Sohail Inayatullah
Jennifer Gidley
Zhijie Yao
Ezio Manzini
Qiufan Chen
Minan Wang
 Chair of UNESCO's Future Studies
PhD, Head of Sejahtera Center
for Sustainable Development and Humanity Sohail Inayatullah, UNESCO Chairman in Future Studies, works for Sejahtera Centre for Sustainable Development and Humanity, and concurrently acts as Professor at International Islamic University of Malaysia and Tamkang University as well as a resident futurologist of Department of Culture and Tourism of Abu Dhabi. Sohail Inayatullah 「Futures Philosophy」 —— Psychologist
Educator, Futures Researcher
Adjunct Professor, Institute of Sustainable Futures,
University of Sydney Jennifer M Gidley PhD is a psychologist, educator and futures researcher. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Sydney (UTS), with additional academic affiliations in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the USA. Her doctoral disseration on “Evolving Education” was awarded the Chancellor’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence. As President of the World Futures Studies Federation (2009-2017), a UNESCO and UN ECOSOC Partner, she presided over futures courses to empower women and young people in DR Congo, Egypt, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mexico and Haiti.
Jennifer is widely published and serves on Editorial Boards of numerous academic journals. Her books include: The Secret to Growing Brilliant Children (Bear Books, 2020); Postformal Education: A Philosophy for Complex Futures (Springer, 2016); and The Future: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2017), required reading in university futures courses around the world. Jennifer Gidley 「Futures Philosophy」 —— Design Critic
Associate Professor of China Academy of Art
International Design Curator Zhijie Yao, Doctor, Associate Professor at School of Design and Art of China Academy of Art, Master Supervisor, serves as one of the first expert members of Yangtze River Delta Public Culture Think Tank, a consultant of Advisory Committee of Asia Design Management Forum, Academic Chairwoman of Creative City, a scholar of modern design theory research, and a design critic. She graduated from the Department of Historical Essay of Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, Goldsmiths of University of London, Central Saint Martins of University of the Arts London, and China Academy of Art. Zhijie Yao 「Futures Philosophy」 —— President of DESIS Network
Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano
Collaborates with Several Design Schools World-wide For over three decades he has been working in the field of design for sustainability. Most recently, his interests have focused on social innovation, considered as a major driver of sustainable changes. In this perspective he started DESIS: an international network of schools of design, active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability.Presently, he is President of DESIS Network and Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been guest professor in several design schools world-wide, as (in the past decade): Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), Jiangnan University (Wuxi), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape town), Parsons -The new School for Design (NYC)
His most recent books are: “Design, When Everybody Designs”, MIT Press 2015; “Politics of the Everyday.” Bloomsbury, 2019; “Livable Proximity” Egea, 2021 (November – English version of Abitare la prossimità, Egea 2021) Ezio Manzini 「Futures Philosophy」 —— President of
the World Chinese Science Fiction Writers Association
Member of World Science Fiction Writers Association
Founder of Chuanmao Culture Qiufan Chen acts as Vice President of China Science Writers Association, a young talent for publicizing ideology and culture of Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, a cultural leader of World Economic Forum, and a member of Jiusan Society. He has won many domestic and foreign honors, including Xingyun Awards for Global Chinese Science Fiction, the Galaxy Award for Chinese Science Fiction, the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards, and one of top 10 fictions of Yazhou Zhoukan. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages. He is the first Chinese writer publishing works on many European and American science fiction magazines. His masterpieces include the Waste Tide, Algorithm for Life, and AI2041. Qiufan Chen 「Futures Philosophy」 —— Professor of Chinese Department,
School of Humanities, Tsinghua University
PhD Tutor Minan Wang is a professor at School of Humanities of Tsinghua University. His main research directions are critical theory, cultural studies, modern arts and literatures. He has 11 works, including Roland Barthes, Foucault, Friedrich Nietzsche and Body, and Rise of Chinese Avant-garde Art. He acts as Editor-in-Chief of Translated Collections of Humanities (Henan University Press), and the Journal of Production. He produced the documentary Michel Foucault. Minan Wang 「Futures Philosophy」 —— 
Yongqi Lou
Anna Barbara
Maree Conway
Danqing Shi
Matthieu Cherubini
Eliott Montgomery
Vice President of Tongji University
and Dean of College of Design and Innovation
Professor, Doctoral Supervisor Yongqi Lou is Vice President of Tongji University, Professor and Dean of College of Design and Innovation, a doctoral supervisor, Academician of Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, as well as Visiting Professor at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Polytechnic University of Milan, and Aalto University, Finland. He has long been devoted to social innovation and sustainable design practice, education and research, actively explored new missions, new roles, new methods and new tools of design in the new era, and applied "design-driven innovation" in such fields as urban-rural interaction, industrial transformation, innovative education, community building and policy research. Yongqi Lou 「Futures Creation」 —— Associate Professor of Interior and Space Design
