moreover, they will have created an actionable plan to incorporate equity into their own career trajectories and the industry at large. The Women in Design Committee hopes to empower designers to take ownership of promoting equity and inclusion in the field of industrial design.
Statement of Candidacy (2023-2024 term)
I believe that as an industrial designer, design researcher, and educator with experiences in teaching design courses internationally and in the US, I can bring a unique point of view to the WID Committee. I hope to use my professional and life background in helping women, especially ID students, with their possible challenges in the professional world.
Assessment Strategy for Improving Student Learning Outcome Evaluations in Project-based Industrial Design Studio Courses
Co-presented by Elham Morshedzadeh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Industrial Design Program, Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, University of Houston and Martha Sullivan, Assistant Professor of Practice and Chair of Industrial Design Program, College of Architecture, Art and Design, Virginia Tech
Industrial Design studios are inherently project-based, experiential-learning courses and therefore can be difficult to assess with methods traditionally used to measure student learning outcomes (SLO) in conventional lecture-based courses. In this workshop, we will explain the path that the Industrial Design faculty at Virginia Tech, in collaboration with the Office of Analytics and Institutional Effectiveness, took to design a new process for evaluating the effectiveness of the program’s teaching strategies which involves students, faculty, administrators, and outside collaborators in a controlled event. Using our experience, we will ask attendees in groups of five to explore and discuss the student learning outcomes appropriate for ID programs, considering a possibly different future for ID education including various fields and focuses. Also, in a second discussion session, we will task each group to configure the best strategy to assess the selected SLO. We will provide some examples of qualitative and quantitative methods to help each group design methods of assessment.
IDSA is pleased to recognize Elham Morshedzadeh, PhD, IDSA, assistant professor in the industrial design program at Virginia Tech, with a 2021 Young Educator Award. Since joining the faculty in 2017, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Morshedzadeh has continuously impressed her colleagues and students, balancing an ambitious roster of sponsored programs with rigorous healthcare design research.
She is a leader of the new undergraduate biomedical engineering degree at VT, regularly collaborating with clinicians and engineers to create unique research opportunities and turn them into learning experiences for her students. Among her many academic contributions, she initiated a program for fourth-year studio projects and internship opportunities with Carilion Clinic and collaborated on a study funded by the National Institutes of Health to design a comprehensive telemedical encounter for infants and preschool children.
Dr. Morshedzadeh has worked with VT’s Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics (BEAM) department on several collaborative efforts, including a program with the Veteran Affairs Hospital in Salem, VA, that brought biomedical engineering and ID students together to conduct in-depth needs assessments.
As a result, “Biomedical engineering students have a deep respect for the complementary role of industrial designers, and actively seek out collaborations with ID students for new projects,” writes Christopher B. Arena, the collegiate associate professor and director of experiential learning at BEAM. “It is no surprise that Elham’s students frequently gain employment in the medical device industry, as they are already performing at a professional level prior to graduation.”
“I believe Elham does the difficult and complex work of ‘walking the walk’ to translate skills learned in undergraduate courses to marketable post-graduation skills,” writes Sarah E. Henrickson Parker, PhD, an associate professor and department chair of healthcare innovation and implementation science at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. “As IDSA continues to build their healthcare focus, young educators like Elham will be leading the way. She has learned to be polylingual, speaking the language of designers, engineers, and clinicians. She is teaching her students that same skill, creating the transdisciplinary workforce of tomorrow.”
