Kimi Zhong

Dr. (Kimi)Ce Zhong is an Assistant Professor of the Design School at Arizona State University. Her interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, interaction design, and industrial design, with a particular interest in designing novel technological things by considering AI as a design resource.

Kimi did his postdoc study at the WatVisdom lab at the University of Waterloo. Advised by Dr. Jian Zhao, he physically visualized everyday data through the practice of designing diverse technological things.

Kimi received his Ph.D. degree from the Everyday Design Studio at Simon Fraser University. Advised by Dr. Ron Wakkary, Dr. Willams Odom, and Dr. Mikael Wiberg, the overarching goal of his doctoral study is to progressively develop shared qualities of shape-changing things through the lens of the Materiality of Interaction. To this end, he constructed three novel dynamic physical forms by designing with the gathered materials and tools at hand. With these resources, he collected rich new organic empirical data by conducting long-term field studies in everyday settings. These endeavours lead to the emergence of three higher-level concepts: suddenness, versatileness, and creatureliness, which explicitly extend former HCI and design discussions on the affordances of in-situ shape changes.

Before pursuing his research potential, Kimi worked at multinational corporations to improve people’s everyday lives by designing technological products, which span from household appliances to medical devices to transportation equipment. These research-oriented design projects have won more than ten top-tier international design awards, which include the Red Dot Design Award: Best of the Best, iF Design Award, and International Design Excellence Award.