at the Politecnico di Milano
Founder of Senselab Milan International Design Studio Anna Barbara has served as a visiting professor at Academy of Art and Design of Tsinghua University, Kookmin University in Seoul, Korea, and Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan. Anna Barbara founded Milan-based international design studio Senselab, which has offices in Milan and Dubai. She is committed to combining designs and senses, with abundant experiences in interior design and other fields. She has designed professional works all over China, Japan, the U.S., Europe, the U.K. and the U.A.E., most of which have won international awards. Her works and research achievements have been selected by ADI-Index 2019. Anna Barbara 「Futures Creation」 —— Founder of Foresight Futures
Doctor of Futurology and
Honorary Doctor of Medical Management Maree Conway runs Foresight Futures, a foresight practice in Melbourne, Australia. She has over 20 years experience in the Futures field and recently completed her PhD on university futures. She publishes regularly on using foresight in practice and launched her Foresight Futures online programs for people new to foresight in September. Her contribution to the conference will focus on the Futures Conversation Framework she developed in her research. This Framework focuses on four distinct types of conversations, all of which are essential to use if our explorations of possible futures are to value all possible futures that can be known in the present. Used as a design frame, the Framework has the potential to construct an open futures table, one that aims to expand and deepen the processes and outcomes of our conversations about futures. Maree Conway 「Futures Creation」 —— Deputy Director of Information Art Design Department, Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University
Associate Professor
New media artist As a new media artist, interaction designer and educator, Danqing Shi is actively devoted to the deep crossover and integration of science and arts. From the perspective of research and teaching, he is active in promoting interdisciplinary experimental crossover cooperation, including such fields as interactive narration research based on artificial intelligence voice technology, psychological adjustment space research based on positive psychology and brain-computer interface, as well as interactive experience design based on biological materials and life science. In terms of innovation and practice, he focuses on exploring organic combination of new media and architectural space, so as to create future-oriented exhibition space, learning space and entertainment space. By virtue of his crossover new media art works, he participated in many authoritative exhibitions at home and abroad, such as Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), ZKM (Germany) as well as exhibitions of art and science works, and won prizes. Danqing Shi 「Futures Creation」 —— Senior Design Technical Expert
of Volkswagen Group in China Matthieu Cherubini is a Swiss designer living in Beijing where he currently works for Volkswagen Group - Innovation Center Asia. Between 2012-2015 he was a PhD candidate in the Design Interactions department at the Royal College of Art. His research by project examined the implications of artificial moral agents on our domestic and everyday lives, both today and in the near future. His personal works have been exhibited and presented internationally including Centre Pompidou (FR), ZKM (DE), Vitra Design Museum (DE), Mori Art Museum (JP), Biennale Internationale de Design (FR), Nam June Paik Art Center (KR). www.mchrbn.net Matthieu Cherubini 「Futures Creation」 —— Assistant Professor of Strategic Design
Deputy Director of Interdisciplinary Design Program, Master of Arts, Parsons School of Design Elliott P. Montgomery, Design Research Fellow, Strategist and Educator, focuses on speculative surveys at intersections of social, technological, and environmental impacts. He is also Co-Founder of The Extrapolation Factory, a Brooklyn-based design future research studio. He was a design research fellow at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He holds a master's degree in design interaction from the Royal College of Art in London and a bachelor's degree in industrial design from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Eliott Montgomery 「Futures Creation」 —— 
Xiaobo Lu
Phil Balagtas
CHEN Yulu
Håkan Edeholt
Venere Ferraro
Yingqing Xu
UNESCO Riel Miller
Dean of Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University
Professor, PhD Tutor Xiaobo Lu, Dean, Professor, and Doctoral Supervisor of the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University. He is committed to theoretical research, artistic creation and design practice in information art and design, industrial design teaching and related fields. As an expert in the 2035 strategic planning of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the chief project leader of the Ministry of Science and Technology's key research and development plan, he has presided over and participated in a number of national 973, 863, and Ministry of Science and Technology key research and development projects and national key projects of the Social Science Fund. Xiaobo Lu 「Futures Society」 —— President and Founder of the Design Futures Initiative Phil is a design leader based in San Francisco, CA and has been a practicing designer for over 20 years. He has experience designing across a variety of devices and platforms within non-profit, retail, advertising, and enterprise software organizations. He most recently served as an Experience Design Director at McKinsey & Company working across industries to transform and enhance their digital businesses and strategies. He is also the president and founder of the Design Futures Initiative which organizes the international Speculative Futures meetups and the PRIMER conference in the US and Europe. An educator and futurist, his events and workshops bring together designers and futurists from all over the world to teach and share strategies for designing for the future and the ethical challenges around emerging technologies. Phil Balagtas 「Futures Society」 —— Service & Vision Design Unit Leader
