Caroline C.M. Hummels

Prof. Caroline C.M. Hummels is a Full Professor in Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), leading transformative design research focused on sustainable societal change. She holds a cum laude MSc and PhD from Delft University of Technology. Her work integrates design, philosophy, and practice to address complex challenges like climate adaptation and health inequity through embodied interaction, participatory sensemaking, and systemic design approaches.

Key roles include Vice-Chair of the Systemic Change group, former Director of Education for Industrial Design, and founder of the TEI conference. She collaborates with organizations like Philips Design and the Province of North Brabant to co-create transformative practices. Her research emphasizes 'design-philosophy correspondence,' using design to explore ethical and existential questions about societal futures.

Notable contributions include developing the d.centre|EU framework for sustainable transformation and pioneering methods like 'embodied aesthetics interactions.' She has delivered over 100 keynotes/invited talks globally and received the Frits Top 50 Influential Women Award (2013). Current projects include systemic design in agrifood systems and ethical value-sensitive design education initiatives.

• Education:
  • MSc Industrial Design (cum laude), TU Delft (1993)
  • PhD Industrial Design (cum laude), TU Delft (1993)

Research focuses on:
- Embodied interaction and non-discursive philosophy
- Participatory methodologies for co-responsibility
- Design strategies for socio-technical systems transformation
- Ethical frameworks for emerging technologies

• Awards:
  • Frits Top 50 most influential women (2013)

Grants include €2M+ in EU-funded projects (Horizon 2020, TKI2106), with active collaborations across academia, industry, and government. She supervises over 100 graduate students and mentors early-career researchers through ID-dock consultancy (2004-2016).