Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
Eric Anderson is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Integrated Innovation Institute, Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts, and Associate Professor of Industrial Design in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. He teaches undergraduate studio courses in Design and teaches masters courses for the Institute including co-teaching the Integrated Product Development (IPD) capstone course in the Masters of Integrated Innovation for Product and Services (MII-PS) program. Anderson is also a Chairman-Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).
Anderson’s research interests focuses on integrated product development and particularly on how teams use visual thinking and representation to shape, exchange and advance ideas.
He describes the goal of his work as developing visual intelligence, which he defines as the ability to reason with complex information using varied tools (manual and digital drawing and modeling) and methods to shape mental and external visual experiences – a departure from traditional linear approaches to visual education.
Prior to teaching at Carnegie Mellon, Anderson spent over a decade as a full time design practitioner for corporate departments and consulting firms based in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania where he designed a broad variety of products that included medical instruments, tradeshow exhibits, corporate identities, and consumer products.
Anderson holds a BS in Industrial Design from the University of the Arts (formerly the Philadelphia College of Art), and a MA and MFA in Design Education from The Ohio State University.