China Social Innovation Center-Design
Innovation Department
Hitachi (China) Co., Ltd. Ms. Chen joined Hitachi in 2009. Responsible for product design of elevator, air conditioner and ATM etc., user experience design of digital products. Since 2012, responsible for Design Preferences in China part of the global Hitachi product Mother Design study (2012), research on Future SIGNs for 2025 China (2014), Hitachi-Tsinghua University's collaboration on " Transformative Cities 2050 in China " (2019), Future SIGNs in China for After Corona (2020), and Future Living Scenarios for 2030 Digital City (2020). Recently, boosting the service design in digital city, mobility, and energy sectors draw on customer co-creation activities for business change. Ms. Chen is implementing, promoting, and iterating Hitachi’s customer co-creation methodology, NEXPERIENCE, for social value-oriented business transformation in China. CHEN Yulu 「Futures Society」 —— Tenured Professor of Design,
Oslo School of Architecture and Design Håkan Edeholt has served as Tenured Professor of Design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design since 2008. With abundant practical experience, Hakan had been engaged in industrial design consulting at Ericsson in Sweden and Fuji Xerox's Laboratory in Silicon Valley, California, for a long period. Prior to his current teaching position, Hakan established new-type crossover design education based on industrial design and interaction design at Malmo University. Recently, Hakan is working with various international institutions to establish a research and education design platform, with the ultimate aim to develop a new design field combining design, development, transformation and vision. This new design field will emphasize climate change and long-term sustainability. Håkan Edeholt 「Futures Society」 —— Untenured Researcher
at the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano.
Visiting Researcher at University of
NSW of Sydney and at Media Lab of MIT She is a research fellow of Department of Design at Polytechnic University of Milan, a visiting research fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and the MIT Media Lab, and a coordinator of the European project "DATAMATS" (KA2-2018), with national and international patents. Her main research activities concentrate on the roles of interaction design in the use of disruptive technologies (wearables and artificial intelligence). Specifically, it's about how to apply the potential of digital technology in designing experience systems for both private and public sectors. Her researches are characterized by a people-oriented design approach. Combined with interaction design, the people-oriented approach can be used to shape technologies in meaningful ways and then achieve innovations. Venere Ferraro 「Futures Society」 —— Professor of Academy of Arts and Design
Director of Future Lab ,Tsinghua University
PhD Tutor Dr. Yingqing Xu is a distinguished professor of "Changjiang Scholars Program" of the Ministry of Education. He has been engaged in research and development of user interface design, cultural heritage digitization theory and methods, computer graphics, computer vision, computer animation, digital color analysis and application, intelligent devices and their applications for many years. He has published more than 80 academic papers at international conferences and academic journals, and obtained more than 20 American technical patents. His recent research interests mainly include natural user interface theory and method, tactile cognition and interaction theory and method, immersive cognition and interaction theory and method research, and cultural heritage digitization theory and method. Yingqing Xu 「Futures Society」 —— Head of Futures Literacy, UNESCO
Doctor of Economics Dr Riel Miller is one of the world’s leading authorities on the theory and practice of using the future to change what people see and do. He is recognized as an innovative and globally experienced project initiator, designer and manager. He is widely published in academic journals and other media on a range of topics, from the future of the Internet to transforming strategic processes. He is an accomplished keynote speaker and facilitator. Riel has worked as a senior manager in the Ontario public service (Ministries of Finance; Universities; Industry) and at the OECD in Paris (Economics; Science & Technology; Education; Territorial Development; Development Centre; International Futures Programme). In 2005 he founded a consultancy – xperidox to advise clients on how to use the future more effectively. In 2012 he was appointed Head of Foresight at UNESCO. Riel Miller has been focusing specifically on the dissemination of Futures Literacy throughout the UN system and worldwide ever since. UNESCO Riel Miller 「Futures Society」 —— 
Dongjiang Yang
Zhiyong Fu
Ashley Hall
Alessandro Deserti
David J. Staley
Peter Scupelli
Vice President
of Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University
