Katherine Fu

Katherine Fu is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds an adjunct role as Adjunct Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Her research focuses on design cognition, computational design tools, and fostering innovation through analogy-based methods. She has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (2012), joined Georgia Tech in 2014, and moved to UW-Madison in 2021.

Education:

• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 2012
• M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 2009
• B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Brown University, 2007

Research interests emphasize cognitive studies of design processes, computational tools for creativity, and design-by-analogy methodologies. Notable contributions include frameworks for design heuristics extraction, functional analogy search algorithms, and studies on analogical distance effects.

Awards include the 2019 GT LGBTQIA Leadership Award, 2018 ASME Reviewer of the Year, and 2015 ASME Early Career Engineer of the Year. Her work bridges engineering education and design science, with a focus on fostering ethical and socially impactful innovation.

Labs and Teams: Active leadership in the Design Research Lab (EDRL) and collaborations with institutions like Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Teaching contributions include curriculum development in GD&T and ethics integration in design education.