Professor, PhD Tutor Dongjiang Yang, Vice President of Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, is head of Institute of Decorative Materials Application and Information affiliated to Academy of Arts and Design. His main research directions are interior space and modern lifestyle, application of new materials and technologies in environmental design, as well as contemporary international design exhibition mechanism. Besides, he is Vice President of China National Interior Decoration Association, Vice Director and Secretary General of Design Committee of China National Interior Decoration Association, Vice Director of The Art Display & Decoration Committee of China, Director of China Artists Association; Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese edition of Italian magazine INTERNI. Dongjiang Yang 「Futures Design Education」 —— Associate Professor,
Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University
Associate Dean of China-Italy Design Innovation Hub, Tsinghua University Zhiyong Fu mainly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses relating to interaction design, service design, design thinking and innovation and entrepreneurship. His research focuses on intelligent product and service design, people-oriented city and future of design. In 2006, he was selected in the candidate list of Program for New Century Excellent Talents of the Ministry of Education. He acted as a visiting scholar of University of Tsukuba, Japan in 1998 and Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. From 2014 to 2020, she was the main planner and organizer of China-US Young Maker Competition held by the Ministry of Education. She has worked for organizing committees many international conferences, such as ACM SIGCHI and HCII. Zhiyong Fu 「Futures Design Education」 —— Director of Department of
Scientific Research of Royal College of Art
Dean of Department of Innovative Design Engineering
Director of Department of Health Design, PhD Tutor Ashley is Professor of Design Innovation in the school of design at the Royal College of Art in London and a visiting Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. With an MA from the RCA and PhD from the University of Technology in Sydney he has a background in design practice, teaching and research. He joined the Royal College of Art in 2006 lecturing and researching on the Innovation Design Engineering programme. He now leads postgraduate research for the school of design and the MRes in Healthcare Design with Imperial College and is acting head of programme for the MA’s in Design Products and Design Futures. Ashley researches in design innovation methods ranging from innovation strategy to design thinking, design for safety, experimental design, design pedagogy, globalisation design and cultural transfer. His international activity includes leading cross-cultural design innovation collaborations in Australia, China, Ghana, India, Israel, Palestine, Japan, Korea, Norway, Mali and the USA. He has developed and led commercial-academic partnerships in a range of different industrial sectors from transportation to communications including Airbus Industries, British Airways, BBC, Coca-Cola, Ford, Guzzini, Huawei, Lloyds Register Foundation, O2 Mobile, 3 Mobile, Philips Lighting, Samsung, Sharp, Swarovski and Unilever. Ashley Hall 「Futures Design Education」 —— Director of Design Department of Politecnico di Milano
Professor of Industrial Design, PhD Tutor Alessandro Deserti serves as a visiting professor in many universities around the world. He has launched design research and consulting projects in terms of strategic design, design process, design tools and methods, and product and service system development, and hosted and completed a number of major E.U projects relating to design. Alessandro Deserti 「Futures Design Education」 —— Associate Professor
of History at Ohio State University,
Higher EducatorStrategist and Designer David Staley is an associate professor in the Department of History at The Ohio State University, where he teaches courses in digital history and historical methods. He holds courtesy appointments in the departments of Design--where he has taught courses in Design History and Design Futures--and Educational Studies, where he has led the "Forum on the University." His is the author of Historical Imagination (Routledge, 2021); Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019); Brain, Mind and Internet: A Deep History and Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), Computers, Visualization and History, 2nded. (Routledge, 2014) and History and Future: Using Historical Thinking to Imagine the Future (Lexington Books, 2007). He is an Honorary Faculty Fellow in Innovation at the Center for Higher Ed Leadership and Innovative Practice (CHELIP) at Bay Path University, and was recently named a Fellow at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. He is host of the "Voices of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences" podcast and host of CreativeMornings Columbus. David J. Staley 「Futures Design Education」 —— Associate Professor at
School of Design of Carnegie Mellon
Person in Charge of
Physical Environment-Related Research,
Director of Learning Environment Laboratory Peter Scupelli is the Nierenberg Associate Professor of Design and Director of the Learning Environments Lab in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate level design courses in the environments track, futures, and interaction design. He holds a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction, M.S. in HCI, M.Des. in Interaction Design, and an undergraduate Architecture degree. Peter has published over 40 peer reviewed papers at international conferences and journals. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and Institutes of Educational Science. His work with A12 was exhibited in the Architecture Biennial of Venice; PS1-MOMA, New York; the São Paulo Contemporary Art Biennial; the ZKM museum of Karlsruhe, Germany and many other places. Peter Scupelli 「Futures Design Education」 —— |